Thursday, January 10, 2013

Article in Express Tribune


"The light sky blue signifies the mercy of God and it is used heavily in early Islamic scripture... Dark blue, the colour of the tiles used for the lower half of the verandah walls, signifies mysticism in Islam. The golden and black arch (mehrab) signalling the direction of the Kaaba is inspired by the tomb of Bayazid Bastami in Iran," Iqbal Salahuddin PHOTO. ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
LAHORE:Iqbal Salahuddin has a passion for Islamic architecture in Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Iran and the Subcontinent. So when building a mosque in memory of his father, he decided to borrow from them.
“I wanted to incorporate similar colour themes here,” he says, pointing to the hues of blue in the under-construction mosque at a one-kanal site in Salli Town, which is named after his father Mian Salahuddin, the son-in-law of Allama Iqbal.
“The light sky blue signifies the mercy of God and it is used heavily in early Islamic scripture,” says Salahuddin. Dark blue, the colour of the tiles used for the lower half of the verandah walls, signifies mysticism in Islam, he says. A golden and black arch (mehrab) signalling the direction of the Kaaba is inspired by the tomb of Bayazid Bastami in Iran.
There are inspirations from closer to home too. The floral frescoes are modelled on Masjid Wazir Khan and Masjid Bibi Khanum. Architect Kamil Khan Mumtaz, an authority on Mughal architecture, designed the building.