09/10/2016
today Charminar’s 425th birthday
If legend, lore, historical accounts or simply popular belief is taken into account, then 425 years ago, on this day, Hyderabad's most iconic monument, Charminar, was born.
1.1.1000 of the Hijri calendar, they say, is when Charminar, which gave Hyderabad its identity, came into being. And around it, mushroomed the city we call home now. If we go by the corresponding date on the Georgian calendar, it should be Charminar's, and Hyderabad's, 425th anniversary today. But is it? No one seems to know for sure. While some say that October 9 1591 is the date when Quli Qutb Shah laid the foundation stone, others say it was on this day, which happened to be Muharram, that the poet king had a tazia erected at the very spot where Charminar stands. As historians and heritage experts debate, Hyderabad Times listens in...
October 9 is the date when charminar was completed and thrown open to the public
The date has been documented by the Qutub Shahis themselves. And this is further augmented by historian Dr Haroon Khan Sherwani who has written extensively on the Qutub Shahis and the history of Hyderabad. In his article on the foundation of Hyderabad city, he has clearly mentioned the date: "9th of October, that corresponds to 1st Muharram,1000 Hijri". This is the day when the monument was completed and thrown open to public. it took two years to build Charminar, from 1589 to 1591. Nine lakh rupees was spent to erect the historical monument, which weighs approximately 14000 tons. And for those who claim that it was just a tazia which was placed there on this date, well, Charminar itself is modelled after a tazia!
— Mohd Safiullah, managing trustee of the Deccan Heritage Trust
In the absence of historical records, 1.1.1000 (Hijri) is too tempting a date to to resist
There is a mention of the date of Charminar's construction in historian and author Prof Haroon Khan Sherwani's works. According to him, "Charminar was constructed after a model of tazia, a conventional replica of the mausoleum of Hasan and Hussain." He also writes that the story of Charminar's construction finds a mention in Mir Roshan Ali's Tozuk-I Qutb Shahiya, compiled in 1848, on the order of Raja Chandu Lal, the deewan of Hyderabad. "It is said that a Tazia was originally constructed in the place where the Charminar now stands on Sunday, 1.1.1000 Hijri, which is equivalent to 9.10.1591," he writes. However, Sherwani does not seem to agree with that date. He claimed that a booklet of 10 folios is an unreliable document. Moreover, we do not find the evidence of there being a tazia on this site in any other work. Also, the 1.1.1000 happened to be a Saturday, though I believe there can be one day difference in dates. Since it was the first millennia of the Islamic calendar, an important date, a lot of people believe the fact to be true. But Sherwani thinks it is a little earlier than that. There is a lot of controversy around the date. And since historical record is not always available, people tend to believe in a lot of things in search of an exact date. and, 1.1.1000 is too tempting to resist.
— Sajjad Shahid, historian and heritage activist
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact date, but Hyderabad is 425 years old
What we know is that 9 October, 1591 is the date when a tazia was erected in Charminar. This implies that the construction of Charminar must have started before. It is unclear whether October 9 is the foundation date of the monument. However, H K Sherwani's book mentions clearly that on 9th October, the
corresponding Hijri date, the tazia was erected in Charminar. The year is relevant for sure, but it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date.
— Anuradha Reddy, convenor of INTACH Hyderabad
It's almost impossible to know the exact date
Charminar was constructed in the year 1591, but there is no specific date. The Hijri calendar has been translated into Christian calendar. But then there is no mention of a date in the Hijri calender, so it's almost impossible to know the exact date when the historical structure had been erected, the date its foundation stone was laid or the date the construction was over. All we know is that in the year 1591 the first building of Hyderabad, Charminar was constructed.
— Narendra Luther, historian
Charminar fact file:
It took two years to build Charminar, from 1589 to 1591. Nine lakh rupees was spent to erect the historical monument, which weighs approximately 14000 tonNEs.
Charminar is built as a perfect square measuring 31.95 metres. The four minarets of measuring 56 metres each have three stories with spiral staircase inside, with 149 steps that lead to the top with 12 landings.
There is a mosque located on the western section of the second floor. With forty-five mushallas (prayer spaces) and an open courtyard in front.
The four clocks were added in the year 1889.
The base of monument originally had a Vazu (water cistern) and a small fountain for customary ablutions, before offering prayers in the mosque.
