Moth ki Masjid

Moth ki Masjid, the 'lentil mosque', stands in the urban village of Masjid Moth near South Extension Part II in South Delhi and is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. Wazir Miya Bhoiya, prime minister to Sultan Sikandar Lodi, built it in 1505. Legend says the sultan stooped over, or playfully handed his minister, a single grain of moth lentil; the wazir planted it, replanted the harvest year after year, and paid for the mosque with the proceeds.

The mosque rises on a high plinth and is entered from the east through a gateway of red, blue, black and white sandstone whose arch sets a Hindu arch within an Islamic one. Beyond a walled courtyard about 38 metres wide, the prayer hall opens through five arches under three domes, the central one the largest, with two-storey towers at its corners topped by domed chhatris. Carved red sandstone, white marble, plaster and glazed tiles decorate the walls, and the mihrab carries Quranic inscriptions in floral Iranian style.