Notes on the Geography of Northern India: Nizamuddin, Lodi Gardens, and Safdarjung: Photo 1

This is the dargah or shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya, which is to say Saint Nizamuddin, who died in 1324. His status was appraised almost 150 years ago by Carr Stephen: "None equalled him in the hold he acquired on such varied classes of his co-religionists. Of his own fraternity, the well known Chistis, there are three names before whom royalty has humbled itself, and which still hold a place in the daily thoughts and feelings of thousands of believers. The first being that of M'uin-uddin, the founder of the Chistic sect in India, who has made the place of his burial famous as the "Sacred Ajmer;" then comes that of his friend and successor, Qutb Sahib, who has given his name to all that is interesting in the ruins of Mahrauli and its environs; the third, but not the least, is that of the disciple of Qutb Sahib and a worker of miracles, the famous Farid-uddin Shakr Ganj of Pak Patan, who conferred the gift of divination on Shaikh Nizam-uddin Aulia. Last, but in many respects the greatest, of the most renowned Chisti saints was Nizam-uddin, who combined the piety of a saint with what, in those days, was considered the wisdom of a politician" (The Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi, 1876, pp. 102-03).

The original tomb has been almost entirely replaced by later additions. The veranda, for example, was added in 1652; its sandstone pillars were replaced by marble ones in 1820. Three years later the sandstone dome was replaced by one of marble.

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