Sufi Shrines & Mosques
Spiritual & Pilgrimage
Dargahs, jama masjids and khanqahs — where qawwali is still sung on a Thursday night.
10 places
Haji Ali Dargah (Mumbai)
Haji Ali Causeway
The sea causeway to the islet shrine, passable only at low tide.
Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
The tomb of the Sufi saint who brought the Chishti order to India in the twelfth century, and the most visited Muslim shrine in the subcontinent — up to twenty thousand people on an ordinary day, and hundreds of thousands during the urs that marks his death anniversary. The complex is more than the tomb: several graves, a mosque, and the enormous cooking cauldrons that are still used. Heads covered, shoes off, and expect to be offered a chadar and a guide at the gate — agree a price or decline plainly. Early morning and late evening are calmer than the middle of the day.
Rajasthan
Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Ajmer Sharif is the most revered Sufi shrine in India — the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the 12th-century saint who founded the Chishti order. Drawing millions of pilgrims of all faiths, especially during the annual Urs, it is a powerful symbol of India's syncretic spiritual culture.
Telangana
Deval Masjid
Two buildings occupy the same set of walls. Bodhan's hundred-pillared hall was raised as the Indranarayana Swamy temple in the Kakatiya era, then converted into a mosque in the 14th century under Muhammad bin Tughluq, and it has been read both ways ever since; locals still call it Vanda Stambhala Gudi, the hundred-pillared temple. The pillars are the whole reason to come, and the hall is what survives best. Find it in the Udmeer Gally area. It is a state-protected monument and a quiet one, which is unusual for a building carrying this much argument.
Maharashtra
Haji Ali Dargah (Mumbai)
The Haji Ali Dargah is one of Mumbai's most recognisable landmarks — a white-domed Indo-Islamic shrine and mosque set on a tiny islet in the Arabian Sea, reached by a causeway that submerges at high tide. The tomb of the saint Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari draws pilgrims of all faiths.
Delhi
Jama Masjid (Delhi)
The Jama Masjid of Delhi, built by Shah Jahan in 1656, is one of the largest mosques in India. Its vast red-sandstone-and-marble courtyard holds tens of thousands of worshippers, and its southern minaret looks out over the rooftops of Old Delhi.
Telangana
Makkah Masjid, Hyderabad
Bricks made from soil carried out of Mecca sit in the central arch. Muhammad Qutb Shah commissioned them, and they gave the mosque its name. Aurangzeb completed the building in 1694, and it still does the everyday work of the Old City's main mosque, holding ten thousand at prayer. It stands close to Charminar, Chowmahalla Palace and Laad Bazaar, so it slots into an old-city morning without any effort. Dress and behave as you would in any working mosque; this is not a monument that has stopped being used.
_1.jpg/960px-Pigeons_on_a_Minaret_of_Mecca_Masjid_(September_2019)_1.jpg)
Telangana
Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad)
The Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad is one of the oldest and largest mosques in India, begun in the 16th century by the Qutb Shahi rulers. Named for bricks said to be brought from Mecca, its vast prayer hall sits beside the Charminar at the heart of the old city.
Punjab
Moorish Mosque, Kapurthala
The last ruler of Kapurthala gave his capital a mosque modelled on the Grand Mosque of Marrakesh, finished in 1930, with Indo-Islamic detail worked into a Moorish Revival shell. Kapurthala was known then as the Mini Paris of Punjab, which tells you what Maharajah Jagatjit Singh was aiming at. The Punjab archaeology department protects it now. If you are passing through this part of the state, this is the thing to stop for.
Delhi
Nizamuddin Dargah (Delhi)
The Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah is the shrine of the great Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, one of Delhi's most atmospheric spiritual sites. Famous for its Thursday-evening qawwali sessions in a centuries-old tradition, the dargah complex also holds the tomb of the poet Amir Khusrau.