‘Dargah in Kutch predates Qutab Minar by 34 yrs’

She later drew a map of Bhadreshwar and organised heritage walks for locals,especially schoolchildren,to create awareness among the community that consists of fishermen,salt-pan workers and farmers. The village is home to a few other old structures of both Islamic and Jain origins.

The academic had read about the Ibrahim dargah before,she said,including a 1959 piece by D A Desai that first described the inscription and a later book on Bhadreshwar that detailed the dargah.

“Besides being the first piece of Islamic architecture in present-day India,the Ibrahim dargah is also the first example of corbelled arched walls and a corbelled dome,” she said,referring to the architectural technique of a solid structure on a wall that supports an arch.

Another interesting aspect of the dargah is that it was built from new material as opposed to most other Islamic structures in India where material is normally sourced from razed temples or other structures,said Professor Naoko.

The historian from Waseda’s Organisation for Islamic Area studies added the dargah appears to have been built by Hindu and Jain artisans who were subjects of the Jain ruler who presided over the area in those days and who probably hosted Arab merchants. Bhadreshwar is known to be one of the oldest port towns in present-day Gujarat.

Gujarat Tourism cautiously says on its website that the dargah and the adjoining mosque there are “in all likelihood the first mosques built in India”.

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