the east side is the Emperor's Gate, by which Akbar entered the
mosque from the palace, and the other, the majestic Baland Darwaza,
or High Gate, which towers above everything on the south side, and
even dwarfs the mosque itself with its giant proportions. The latter
gate, however, was not a part of the original design, but was added
many years after the completion of the mosque, to celebrate Akbar's
victorious campaign in the Deccan.

The mosque itself was built in honour of the Saint of Fatehpur, Sheikh
Salim Chishti, whose tomb, enclosed in a shrine of white marble, carved
with the delicacy of ivory-work, glitters like silver on the right of
the quadrangle. Barren women, both Hindu and Muhammadan, tie bits of
string or shreds of cloth to the marble trellis-work as tokens that if
blessed with a son they will present an offering to the shrine. Close
by is a plainer, but much larger mausoleum, for his grandson, Nawab
Islam Khan, who was made Governor of Bengal by Jahangir. This also
contains the remains of many other of the Sheikh's male descendants. A
separate vault, called the Zanana Rauza, for the women of his family
is formed by enclosing a portion of the adjoining cloisters.

The mosque proper contains three chapels, crowned by domes. The
principal one, in the centre, is screened by the facade of
the entrance, the doorway being recessed, in the usual style of
Saracenic buildings, in a great porch or semi-dome. An inscription
over the main archway gives the date of the completion of the mosque
as A.D. 1571. The chapels are connected with each other by noble
colonnades of a decidedly Hindu or Jain character. The Saracenic
arches combine most happily with the Hindu construction, and the
view down the "long-drawn aisles" is singularly impressive. Much of
the charm of the interior is due to the quiet reserve and dignity of
the decoration, which is nearly all in the style of Arabian mosques,
and may account for the statement on the central arch, that "this
mosque is a duplicate of the Holy Place" (at Mecca).

At each end of the mosque there is a set of five rooms for the
mullahs who conducted the service; above them are galleries for the
ladies of the zanana. Spacious cloisters surround three sides of the
quadrangle; these are divided into numerous cells for the _maulvis_
and their pupils.

The triumphal gateway, called the BALAND DARWAZA (Plate XIII.), is
really a building in itself. It must be seen from the outside