Jama Masjid, Jaunpur

The Jama Masjid, also called the Badi Masjid, is one of the largest mosques in India and the main attraction of Jaunpur, about a kilometre from the Atala Mosque. It was built by the Sharqi sultans, whose Jaunpur kingdom, founded by Malik Sarwar after the Tughlaq decline, became a centre of Islamic culture known as the Shiraz of India and developed its own architectural style.

Ibrahim Shah laid the foundation in 1438, work above ground began in 1440, and the mosque was finished in 1473 by the last Sharqi ruler, Hussain Shah. Stories say it was built to spare a hermit a barefoot walk to a distant mosque, or to give work during a famine. When the Lodis conquered Jaunpur, its eastern gate is said to have been damaged. The British artist William Hodges sketched its entrance in 1783, and it came under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act in 1919. Daily and Friday prayers are still held.