PHOTO: MOHAMMED YOUSUF
Standing the test of time: Mecca Masjid.
The Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad is no stranger to trouble. The trouble always reflected the trouble of the times. But the trouble was always different. In its 313-year history, it was always under the shadow of the taller and much grander Charminar whose shadow falls on the eastern corner of the courtyard in winter. But still it stands as a symbol of a symbiotic culture where a Mir Faizullah Baig joined hands with Rangaiah Chowdhary to build this grand mosque that not just a
copy of the Grand Mosque in Mecca but can also accommodate 10,000 praying people.
Slice of history
If on Friday May 18, 2007, it was the bomb blast that killed many people, on July 17, 1857, the freedom fighters who attacked the Residency Building came out of this mosque during the first battle of independence.
They were then led by Moulana Allauddin who later suffered untold hardships for his effort. Beyond politics and religion, the mosque is a stunning piece of architecture and human ingenuity that led to the completion of the mosque after a 77-year-long effort in 1694. Even Parisian traveller Tavernier was surprised by the mosque which was under construction when he came visiting the Golconda fort for its fabled diamonds.
In the records
“It is about 50 years since they began to build a splendid pagoda in the town which will be the grandest in all India when it is completed...(apparently, the stone in the niche was a single piece on which 5 years were spent on quarrying when about 600 men worked. And to transport it to the mosque it required 1400 oxen).”
When the foundation of the mosque was laid by Sultan Mohammad Qutb Shah, he wanted the stone to be laid by someone who never missed his prayers. Nobody came forward among the assembled.
Then, the sultan himself stepped forward saying he never missed a prayer since he was 12 and laid the foundation.
But though the king wanted to call it Baitul Atiq, people started calling it Mecca Masjid as some bricks made out of the soil brought from Mecca were laid over the central arch.
Visitors to the mosque believe that if they sit on a particular stone slab they would come back to the city again.
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