Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/128

 86 The Kirfb Minar. the basement. The ornament on the raised portions is less liable to the crushing, and has remained in a more perfect condition. There is a portion of a still lower band about six feet from the ground, near the entrance door, which in the various repairs has not been repeated all round the column. A i'ew Arabic words still exist, which Syud Ahmed renders, " Fuzl son of Abul Muali high priest " and the name, if anything, furnishes additional evidence in favour of the Muhammadan origin of the pillar. On the left of the photograph is a part of the colonnade, which surrounds the Masjid, as enlarged by Altamsh (see X, W. on Plan No. II.). The columns are all plain- consisting of two detached shafts, a cap and base. These have the appearance of having been originally made to be fitted together, as they now appear and they not impossibly still hold their original position. On the left is the south-east corner of the outer wall of the Great Mosque. I obtained a cast of a part of the ornament on the tower just above the first inscription — it measures about two feet by three feet six inches — and has been deposited in the South Kensington Museum, as a representative piece of ornamental carving of the time of Kutb-ud-din-Aibik, about a.d. 1193. The original portion is situated on the west of the entrance doorway — the cornice of which is just visible in the photograph on the right. The first band of inscription is almost illegible (see page 79), the second speaks in terms of praise of Muzuffur-Moiz-ud-din Muhammad Bin Sam (see page 80).