of lime cement, the striking Saracenic features, were introduced in India. The use of marble, red, grey and yellow sandstones added grandeur to the buildings. In the beginning the Sultans converted the existing buildings to suit their needs. Qutb-ud- din Aibak’s Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque situated adjacent to Qutb Minar in Delhi and the Adhai din ka Jhopra in Ajmer illustrate these examples.
A Hindu temple built over a Jain temple was modified into Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. Adhai din ka Jhopra was earlier a Jain monastery before being converted as a mosque. With the arrival of artisans from West Asia the arch and dome began to show up with precision and perfection. Gradually local artisans also acquired the skill.
The tomb of Balban was adorned with the first true arch and the Alai Darwaza built by Ala-ud-din Khalji began to gain influence, first through the Persian poetry of Jalal-ud-din Rumi( – ) and Abdur Rahman Jami ( – ), and, then, through the endeavours within India of Ashraf Jahangir Simnani (early fifteenth century). Significantly this wave of qualified pantheism began to dominate Indian Islamic thought about the same time that the pantheism of Sankaracharya’s school of thought was attaining increasing influence within Vedic thought. Caliph/Caliphate : Considered to be the successor of Prophet Muhammad, the Caliph wielded authority over civil and religious affairs of the entire Islamic world. The Caliph ruled Baghdad until it fell before Mongols in .
The Caliphs then ruled in Egypt until the conquest of Ottomans in - . Thereupon the title was held by Ottoman Sultans. The office of Caliph (Caliphate) ended when Ottoman Empire was abolished and Turkish Republic established by Mushtafa Kemal Attaturk in the 1920s. Caste and Women The Sultans did not alter many of the social institutions inherited from ‘Indian Feudalism’.
Slavery, though it had already existed in India, grew substantially in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Both in war and in the event of default in payment of taxes, people could be enslaved. They were put to work as domestic servants as well as in crafts. The village community and the caste system remained largely unaltered.
Gender inequalities