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Rh itself, built by Asiatic craftsmen, would not have been his.

The building of the Taj commenced soon after Mumtāz Mahall's death in childbirth in 1631, and lasted nearly twenty-two years. Ibrāhim II, the Shiah Sultan of Bijāpūr, had died five years before its commencement, and the splendid mausoleum which he had raised to the memory of his favourite daughter, Zohra Sultāna, and his wife, Tāj Sultāna, was probably still under construction when Shah Jahān was afflicted by the loss of his beloved Mumtāz Mahall. Ibrahim's Tāj Mahall must have been then the latest wonder of the Musalman world, and certainly it was keenly discussed by Shah Jahān and his builders. The dome of the Tāj at Agra is the best proof of that, for it might have been built by the same mason who built the dome of Ibrāhim's tomb. Both are constructed on the same principles: they are of nearly the same dimensions, and—a fact unnoticed by Fergusson and his followers—the contours of both correspond exactly, except that the lotus crown of the Tāj at Agra tapers more finely and the lotus petals at the springing of the dome are inlaid, instead of