What the misidentification of a mosque in the heart of Delhi says about our approach to heritage

To the south-west of Humayun’s tomb in Delhi stand two domed Mughal monuments from the 16th century CE – one mausoleum and one mosque. Few visitors to Humayun’s tomb venture in this direction, even though the structures have recently been restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Signboards, brochures, and web pages describe them as the Afsarwala complex, built in honour of a nobleman, an afsar.

Eminent scholars of Mughal architectural history such as Ebba Koch and George Michell have subscribed to this nomenclature. So has the respected art historian Subhash Parihar, who has written the only focussed academic inquiry on the structures.

In his study published in Marg in 1998, Parihar suggested that the word afsar was derived from the Turkic afshar, referring to a Transcaucasian tribe, four elite members of which had been appointed by Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp in 1544 to assist with Humayun’s scheme of recapturing subcontinental India from the Suri dynasty. As only three of them are known to have returned to their homeland, Parihar suggested that the complex was likely to have been sponsored by the fourth, Abdul Fateh Sultan Afshar.

While there certainly are plausible elements in this theory, there is mounting evidence to suggest that it should be reassessed....

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