Tomb of Asif Khan

• 1. Introduction

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  The Tomb of Asif Khan stands in Shahdara Bagh on the outskirts of Lahore, a 17th-century mausoleum that cost 300,000 rupees to build and took four years to complete. Its octagonal brick walls once gleamed with marble veneer, precious stone inlay, and blue kashi tiles. Today, private homes press against its boundary walls on the western and northern sides, separated only by a narrow street. How did one of the most lavishly appointed tombs of the Mughal Empire arrive at this condition, and who was the man buried inside it? Those are the questions this documentary sets out to answer.

• 2. A Dynasty Within a Dynasty

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  Mirza Abul Hassan Jah earned the title Asif Khan through a web of royal connections that placed his family at the very center of Mughal power. His sister was Empress Nur Jahan, one of the most influential women in Mughal history. His daughter, Arjumand Bano Begum, became the consort of Emperor Shah Jahan under the name Mumtaz Mahal, and the Taj Mahal in Agra was built in her memory. Asif Khan was therefore brother-in-law to Emperor Jahangir and father-in-law to Shah Jahan, binding together two successive Mughal reigns through a single family line.

  In 1636, Shah Jahan elevated Asif Khan to the rank of Khan-e-Khana and appointed him commander-in-chief. A year later, Asif Khan became governor of Lahore, the city where he would eventually be entombed. His death came on the 12th of June 1641, during a battle against the forces of rebel Raja Jagat Singh. Shah Jahan commissioned the tomb immediately after Khan's death, and according to Abdul Hamid Lahori, the author of the Padshahnama, construction continued for four years until 1645 at a total cost of 300,000 rupees.

• 3. Form and Materials

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  Octagonal tombs carried a specific social meaning in Mughal architecture: they were reserved not for emperors but for high-ranking noblemen. Asif Khan's tomb follows this convention, rising from an octagonal plan in which each side measures 38 feet 8 inches. The structure sits atop a chabutra, or podium, that lifts it 3 feet 9 inches above the surrounding garden. The quadrangle enclosing the complex measures 300 yards on each side.

  The platform floor was laid with Sang-e Abri, a red limestone, while the outer walls were faced with red sandstone. Above the octagonal base, a large central double-layered brick bulbous dome crowns the structure. Such bulbous domes were an innovation of Shah Jahan's era, deployed to celebrated effect at the Taj Mahal. The dome atop Asif Khan's tomb is noted as unique in shape among all Mughal structures, and it was originally finished with a marble veneer that has long since been stripped away.

• 4. Interior Splendour

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  At the time of its completion, the tomb was regarded as featuring some of the finest examples of the building arts and crafts of the period. Eight portals gave access from the exterior into the interior, where white marble and precious stone inlay covered the walls. The inner dome ceiling was decorated in high plaster relief formed from interlacing patterns; portions of this plasterwork survive to the present day. The floor was once paved with red sandstone, and the marble cenotaph at the centre was carved with inscriptions from the Qur'an, a design closely echoing the cenotaph in Emperor Jahangir's adjacent tomb.

  The exterior matched this interior ambition. Stucco tracery and marble stone inlay covered the outer walls, and blue kashi tiles typical of Lahore adorned the facade. Each side of the octagon featured a deeply recessed iwan, an alcove, with a door and an arched window opening inward. Beyond the tomb building itself, the complex included a Persian-style Charbagh garden, with four long pools lined with walkways running in each of the four cardinal directions, fed by a water reservoir that supplied the fountains.

• 5. The Sikh and Colonial Eras

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  The Sikh Empire's arrival in Lahore brought severe damage to the tomb. Three of Lahore's first Sikh rulers, Gujjar Singh, Lahna Singh, and Subha Singh, are recorded as having damaged the structure and planted large pipal trees beside it that blocked views of the shrine. Those trees were not removed until the British colonial period. Ranjit Singh went further: the British explorer William Moorcroft noted that Singh had marble stripped from the tomb's interior, exterior, and decorative stonework. That plundered material was used to embellish the Golden Temple in Amritsar and to construct the Hazuri Bagh Baradari near Lahore Fort.

  British colonial authorities paid little sustained attention to the tomb, though a staircase destroyed by the Sikhs was rebuilt in 1905 and the brick flooring and plasterwork ceiling were repaired around the same time. British law protected the shrine for the first time in 1912. Garden causeways were repaired in 1920-21, and further garden restoration was carried out in 1924-25 and again from 1930 to 1934. A small mosque in the eastern wall was converted into a residence during this period.

• 6. Floods, Law, and Ongoing Decay

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  After Pakistan's independence, the tomb passed to the management of the country's Department of Archaeology. The River Ravi flooded in 1955 and swept away sections of the southern walls; another flood in 1973 brought further damage. Repairs to the southern walls were eventually carried out in 1986-87. Conservation work resumed again in 2005 with assistance from the Global Heritage Fund.

  Pakistani law prohibits new construction within 150 feet of designated heritage sites, yet private homes already stand just a narrow street's width from the boundary walls on the western and northern sides. Immediately north of the complex sits the shrine of Nim Pir, a structure dating from the Mughal era. The tomb, together with the adjacent Akbari Sarai and the Tomb of Jahangir, has been placed on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, a status that may bring greater international attention to its preservation.