Ahmad Lahori

Ustad Ahmad Lahori (; 1580–1649),

He was also one of the leading architects responsible for the establishment of the imperial city of Shahjahanabad. His architecture is a combination of Indo-Islamic and Persian architectural styles, and thus, a major instance of Indo-Persian culture.

Life

Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from the city of Lahore, as his nisba indicates. Lahori was from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat. He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan. Two of his three sons, Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons, Ahmad Lahori was learned also in the arts of geometry, arithmetic and astronomy, and according to his son Lutfullah was familiar with the Euclid's Elements and Ptolemy's Almagest. Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639. and Mir Abd-ul Karim. Ustad Ahmad Lahori laid the foundations of the Red Fort at Delhi, which was built between 1638 and 1648. Mir Abd-ul Karim counted as the favourite architect of the previous emperor, Jahangir, and is mentioned as a supervisor, together with Makramat Khan, for the construction of the Taj Mahal.