From the Archives: KKM Project in 'The Economist'

Building Baba Hassan Din’s shrine
by Alixandra Fassina
from the Economist article

'Echoing down a winding stairwell, a scraping of masonry and clink of chisel on marble signal a remarkable monument rising. It is in the scruffy Lahori suburb of Baghbanpura, where Iqbal lived for six decades. From a narrow alley running alongside the shrine, it is mostly hidden: its high outer walls, of recessed brickwork speckled with multicoloured tiles, rising out of sight to a pair of domes and skinny minarets. A few steep steps lead into a small cloistered forecourt, where masons are at work.

Either side of the forecourt, about ten metres apart, are two false burial chambers. These are beautifully decorated, with white marble lattice and marble mosaics studded with green jade, lapis lazuli and agate. One is for Iqbal and the other for his mentor, a mystic called Baba Hassan Din, who lived in a brick cell on this site and died in 1968. The men’s true graves lie underneath, in brick-walled chambers, faintly murmuring with the sounds of the street outside.'

The Economist
- Of Saints and Sinners,

Dec 18th 2008

Delhi, Lahore and Sehwan Sharif

 

Link to Article (Click)

Marble work at Baba Hassan Din’s shrine
by Alixandra Fassina