Najaf Khan and his tomb, Delhi

"Hukumat-e-Shah Alam, Az Dilli te Palam"

"The rule of Shah Alam exists only from Dilli (Red Fort) to Palam (a suburban village then)"

– Popular saying deriding Shah Alam I's weak administration

Prince of an ousted dynasty, related to the ex-Emperor through a distant relationship, he was fleeing persecution and imprisonment in his native land and being given a terrible chase over dense forests and numerous plains by bloodthirsty soldiers and officers of his nemesis; accompanied by his close family and a few still loyal, travelling throughout the day and enforcing forced marches by night, he pressed on. The threat and fear of being tortured, and in all possibility executed, if caught permeated their thoughts and dreams, becoming a recurrent horrific nightmare and pervading their senses till they could think of nothing except escape from the sadist, cruel wolves in human form who were filled with unspeakable joy at the thought of punishing and killing them. Having long lost any understanding of what was happening, and with leaden feet and a terrible dread in their hearts, they ran for their lives – only to be caught.

Just when he had lost all hope and was giving himself to despair, Mirza Najaf Khan Baloch, the Safavid prince, was rescued from the prisons of Shah Nadir of Persia (Iran) by another of his distant relatives Saadat Khan, the Nawab of Awadh, who, on account of being the governor of one of the richest provinces in Mughal India, wielded considerable influence throughout the Indian subcontinent and also among several distant territories with whom the Mughals professed to trade and friendly relationship. The year was AD 1736 and three years later, the prince decided, inexplicably so, to shift residence to Awadh where his sister was married to a relation of the Nawab. In much detail have I recounted the entire tale of Saadat’s rapid rise and meteoric fall and his succession by his farsighted nephew and son-in-law Mirza Muqim Ali “Safdarjung” in an earlier blogpost that can be accessed here – Pixelated Memories - Safdarjung's Tomb Complex. Safdarjung, on ascending to a position of eminence in the court, immediately proceeded to strengthen himself – his influence was further enhanced by addition of numerous titles and command positions to his name by the grace of the fledgling emperor Muhammad Shah I (reigned AD 1719-48), but unsatisfied with the sluggish proceedings, he began on a policy of formidable military posturing by recruiting lethal soldiers and annexing the territories of smaller provinces flanking his own – the feeble emperor soon granted him the enviable position of “Wazir” (Prime Minister) and had Najaf Khan too employed in the Mughal army. But, Najaf had ambitions of his own, in his heart he knew that political intrigue was not his cup of tea and instead dreamt only of achieving an unparalleled skill in arms and a position of unmatched martial superiority further fortified by a massive standing army at his command. Before being hunted down in his own homeland, he had attained formidable training in horsemanship and developed an unmatched skill in the use of arms – now, given the reigns of a contingent of the Mughal forces, he diligently began to train soldiers into becoming lean fighting machines – it is claimed by historians that the toughened force that he trained was the supreme army of the land, equaled perhaps only by the European mercenaries – equipping his soldiers with modern weaponry and infusing them with determination and combat readiness through a backing of efficient organizational management and a superlative cavalry force, he embarked on creating a massive army that could withstand the rigors of prolonged battle as well the monotony of peace – at a time when the once almighty Mughal empire was falling apart and often in arrears with respect to its payments as a consequence of untamable governors expressing rebellion and an internal decay set in by a highly corrupt bureaucracy, he ensured that the soldiers were paid regularly and their training and upkeep of arms, armor and cavalry never suffered. The Mirza (*Mirza being a Mughal title, equivalent of a high-class gentleman) received his first setback in conflict not because of military unpreparedness, but political interference and lack of coordination between ally nobles and governors, resulting in a colossal defeat at the hands of the British East India “trading” Company at the Battle of Buxar (1764 AD) where his forces were irredeemably routed and his Emperor Shah Alam II (reigned AD 1759-1806) chased by the extremely advanced British forces, yet he sustained himself and his forces and continued to strengthen his hand in the background. The pathetic emperor, though able to retrieve the throne of Delhi for the Mughals once again with the help of the Hindu Marathas of central India, was reduced to a wretched supplicant cowering in terror and pleading for the lives of his family and subjects time and again by forces intent on raiding Delhi and its surroundings and plundering the riches and revenues of the land; filial royal rivalry, inexperienced generalship and scheming nobles continued to keep the army on its toes, rushing from one province to another to tackle the threat posed by overarching governors and terribly cruel warlords – appalling were the conditions and the empire seemed to be on the brink of collapse, when Mirza Najaf was decreed the Commander-in-Chief of all forces of Hindustan in 1772. Still hurting from the overwhelming defeat at Buxar, but by now possessing an immensely resolute infantry armed with artillery that was colossal in terms of the damage it inflicted and a reformed cavalry regarded with fear and despair by the enemy, Najaf Khan began the seemingly impossible task of setting the crumbling house in order despite the fact that large segments of the empire were breaking apart with an irrepressible regularity and new foes, in the form of extremely well-trained and unwavering European colonists and mercenaries, were making headway into the subcontinent.

Pristine - Mirza Najaf Khan's simplistic mausoleum

The first task that the valiant Mirza undertook on becoming the Commander-in-Chief was to expel the Rohilla Afghans of western Uttar Pradesh, who had become the regents of the feeble Mughal emperor Shah Alam, from Delhi – he was able to fulfill his mission in 1773 and from then on the emperor placed a blind conviction in his qualifications and administrative capabilities; even the hardliners were won to his side through his courteous manners and conciliatory tone, and he immediately began to grant his unremitting attention to the business of warfare and territorial preservation of the Mughal sovereignty. The revenue of several districts to the north and west of Delhi was assigned to him for raising the cost to assemble an excellent and gallant army which he built by availing the services of tenacious Persian and Turkish Muslim cavalry officers (“Mughalia”) and also by raising a contingent of extraordinarily skilled and fearless European mercenaries for his own personal guard; besides he stationed some of his trusted lieutenants – Mirza Najaf Quli Khan, Niyaz Beg, Muhammad Beg Hamadani and Afrasiyab Khan (the first and the last adoringly referred to by him as his adopted sons) – to develop into strongholds the territories granted by the emperor.

Shortly following the consolidation of his forces, Najaf Khan and his men were called to defend the capital against the Marathas, once allies in the war against Rohillas but since antagonized by supposed betrayal on the part of the emperor over the non-payment of war damages and grant of territories and revenues to their supreme leaders (“Sardars”); the emperor on his part felt that the Marathas had cornered the entire treasure, including cash, gold, elephants and horses, plundered from the Rohilla fortresses, and though Najaf Khan’s armies were still unprepared and untrained for decisive battle, he agreed to go to war rather than capitulate to the Marathas’ exorbitant conditions – the untrained soldiers proved highly ignorant and unmanageable, and wavered in the face of a colossal enemy that outnumbered them one to five, the consequence was large-scale butchering and maiming; but more than the enemy’s merciless and menacing advance, Najaf suffered on account of miserable carelessness on the part of Mughal artillery leading to explosion of huge powder chests and death of over four hundred soldiers and also because of backstabbing by other Mughal high officials, including the Wazir (“Prime Minister”) Husam-ud-Daulah who instead of supporting Najaf’s rear guard indulged in pillage and arson of their own camps with the Maratha soldiers! Najaf Khan’s nephew Mirza Ahsan was mortally wounded by cannon fire and died shortly. After plunder and pillage, the Marathas, numerically superior but lacking foresighted generalship, retreated with chest loads of treasure besides elephants, horses and other spoils. The hopeless emperor failed to punish the turncoat officials and immediately sued for peace with the Marathas, consenting to grant all their excessive demands along with crippling war levies – Husam-ud-Daulah bribed the Marathas, who were already terrified by Najaf Khan’s fighting ability and solid generalship, to demand the disbanding of his army and his dismissal and banishment from the capital, however, portending threat to their lord-commander, the Mughalia mercenaries immediately took up defensive positions outside Najaf Khan’s house – feeling betrayed, Najaf Khan audaciously defied the combined Mughal-Maratha authority and challenged them to expel him from the city; but sensing perilous conflict for his steadfast men and considering that he had no support except for his armed contingents nor allies and territories to financially support him in case of a gory war, he decided to surrender and accepted pension from the government and further agreed to the condition that he shall lead the forces in future conflicts as and when required by the administration – but he had no intention of doing so and had his soldiers abandon Maratha battalions in the thick of the soon convened war against Shuja-ud-Daulah, Nawab of Awadh and his kinsman – after the Marathas irreparably failed against the Awadh artillery backed by English commanders, Najaf Khan was dismissed along with his soldiers, though, to the dismay of Maratha command, after being paid in entirety and with much honor. His position was vindicated by the Maratha loss and he was asked to report to Delhi by the Mughal emperor, whereas Husam-ud-Daulah and the Marathas were chastised and disgraced for their abject failures on both the battle and diplomatic fronts – Najaf Khan had his own men deployed in the court, including his follower “Bahram Jang” Nawab Majid-ud-Daulah Abdul Ahad Khan as Wazir in place of Husam-ud-Daulah who was imprisoned and released only after rendering an account of state spending under his administration and forfeiting all his property and revenues to the emperor and Najaf Khan (his followers were not so lucky and were executed by various terrible methods after being imprisoned and subjected to horrific tortures for several months). 

The ruins of the gateway, as seen from within. Thankfully, the ASI has maintained the area remarkably well and there was a guard and numerous gardeners on duty.

Najaf Khan soon raised anew an army of excellent and devoted soldiers exceeding twenty thousand in number, and the next course of action where he proved himself to be foremost in valor and strategizing was subduing the Jats of Bharatpur (Haryana) through a protracted war – the latter had defeated Mughal governors at the gates of Delhi several times and even forced entire garrisons out of captured areas; their recently deceased leader Surajmal had, in supreme defiance of imperial authority, built a mud fort at Maidangarhi (near Mehrauli, Delhi's south-eastern frontier), only thirteen miles from the Mughal citadel at Red Fort (refer Pixelated Memories - Red Fort); they had even proceeded to capture, plunder and reduce to only a skeleton of its original glory the province of Agra, erstwhile capital and an important garrison town, which according to an assurance issued by the emperor was to be added to Najaf’s fiefs once he re-conquered it from the Jats. Resisting further territorial occupation by them and suppressing the inefficient smaller chieftains of Gurgaon, Rewari and Jhajjar through his vastly superior army equipped with copious supply of canons, artillery, rockets and muskets, before proceeding further to Ballabhgarh and Narnaul, Najaf Khan took to subjugation of the rebel state through terrorizing them by plundering their fields, butchering men and animals alike and levying heavy tributes – such was the terror of his forces and the unmitigated demoralization of the Jat soldiers that entire contingents of the latter abandoned camp and fled in panic when they noticed dust storms on the horizon, lest they be the his advancing columns. Mirza Najaf Quli Khan, the battle-hardened lieutenant, led a series of assaults and raids while Mirza Najaf Khan kept turning on the heat of battle on the Jats, till in the end they were pushed back to their frontiers and he established a weak regency kingdom that dared not come out against the empire while he lived (though he himself was mortally wounded by a spear thrust in the last of the major battles). The poor general however had such an everlasting dearth when it came to friendship and loyality that when he was away defeating the emperor’s enemies in Jat territories, Abdul Ahad Khan, whom he had raised from the rank of a mere courtier to the position of Wazir, began poisoning the emperor’s mind against his beneficiary, invoking the bogey of Najaf Khan’s religious practices arising from his Shia faith (for a primer, refer Pixelated Memories - Safdarjung's Tomb Complex), and also his camaraderie with his kinsman Shuja-ud-Daulah and their combined fomenting of a Shia uprising against the emperor. The Emperor ordered Najaf Khan to reduce his army’s strength so that he couldn’t pose a threat to the imperial guard, and also to surrender the spoils of the war including the fortress of Agra, but apart from this there wasn’t much that Abdul Ahad could have enforced on the invincible general, despite being authorized by the Emperor to do so, since no official or commander was a match for Najaf Khan’s ruthless strategizing in battle or his highly advanced war machinery. Abdul Ahad had to be content with fomenting occasional Sikh and Rohilla skirmishes to harass the undeterred Mirza, who simply brushed them aside with contempt as if they posed no more threat to him than a cluster of flies. Though now sick and often bedridden, the Mirza gathered his armies and mercenary forces and travelled once more to the Jat territories to conquer those territories that had resolutely remained independent and refractory during his last march – he conducted himself with admirable composure and gallantry, capturing Jat territories and most importantly, the well-fortified and nobly defended fortress of Dig, despite often being subdued by sickness and news of political vendetta against him by opposition nobles at the court – the soldiers adored him and found it difficult to believe that the boy once chased out of his native place by his enemies could rise so high to become the scourge of such powerful and affluent kingdoms. By enforcing overwhelming sieges and crippling blockades, Najaf Khan reduced the entire Jat country to subjugation, but before he could proceed any further he received news of the wretched Ahad Khan’s nefarious planning – the Wazir had vengefully turned on the Rohilla leader Zabita Khan, who was once in connivance with him against Najaf Khan, and war was declared again on the confused and terror-stricken Rohillas in AD 1776, for the purpose of which Najaf Khan was ordered to return to Delhi and take command of the army besides the office of paymaster (“Mir-Bakshi”) which he anyway executed, even though so far Zabita Khan held the coveted position nominally. 

A Mughal cavalryman, the likes of whom Mirza Najaf would have trained (Oil painting by Edwin Lord Weeks, Photo courtesy - Columbia.edu)

Emboldened by the presence of Sikh mercenaries in their midst, the difficulties faced by Mughal army struck in trenches and surrounded by marshes in the rainy season and the absolutely worthless command of Ahad Khan who harshly condemned and opposed every strategy devised by Mirza Najaf Khan, the Rohillas gave strong opposition to the invading forces till in the end Najaf Khan set the ball rolling their way by assembling his forces and calling all the lieutenants from their territories and declaring war on his own initiative against the Rohiilas. Much delayed by the rains, harassed by the incessant Sikh raids and tired of constant bickering of the court officials and the Wazir, Najaf Khan decided to himself enter the battlefield and at the very outset bought off undisciplined Rohilla allies or terrorized them away be threat of annexation of their kingdoms – he wreaked havoc in the desperate enemy lines and proceeded to punish and scatter them, regardless of his own losses, till in the end, the treasonous Rohilla resistance was crushed (1777) and, Zabita Khan’s family arrested and escorted to Delhi under armed guard; in fact, under duress, Zabita Khan was forced to marry his sister and daughter to Najaf Khan and Najaf Quli Khan respectively before being ejected from Delhi and its political affairs. More about the fate of the Rohillas can be read here – Pixelated Memories - Rohilla War Memorial, Calcutta. While the Mirza was busy defending the empire against potential adversaries, his own enemies held sway in the court and continued to plot and prepare for his downfall; however following the ascension of Sikhs and their increased clout in Haryana, Najaf Khan swiftly moved in to consolidate his power by restoring the Sikh territories back to Mughal administration (thereby gaining further trust and the position of “Wakil-i-Mutlaq” (Vicegerent) from the emperor) and arresting Wazir Abdul Ahad Khan, his primary enemy, on the charges of colluding with the enemy, corruption and securing garrison command positions for his undeserving relatives throughout Haryana and Punjab instead of checking the perilous rise of the Sikh warlords. Coveting further victory, Mirza Najaf continued to bring Sikh kingdoms under Mughal governance one after the other, either through sieges and negotiations, or through a chastising policy of punishment, assassinations and plunder; in an instance of brilliant statesmanship, he had Zabita Khan pardoned and his family and estates restored in order to set a Rohilla buffer state against the Sikhs.

The decorated protrusion along the mausoleum's front face. Notice the graceful use of minimalistic ornamentation.

Ironically, when Mirza Najaf Khan, the most influential commander of the later Mughals and a doggedly incorruptible officer, passed away in 1782 AD after a brief illness, he was buried in one of the simplest tombs that Delhi had ever seen – it isn’t known who commissioned the tomb, but it is considerately located close to the Karbala area (present-day Jorbagh) that has been venerated by the Shia population of the city as hallowed by the presence of Qadam Sharif, the shrine holding as sacred relic a footprint of Hazrat Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad; also constructed in close vicinity a few years before Mirza Najaf’s death was the magnificent tomb of his brother-in-law Safdarjung while in 1820 AD the Mirza’s daughter Fatima too was laid to rest next to him. The Mughal army, pressurized by rebel governors and made hollow by corrupt commanders, collapsed soon after the Mirza’s unfortunate demise, especially after the Emperor restored Abdul Ahad to his position of Wazir and the latter reduced the army’s dimensions from 20,000 to 5,000 – Sikhs overran Delhi the very next year following Mirza Najaf’s death and the emperor himself became a worthless and nominal monarch whose writ did not extend much beyond his fortress’ frontiers – the royal family was tortured and executed, and the emperor blinded by the Rohilla warlord Ghulam Qadir Khan, following which the Mughal administration came under purview of Maratha dominance (AD 1788). In the face of extreme opposition from enemy nobles in the Mughal court as well as an exceedingly brainwashed Emperor, and repeated skirmishes from the Maratha infantry, Mirza Najaf Quli Khan rebelled and continued, till his demise in 1791, to hold the territories in Haryana that were established into a stronghold by Mirza Najaf Khan during the Jat subjugation; the territories were further sustained by Mirza Najaf Quli’s widow till her demise in 1792 AD following which they lapsed into the Maratha confederacy’s territories. 

The splendor of the Mughal court greatly decreased from 18th century onwards as a consequence of numerous defeats administered by invading forces and court rivalries and intrigues. Oil painting by Edwin Lord Weeks. On the right side is the beautiful Jama Masjid that Shahjahan built. (Photo courtesy - Wikipedia.org)

Consisting of a squat and extremely simplistic square enclosure boasting of octagonal bastions at the corners, the mighty general’s mausoleum is more of a memorial than a grand structure – the red sandstone walls are unadorned except for a set of ornamental stone panels, each bearing minimalistic floral motifs and flowing arches, affixed to the projected embossment that runs along the front face of the tomb – the embossment itself is flanked on the corners by decorative pillars and staircases leading to the low roof where a raised projection marks the position of graves underneath. The two entrances leading within the tomb to the actual graves, along the side facing the gateway and its opposite, yawn dark and deep but remain barred by means of grilles installed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Apart from these minor details, the tomb bears no other adornment except an extremely thin strip of sandstone molding (more prominently detailed over the bastions than on the sides) along the roof and shallow alcoves, identical in form and configuration of the entrances, on the sides not possessing an entrance. The gateway to the tomb complex, a slender double-storied structure with wide kanguras (battlement-like ornamentation), is desolately ruined – only a small end portion of it survives now and it is difficult to ascertain whether the space it enclosed was square or arched in nature. A dilapidated staircase that would have led up to the enclosure (“kotla”) walls can still be seen along the gateway's side facing the tomb gardens, while parallel to it on the opposite side only the thick rubble base  now remains of an identical staircase. The remains of the gateway have long ceased to display the plasterwork that once would have draped them and exhibit their bare rubble and Mughal-era Lakhori brick framework – nonetheless, they are better-off than the tomb complex’s enclosure walls which are, if not ruined, then defaced with graffiti or lined with heaps of garbage and construction debris – it is said that originally there was a gateway on each side of the square enclosure but now only the one survives. The lawns around the tomb are remarkably well-maintained – designed according to Mughal charbagh style of garden plantation where a square lawn is divided into smaller quadrants by walkways/waterways (only the former here), the lawns are planted with lush trees and rows upon rows of plants bearing colorful and fragrant flowers – to the credit of the cool, beautiful grass-carpeted lawns, the tomb complex has become the playground for local children and a public park for the aged desiring a brisk walk or school kids of the surrounding areas wishing for a short stopover before heading home at the end of the day – ASI recently identified the complex, on account of it drawing numerous visitors on a daily basis, for addition of a ticketing facility – I wonder how many of these visitors would come to visit Najaf Khan then. Of course, even now, those who visit seldom know anything about this forgotten officer whose tumultuous life could have been the theme for a dramatic Bollywood flick if only it was well known, researched or remembered. 

The adornment panels affixed on the front face embossment. It has been contended that the tomb was to be built further and could never be completed, perhaps due to the collapse of Mughal administration and the spread of anarchy soon after the Najaf's death.

Location: Jorbagh (Coordinates: 28°34'51.4"N 77°12'48.9"E)

Open: Sunrise to sunset

Nearest Metro Station: Jorbagh

Nearest Bus stop: Safdarjung Airport

How to reach: Walk from the metro station/bus stop - the distance is less than a kilometer in either case.

Entrance fees: Nil

Photography/Video charges: Nil

Time required for sightseeing: 30 min

Relevant Links - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Jama Masjid
2. Pixelated Memories - Red Fort
3. Pixelated Memories - Rohilla War Memorial, Calcutta
4. Pixelated Memories - Safdarjung's Tomb Complex

Suggested reading - 

1. Dsal.uchicago.edu - Agra (Imperial Gazetteer of India)
2. Google books - "Fall Of Mughal Empire Volume 3" by Jadunath Sarkar
3. Google books - "Mahrattas, Sikhs and Southern Sultans of India: Their fight against foreign power" by H.S. Bhatia
4. Jatland.com - History of Bharatpur/Chapter II
5. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "CAG hauls up ASI for locking up heritage" (dated Aug 26, 2013) by Richi Verma
6. Wikipedia.org - Baghel Singh
7. Wikipedia.org - Battle of Buxar (1764)
8. Wikipedia.org - Mughal Army
9. Wikipedia.org - Shah Alam II

Safdarjung's Tomb Complex, New Delhi

“Safdarjung’s tomb with its bulbous dome and stained sandstone walls seems somehow flawed and degenerate…it at first sight looks wrong; its lines look somehow faulty, naggingly incorrect…Half-way though the construction, the marble appears to have run out. Prominent strips of inlay were left unfinished; awkward patches of pink sandstone intrude into the glistening white of the dome. The effect is like a courtier in a tatty second-hand livery: the intention grand, but the actual impression tawdry, almost ridiculous…Inside the capitals have turned almost into cabbages as they curve and curl in vegetable convulsions. They throw up stamens and tendrils past the stalactite muqarnas and squinches, gripping and voluting towards the floral boss of the low inner dome…The spirit is fecund, Baccahanalian, almost orgiastic…Like some elderly courtesan, the tomb tries to mask its imperfections beneath thick layers of make-up; its excesses of ornament are worn like over-applied rouge. Even the little mosque to the side of the gate has a whiff of degeneracy about it; its three domes are flirtatiously striped like the flared pyjamas of nautch girl; there is something voluptuous in its buxom curves.” 

– William Dalrymple, renowned author-historian, “City of Djinns: A year in Delhi” 

Given the notoriety that Safdarjung’s tomb has received on account of the evocative remarks furthered about it in travel blogs and books, one wonders if the beautiful tomb loses much of its charm on account of shoddy marketing and the impression of it being “the last flicker in the lamp of Mughal architecture in Delhi” (Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) website quote) that visitors form prior to visiting the splendid tomb complex. That it has been ridiculed for being built out of marble pilfered from previous tombs, overly ornamented with plaster, a poor copy of Humayun’s Tomb nearby and even for possessing the color of potted meat is a known fact, what is more shocking, and equally disappointing, is that most people writing about the tomb never really attempt to discover the history behind its construction and ornamentation or into Safdarjung’s life and machinations – in fact, as I read through most travel websites, all I got were the same lines, including Mr Dalrymple’s quote, copy-pasted again and again everywhere.

Safdarjung's mausoleum (notice the mosque's dome peeping over the vegetation in the left background)

Before we start with Safdarjung's life and burial, a primer about Shia and Sunni sects of Islam - At the time of Prophet Muhammad’s death, the early Muslims got divided over the issue of who should be the heir to the Prophet – one faction favored his cousin and son-in-law Ali (“Shia’t Ali” or the “partisans of Ali”) while the other favored Abu Bakr, Prophet’s father-in-law (father of Ali’s step mother-in-law, i.e, Prophet's other wife). Since the religious and spiritual head of Muslims was also Islam’s political leader, the conflict got politicized and violent over time, claiming amongst its initial victims Ali as well his sons. The former faction came to be known as Shia (with several sub-sects like Ashari, Ahmadiyas, Bohras) while the latter were referred to as Sunnis – the conflict and violence still continues in most countries that can claim significant Muslim population, including occasionally in India too. The Mughal Empire, that ruled virtually unabated for close to two centuries over a large segment of the Indian subcontinent, professed to and promoted Sunnism – most of them were involved in the persecution of Shias, execution of spiritual leaders, desecration and destruction of their religious sites and libraries, suppression of religious customs and traditions, and according second-class citizen status to them – but that didn’t stop them from employing Shias in the administration, governance and military, especially those escaping from even more intolerant and ruthless societies like Persia and Central Asia. Perhaps the intolerance stemmed from the fact that Emperor Humayun (ruled AD 1530-40 and 55-56) had to pretend to embrace Shia’ism in order to gain asylum and military assistance from Shah Tahmasp of Persia when the former had been chased out of the country by the Afghan warlord Sher Shah Suri in AD 1540. The renowned French traveler Tavernier noted about the Iranian Shias who had found asylum and prestige in the Mughal court thus –

“It is true that although they regarded the Sunnis with horror they, nevertheless follow, in outward show, the religion of the monarch, believing that to make or secure their fortune they might conceal their true belief, and that it sufficed for them to cherish it in their hearts…Although Aurangzeb had, as I have said, numerous Persians in his service, he did not allow them to celebrate the festival of Hasan and Hussain, sons of Ali” 

Grace and symmetry

In late seventeenth century, the powerful Mughal empire began to collapse under the reign of emperors who spent most of their time in their dance and art ateliers or in the company of courtesans and concubines at the expense of administration and territorial expansion – local governors and military officials revolted, in several instances peasants and merchants rebelled, powerful local warlords and prominent leaders carved out their own empires along the fringes of the Mughal country, thereby dealing political, financial and religious reversals to the once-invincible empire – Rajputs (Hindus/Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), Adil Shahi (Shia/Deccan), Qutb Shahi (Shia/Hyderabad and Karnataka), Marathas (Hindus/Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh), Rohillas (Sunni/Rohilkhand in western Uttar Pradesh) were the most prominent of these forces, though most of them began as vassals of the Mughals and were in the end too annexed by the Mughals or English colonial forces. Among the Shia adventurers who came to India was Saadat Khan I of Nishapur (Iran) – through sheer determination he rose to become an influential court figure and a powerful army warlord in a country that was foreign to him and against hostile religious environment, reaching the pinnacle of his achievements by becoming the Governor (“Nawab”) of the rich province of Awadh (eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bengal and Nepal), a massive territory that included several river basins and fertile plains and forests and used to supply a large fraction of the grain crop and revenue to the treasury. After establishing his position in Awadh by reconciling, eliminating or defeating most of the forces and eminent personalities against him, Saadat envisaged his own empire and became a power broker to be reckoned with, often dominating over the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah “Rangeela” (ruled AD 1719-48) and having complete say in recruitments and promotions of important officials as well as policy-making and execution. Despite the powers vested in him and the troops he commanded, Saadat never enjoyed complete autonomy but continued to rule under the name and with the authority of the Great Mughal.

At the threshold - Looking through the gateway leading to the tomb complex

Saadat didn’t have a son of his own; he brought his nephew Muhammad Muqim Ali Khan from his hometown in Khurasan and married his daughter Khairunissa to him. He also used his influence to have Ali Khan absorbed into the royal army and bestowed the titles “Mirza” (“gentleman”) and “Abul Masnur” (“servant of the victor (that is, emperor)”). Through his hardwork and statesmanship, Ali Khan swiftly rose through the bureaucratic hierarchy and gathered much power and influence in his hands; his skill was admired by the feeble emperor and he was soon granted the coveted position of “Mir-i-Atish” (Artillery commander), a position formerly occupied by his father-in-law. His position made Ali Khan even hungrier for power, he began craving for a degree of autonomy superior to what Saadat could achieve.

Saadat felt betrayed and enraged when the Emperor took several key decisions and made important political appointments while he was under captivity of the Iranian Sultan Nadir Shah who had taken over Lahore after defeating the imperial forces, including Saadat’s courageous army. Treasonably and to dire consequences, Saadat, who had left behind Ali Khan as in-charge of Awadh’s affairs, suggested Nadir to invade Delhi on the grounds that the treasury was overflowing to such an extent that Saadat himself could have paid for Nadir’s entire war expense through his personal salary. Nadir did eventually invade Delhi, reducing the empire to a vassal of Iran and massacring thousands of citizens, stories you can read here – Pixelated Memories - Diwan-i-Khas, Red Fort and here – Pixelated Memories - Sunehri Masjid. Besides reducing the Emperor to the position of a frightened supplicant and carrying away the famed Kohinoor diamond and treasures accumulated over several generations, Nadir also humiliated Saadat and ordered his officials to confiscate Saadat’s personal wealth too. Grieved by the insults and pained by a rapidly-spreading leg cancer, Saadat committed suicide soon afterwards. The appointment of Governors was the prerogative of the Emperor, and the Governors were also frequently transferred to prevent them from building a support base for their larger ambitions – Saadat had refused to be transferred many times and he and Ali Khan had envisaged a strong power base in Awadh and built it to some degree too though their policies and decisions. Ali Khan bribed Nadir Shah Rs 20 million to force the Emperor to name him the new Nawab of Awadh – hereditary succession of Governors was unheard of in the Mughal Empire and this move cemented the existence of the Awadh dynasty. 

Overlooked - One of the corner towers along the complex's periphery

Mir-i-Atish Mirza Abul Mansur Muhammad Muqim Ali Khan rose even further and began expanding his influence as well as territory – he swiftly annexed Allahabad into Awadh when the former’s Governor was murdered; the Emperor, impressed by Ali’s management of his domains also gave him the provinces of Agra and Kashmir (the latter he later had transferred to his nephew Muazzam “Sher Jung” (“Lion in Battle”)) to govern – Ali, therefore, was at the same time looking after provinces hundreds of kilometers apart while the weak king wiled his time in dance, music and whoring; he also hired 6000-7000 Shia Qizilbash cavalrymen (Turkish-speaking tribe from Anatolia) from Nadir Shah’s army to strengthen his own forces besides having his army, especially the cavalry, equipped with modern weaponry and learn new tactics under the command of his brother-in-law and Mughal army’s most powerful commander Najaf Khan; he valued the learned and didn’t hesitate from hiring Sunnis taught at the elite institutions of Awadh as adjudicators and judges, though most of the leading families decided to convert to Shia Islam to improve their relations with the Nawab. “Rangeela” had by now given up the use of ruling even in the name and idled his time with partridge and elephant fights, conjurers and jugglers, wives and mistresses, while the aristocracy and generals had given themselves to corruption and frequenting courtesans, poetry events, drinks and opium. Ambitious, efficient and ruthless in decision-making, Ali soon held much of the imperial power, territory and army command in his hand – further to reduce the weight of policy-making and court life on his shoulders, the Emperor (who hadn’t learnt anything from the defeats administered to him by the Persians or Marathas) decreed that Ali Khan, from then on titled “Safdar Jung” (“foremost in battle”) would command most of his armies and execute his decisions in the empire – it was a wonder to the population of the domain that the Emperor was letting a Shia rise to such a powerful position (perhaps because his favorite wife is a Shia, they gossiped), many of the other powerful warlords and courtiers who were Sunni were jealous and enraged but couldn’t do anything against the growing might of Safdarjung except initiate court intrigues and back channel discussions with the intention to have him removed or disgraced.

Behold beauty

In 1745, taking advantage of Safdarjung’s absence, Awadh was overrun by the Afghani Rohilla clan who had settled in his territory; he cobbled together an alliance with the mighty Maratha army to chase away the Rohillas from Awadh and became genuine friends with the Maratha leadership. Rohilla power was curtailed, but not before Safdarjung had plundered and ravaged Farrukhabad, their stronghold. The splendid victory against the forces assembled by the Afghan Rohilla chief Ali Muhammad Khan gained him further popularity and favors. In the year 1748, Safdarjung notably assisted the crown prince Ahmad Shah Bahadur in a battle against the rapidly advancing forces assembled by the Afghan king Ahmed Shah Abdali, impressing the prince enough to promise Safdarjung the coveted position of prime minister when the former became the Emperor. Soon thereafter, Muhammad Shah “Rangeela” passed away following unbearable grief on the death of his friend and prime minister in the battle against Abdali’s forces. Ahmad Shah ascended the throne of Delhi, the capital of an empire that remained only a shadow of its former glory. Safdarjung was called to the capital to help with the affairs of the state; born to a Shia mother (Qudsia Begum), Ahmad Shah had no qualms against having powerful Shia ministers and Governors – he also granted the province of Agra to the trusted Safdarjung who had been often discriminated against by the other officials and Governors on account of his religious beliefs. As a token of appreciation, (and given his influence in the court and contacts in the military) the Emperor made Safdarjung his prime minister (“Wazir-ul-Mamlikat-i-Hindustan”) besides further showing his trust and gratitude by granting the Governorship of Ajmer (Rajasthan) and “Faujdari” (Garrison command) of Haryana to him – Safdarjung thus controlled almost the entire Mughal territory except for some small regions in the Deccan and Delhi. As he consolidated the power and his influence crystallized, he began to grow arrogant and isolated many ministers who were once in his favor, even the Emperor and the imperial family started getting alienated from the administration and began to side with officials who had poisoned their ears against Safdarjung – the ministers couldn’t have used the Shia card since the Emperor’s mother (a very influential lady in the court) too was Shia, so they accused him of high-handedness and corruption. Safdarjung entered into a power struggle with the Sunni Nizams of Hyderabad, one of the largest provinces in the Mughal empire – he began liquidating the posts held by members of the Nizam’s family, even occupied territories that supplied revenue to sustain the armies of his competitors. As a response to the growing financial and military threat that Safdarjung had become, professional assassins were hired by some of the nobles to have him killed but he escaped the attempts on his life. When Safdarjung found out who the nobles were who ordered the botched assassination attempts, he immediately assembled the entire Mughal army at Delhi with the purpose of destroying these nobles and their domains and even requested his friends Marathas to raise further forces in the Deccan; his advances could only be stopped by the Emperor ordering the Nizams to head back to their territories and not to pursue the matter in order to prevent an outright civil war. Regrettably for Safdarjung, the Nizams hadn’t seen the end of it, in 1753 they again entered into a conflict with him and this time there was no stopping Safdarjung to wage a full-scale war against them – the Nizams, Sunnis by faith, raised the banner of religion (“Jihad”) and pronounced Safdarjung a heretic, commanding his Sunni soldiers and officials to desert him – left weak and vulnerable, Safdarjung fought the battle in the streets of Delhi but only to see his soldiers butchered and innocent Shias killed and enslaved in the capital. Safdarjung had to escape fom Delhi under stained circumstances and the threat to his life looming large; the Emperor was forced to curtail all of his privileges and powers and he fell from the enviable position of Wazir – he returned to Awadh which he had always cherished (and converted into a stronghold) even when deputed in Delhi or other parts of the Empire, but the loss of position and power which he so craved took its toll on him and he passed away after physical decline at the young age of 46 in 1754 AD. His son and successor, Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah convinced the Emperor to allow Safdarjung’s burial in Delhi in the Aliganj-Karbala (present day Jorbagh and B.K. Dutt Colony) area since the Nawabs owned a large estate here and held the belief that the presence of sacred Shia shrines purified the area (the place has been a Shia enclave even before Safdarjung’s time and still is; articles on the shrines will be up soon too). It’s a story for another day that Ahmad Shah was soon murdered by the Wazir who replaced Safdarjung and the empire collapsed even further following massive defeats and ill decisions soon after Safdarjung’s demise.

Intricate stucco work inside the pavilion that (till recently) housed the ASI office

The site that was chosen for the construction of the exquisite but modest tomb is close to the location where Timur “the lame” defeated the last of the weak rulers of the once-invincible Tughlaq dynasty (ruled AD 1320-98) before laying waste to the citadels of Delhi. The dignified tomb sits on a high plinth in the middle of a vast square garden designed in the Mughal charbagh pattern (large square garden divided into four quarters by means of walkways and water canals with the tomb proper in the center) – possessing a fully-evolved onion dome and polygonal minarets attached to each corner of its square structure, the tomb, designed by the Abyssinian architect Bilal Mohammad Khan, boasts of a design that is unique to Delhi’s landscape. The first feature one notices is the elaborately ornamented triple-storied gateway leading to the square complex – above the arched entrance leading within, the plaster is worked in purple, orange and green to generate splendid floral and geometrical patterns that adorn the façade in striking and breathtaking symmetry around the jharokha (“hanging window”) in the middle – promising immediate visual gratification and assuring peace and serenity to those who venture within. A closer inspection also reveals fish motifs near the base of this intricate artwork – fish were the insignia of the house of Awadh. Most of the rooms leading within the massive gateway are locked now but I imagine that once these would have housed soldiers on the lower levels to prevent vandals and thieves from carrying away the expensive lamps and other adornments, while the upper levels perhaps housed families of the guards or even the descendants of Safdarjung themselves! Standing within the great gateway, one feels amazed at the structure of the tomb that the arched walls frame gracefully – though tourists seldom visit this forgotten tomb of one of the most powerful Wazirs of the Mughal dynasty, one still has to spend at least over ten minutes to click the scene without one or the other person stepping in to spoil the entire frame. All sound seems to disappear the moment one steps into the gateway even though the tomb complex stands on the T-junction of two of the busiest arterial roadways in the city.

Unique but not grand - The gateway to the complex 

The interiors of the gateway have more exquisite (though monochromatic – pale cream in the central square, orange in the side chambers) artwork in incised plaster to offer – the roof of the central square within the gateway’s span is decorated with a large flower concentric with more floral patterns of different designs; the center of the flower is a small hole that glitters like a star when observed from different angles and different hours of the day; the arched entrances on each side are flanked by multitude of scallop designs while more flower patterns and scallop designs wait visitors in the side chambers. The right-side chamber leads to the complex’s small, triple-domed mosque which is a pleasing structure with its small, striped onion domes, slender cuboidal minarets, pointy finials emerging from floral (not lotus that was the norm) base atop the domes and dark, cool interiors – but visitors are allowed entry to the mosque’s square only on Friday for the prayers and an iron grille blocks the entry the rest of the days (though technically, according to govt. notification, prayers aren’t allowed at monuments, but the mosque should be open for public entry since it is a national monument and an architectural heritage of the citizens). It isn’t possible to click the mosque from the small courtyard since most of it is veiled by the colorful awnings that stretch from side to side to provide shade to the devotees and also since the walls of the numerous chambers that flank the gateway and span the space around the gateway face obscure much of the mosque – these chambers were meant for the students of a madrasa (Islamic seminary) that was commissioned and supported by Safdarjung’s descendants, but now these too have been barred and one of these houses the complex’s ticket counter. In the center of the mosque is a large tank meant for supplying water for the ablutions and it too is responsible for keeping the structure cool even in scorching summer heat. The upper floor of the gateway houses ASI’s library and also provides a superb view of the entire complex but again visitor entry here is prohibited (yeah, that’s what ASI does, lock away most of the monuments when it can’t look after them properly) – I was able to get permission from the guard to have a look within (of course, with one of them breathing down my neck), the books seemed informative but I wasn’t allowed to take any of them from the old bookcase – at least they let me click the tomb from the ledge on the side of the pavilion atop the gateway – the view isn’t comparable to the one afforded from the ground since the striking symmetry of the complex when viewed from a particular position was missing, still am glad I have these clicks (since not many people do!). Each level of the wide gateway has projected eaves (“chajja”) circling the entire built area, and the side leading to the tomb proper has windows adorned with curved Bengali-style roofs.

Close up of the spectacular plasterwork patterns on the gateway

Stepping into the majestic tomb complex, one notices, besides the perfect symmetry, an abundance of flowering trees, palm trees and shrubs – set within a large, manicured lawn and rising high from its huge plinth, the beautiful tomb is a feast for the eyes even though in the derisive opinion of many writers and architects the tomb is architecturally and visually flawed in having a smaller plinth that cannot balance the prominent vertical axis of the mausoleum – to my eyes, the tomb, with its silence and lack of visitors is a boon, I can photograph the place to my heart’s delight without an irreverent tourist stepping into my composition (though there are some tourists here on weekends). The place enjoys an aura of undisturbed serenity that would have been the envy of the nearby Lodi Gardens and Humayun’s Tomb Complex (refer Pixelated Memories - Bada Gumbad Complex, Lodi Gardens and Pixelated Memories - Humayun's Tomb complex) – apart from the ASI people, guards and a few visitors, the only people here are the couples who find solace in each other’s arms (and escape from the city’s prying eyes and the moral brigade’s strict standards) under the numerous trees in the complex grounds (though these are the people responsible for disgracing the mausoleum interiors by scribbling names, dates and love letters and even etching permanent marks on the walls! Thoroughly repulsive and disgusting!). The silence and tranquility is surprising, especially since the tomb complex is hemmed by busy, traffic-choked roads where honking and shouting is the norm instead of an exception.

Lines, arches and well-honed geometric skills - Interiors of the mausoleum

Waterways emanate from the central square where the mausoleum stands in all four directions, but there is not a drop of water in any of them (following rains too, the water is quickly pumped out of the tanks to prevent mosquitoes from breeding); the fountains are in poor state with the rusted steel pipes peeping out of their cement frames towards the top; lack of water in the tanks means that the stairs in the corners of the tank can be accessed and one can step down to look at the tomb from a different perspective. Each side of the square tomb complex, except the one with the gateway, has large, squat pavilions built in the center – these pavilions, christened “Moti Mahal”, “Jangli Mahal” and “Badshah pasand” (“pearl palace”, “palace in forest”, “King’s favorite” respectively, the second is said to be a hunting lodge and hence the name), have been converted into offices and warehouses to store wood, sandstone material and sacks of cements that are to be used in the restoration-conservation work of other monuments. Except for the pavilion that houses the ASI office, the other two are out of bounds for visitors – the former too would soon be out of bounds since the office is being moved out in preparation for the tomb complex’s upcoming UNESCO World Heritage Site bid – and it would be a pity since the pavilion has some of the most intricate incised plasterwork that I have ever seen, and though it has been painted over numerous times and lost much of its detailing, it is still very exquisite and delightful. The “kotla” (enclosure) that circumferences the tomb complex consists of rubble wall with shallow arched alcoves built in it and two corner towers for company – these towers too have been retrofitted with air conditioning units in order to convert them into offices, public entry is prohibited but one can admire their medieval, well-preserved state – though visitors aren’t allowed to venture into the thin strip of tree-covered land that surrounds the enclosure on the outside and separates it from the congested roads, I was able to proceed after getting permission from the supervisor of the guards on account of my research into the tomb complex – the corner towers are in good condition on the outside too with the ornamental niches still prominent and very little sign of degradation. There is a small tank too just outside the enclosure, part of its brick walls have collapsed and where water was stored once, garbage is being dumped now.

Framed - One of the pavilions as seen from within the tomb

In recent times, the tomb complex has also been made disabled-friendly, the first such monument in the country, with ramps built along the front corners to allow wheelchair access and an aluminum information panel in Braille affixed near the entrance gateway along with the usual red sandstone panels – though I feel ramps should also be created in the stairs leading up the plinth, if not along the front face then the back so that nobody is denied the opportunity to explore and adore this amazing structure, especially people with special needs. Moreover, the steps are built in Mughal style with each being approx. 10 inches high and even old people find it difficult to climb them. Though plans to restore the water channels and the fountains to working condition have been in the pipeline for over an year, the discovery of the original drainage system buried under earth and vegetation has given it a new impetus. This is in addition to the night-time lightning of the tomb complex that was installed in several monuments located along arterial roads for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that were hosted by Delhi (though I have no idea how frequently and in which monuments are these lights used now that the games are over – everywhere I went, the lights seemed to be buried under thick layers of dust and dry leaves and in one place, wheat flour left by the locals for the resident ants (feeding ants is considered spiritually rewarding in Hinduism))

The Wazir rests eternally

The splendid, monumental tomb, built out of red sandstone and white marble has an imposing aura of grace and prettiness despite all its obvious faults, the most glaring of which is the inelegant interspersing of white marble with pink stone on its massive onion dome – though most travel blogs and scholars claim that the dynasties – both Mughal and Awadh – had fallen to such a poor state of existence at the time of construction of the tomb that they had no financial backing to support the commissioning of such a grand and extravagant structure and hence were forced to pillage marble from the pre-existing tomb of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan (refer - Pixelated Memories - Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan's Tomb) and the marble from Rahim’s tomb too ran out, necessitating the use of pink sandstone patchwork. Those who have visited Rahim’s tomb would obviously point out that it is far larger than Safdarjung’s relatively modest mausoleum, the dome area is bigger and therefore the question of marble running out doesn’t arise – but the important and more perplexing question is that Awadh was amongst the richest empires in the country, supplying the entire land with grains and revenue, why then were they unable to complete to tomb they so adoringly began to build for the dynasty’s second Nawab – my guess is that, given the massiveness of the mausoleum and the complexity of the artwork involved, the construction couldn’t have been completed in less than 3-4 years and came to a halt in the period leading up to 1758 when the Maratha forces invaded Delhi and forced the Mughals to accept Maratha regency while continuing guerrilla warfare against the other states (Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah was the prime minister to the Mughal Emperor and would have definitely faced repercussions from the Emperor too for failing to safeguard the territories from his political and military allies) – on later resumption of work, the architects and masons had to quickly make do with whatever material was available or could be sourced from nearby.

Drenched in light - Perhaps the most adorned sarcophagus in Delhi  

The imposing double-storied tomb consists of eight chambers, the central one housing the Wazir’s sarcophagus (the mortal remains of Safdarjung and his beloved Khairunissa are in a crypt below the ornamental sarcophagus though) with a large rectangular chamber along each of the sides and small octagonal chambers along the corners. Staircases hidden into the plinth lead up to the tomb level and the tomb interiors can be accessed from two of the sides via flights of stairs. Each of the side room is decorated with rococo plasterwork culminating into floral designs, arches and scallop patterns at the flank of each large flower (note carefully, the designs are different in adjacent chambers). The corner rooms have relatively plain interiors with the walls tapering towards the roof which is decorated with a simple floral medallion in the center and small alcoves built in each face – it is here that one does feel to some extent that the tomb has been built with stone stripped from other tombs since the walls have been raised by fitting together sandstone slabs of different sizes into a patchwork pattern. Interestingly, unlike most tombs, some of the chambers here have air shafts in the corner though all you can see in them is a dark arched tunnel carved roughly and ingrained thoroughly with dust and spider webs. About the comparison with the more formal Humayun’s Tomb or Taj Mahal, Mr Dalrymple states –

“The longer you look, the more the qualities and character of the tomb become apparent and the clearer is that the architect was not simply trying to imitate Taj and failing. He had another, quite different aesthetic he was aiming to achieve – a sort of blowy Mughal rococo. His design was the product of another age with very different, more eccentric tastes. The tomb shows how the aesthetes of the age of Safdarjung liked their gateways to be as ornately sculpted as their prose was purple; how they preferred their onion domes to be over-extended and tapered; how they thought the interior of a tomb incomplete unless covered with a rococo riot of elaborate plasterwork.”

The poster I designed for Delhi Instagramer's Guild Instawalk 

Stepping in to the central chamber is a visual delight unto itself – the magnificence of the finely polished, white marble sarcophagus (the most beautiful in Delhi) is matched only by the intricate patterns in limestone plaster that cover the walls, especially near the base of the dome – while the dome itself consists of concentric floral patterns spanned by numerous straight lines to create a symmetrical, well-executed geometric pattern, the windows on each side and squinches on each corner adding further charm with their curved roofs and ornamental pillars – the wonder is how each point in the mausoleum is symmetrical to other points and together they all merge to create an exquisite web of lines, curves, flowers and indentations. It isn’t just enough to observe the details, one feels the urge to look at the patterns from different perspectives and angles, especially when photographing – I took several shots from every conceivable point in the tomb, even sitting next to the sarcophagus and wedged in the corner amidst spider webs that clung to my hair and clothes! I have to concede that with its superior multiform patterns and the riot of stucco work to show for, the tomb has become a favorite over Humayun’s Tomb – so much for the reviews in all the books and websites – there is so much to see, why won’t someone be impressed by the designs and the skills of the artists and the craftsmen who executed this piece of architectural and artistic magnificence?! Even the floor shows the signs of (now non-existent) pietra dura inlay consisting of colorful stone embedded in the marble – to those who say that the treasury was depleted and the dome couldn’t be completed because of financial constraints, I ask there was enough money for the lavish plasterwork and opulent stone inlay, but not for building a dome? There has to be another reason behind it, one that was either never documented or has been obscured in the pages of history.

Bewitching - Looking up at the tomb's dome

The four entrances of the central chamber are built such that they throw sheets of light within so a cross forms from entrance to entrance with the corners sheathed in darkness and the brilliant white sarcophagus shimmering because of the four-fold light drenching it. The acoustics within the central chamber are amazing, even normal conversational tone gets magnified several times; the polygonal towers on each corner are lined with thin white marble strips and possess a chattri (domed kiosk) on the top; a sandstone parapet curtain stretches from chattri to chattri while each face has a rectangular emboss (in which the arched entrance is set) that is raised both vertically and horizontally with respect to the rest of the wall, vertically ending in slender turrets with a line of miniature domes between them – the whole set up perfectly obscures the sixteen-sided drum on which the massive dome rests, only the top curve of the drum can be made out and that too by the most discerning eye.

Set in the heart of Delhi, the tomb, little known and seldom remembered, is a tribute both to the influence that Safdarjung wielded in the rapidly disintegrating empire as well as to the spirit of mankind to rise against all setbacks and discriminations to achieve a position of superiority as Safdarjung and Saadat Khan did. The tomb would be a surprise to those who have been to the simple but elaborate muhajjar (tomb enclosure open to sky) of Safdarjung’s master, Muhammad Shah “Rangeela” – in an age when even Emperors were forced to rest in simplistic, unadorned tombs for lack of funds, here was the prime minister whose descendants built such a splendid edifice to house his last remains. Lending its name to an airport, an arterial road, an entire residential and commercial enclave and to one of the foremost hospitals in the capital, the tomb epitomizes Safdarjung’s capabilities as well as the turbulent period that the Indian subcontinent was experiencing, best summed in Dalrymple’s own words –

“Safdarjung’s life encapsulates perfectly the intriguing but cataclysmic half century that linked the Mughal high noon with the decay and disintegration of the twilight fifty years later.”

Location: At the T-junction of Lodhi Road and Aurobindo Road, approx. 3 kilometers from the renowned Safdarjung hospital and bus stop
Nearest Metro Station: Jorbagh
Nearest Bus stop: Safdarjung Madrasa
How to reach: The tomb complex is only a 100 meters from the metro station. If coming by bus, deboard at AIIMS stop and from there it's more convenient to take metro to Jorbagh which is only 2 metro stops away.
Entrance Fee: Rs 5 (for citizens of India and neighboring countries); Rs 100 (others); free entry for children up to 15 years of age.
Facilities available: Toilets, parking space, wheelchair access, drinking water (though the water cooler, placed at the gateway, is infested with bees and is best avoided; carry water bottles instead or buy water from the trolley outside the complex)
Relevant Links - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan's Tomb
2. Pixelated Memories - Bada Gumbad Complex, Lodi Gardens
3. Pixelated Memories - Diwan-i-Khas, Red Fort
4. Pixelated Memories - Humayun's Tomb complex
5. Pixelated Memories - Sunehri Masjid

Suggested Reading -

1. "Roots of North Indian Shi‘ism in Iran and Iraq: Religion and State in Awadh, 1722-1859" by J. R. I. Cole
2. Hindu.com - Article "Safdarjung Tomb to be disabled-friendly" (dated June 21, 2001)
3. Independent.co.uk - Article "The vicious schism between Sunni and Shia has been poisoning Islam for 1,400 years - and it's getting worse" (dated June 16, 2014) by Paul Vallely
4. Royalsplendour.blogspot.in - Hyderabad: the largest
5. Thehindu.com - Article "Safdarjung Tomb illuminated in run-up to 2010 Games" (dated March 20, 2009) by Madhur Tankha
6. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "Fountains of Safdarjung Tomb to run again" (dated Dec 6, 2013)
7. Wikipedia.org - Shia–Sunni relations
8. Wikipedia.org - Shia Islam in India