Tomb of Saidan Shaheed

Name of Monument: Mazar Saidan Shaheed

Location: Jhang- Muzaffargarh Road

Date of Construction:1275 AD

Material and Method of Construction: Fair face and Cut and Dressed Brick work.

The tomb is square in plan and entirely built of fine fair face and cut and dressed brick work. It was raised on high plinth and has slightly upward sloping walls. A flight of steps on the east and south sides gave access to the tomb chamber. Each side of the tomb chamber is horizontally divided into three parts. The central part contains trefoil arches while fourth side contains mihrab. The important feature of the tomb is its ornamental friezes above the plinth level which contains ornamental, vegetal, geometric scrolls and run all around the tomb. The triangles motifs also form part of the decorative scheme. The plinth was also decorated with vegetal motifs set with in arches supported on columns and incorporating amalakas. The main entrance arch is framed on three side with a high relief band inscribed with Kufic calligraphy. The two-side flanking the main entrance has gavaska niches, also framed with narrow high relif band on three sides. The frame of the main entrance arch is higher than the gavaska niches. on top of the frames are merlons which contains the word Allah. The corners of tomb chambers have offsets on all four sides. Quranic verses are inscribed in these offsets. The tomb is profusely decorated with variety of decorative motifs. The interlaced decoration made it unique and amount of calligraphy made it distinct as compared to other tombs in the region. The decorative friezes shows chesss board pattern, vine scrolls and other geometrical and floral designs. The inscription friezes on the wall surfaces and false merlons depict the word Allah, Ya Allah and Al Mulk o Lilah. There is also verses from Holy Quran which includes Bismillah and opening verse of sura Al-Fath.

Internally the tomb chamber is devoid of any decoration. To support the dome, squinch arches convert the square plan into octagon along with brick pendentive in the middle. The tomb was originally covered with a dome which has collapsed.

The tomb of Saidan Shaheed show a perfect assimilation of Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic artistic tradition. The cut and dressed brickwork show the continuity of cut and dressed decorative brick tradition of the Ghorid monuments.