ANCESTRAL TREE OF USTAD AHMAD MIMAR LAHORI;
REASON OF THREE VERSIONS CORRECT LUTFULLAH.
RESEARCH BASED ON OLD AND NEW DOCUMENTATION.

Although various histories of Emperor Shah Jahan mention Ustad Ahmad Mimar along with Ustad Hamid Mimar, but little was known about them. Yes, the Resident of Delhi Charles Metcalfe after enquiry knew a lot about them but left no records for us to use. The reference of Antonio Zobi, the Italian Peitra Dura expert gives no personal detail about them. One scholar was the first to talk of Mohalla Hamid Mimar in Old Delhi. I think Sulaiman Nadwai confirms that perhaps Hamid Mimar was brother of Ahmad Mimar. But the age limit of Hamid Mimar stops this possibility. One manuscript describes Hamid Mimar as son of Abdul Kareem. We will talk of Hamid Mimar separately in another blog.

Dr Nazir Ahmad of Aligarh Unversity came up with a Holy Quran with a dealer in Bombay, where the Tafseer on it was written by Lutufullah Ahmad, but there in a place or two, he gives his name as Lutufullah son of Ahmad son of Barkhurdar. Dr Nazir Ahmad called on us here at the museum in Lahore, and a wonderful man, with a brilliant daughter. He really worked a lot on the family of Ustad Ahmad Mimar. Full credit to him for his outstanding work. Although the name Barkhurdar is used in Mughal history, but it actually denotes an obedient son. The reference seems vague to us. But in our opinion it is a way to hide the actual name, for reasons we will discuss later.

In another manuscript there is a sharh of Hazrat Ayeshan, who is buried in Lahore, and written by Ahmad. But the Sharh was written in Balkh. There the mention is of Ahmad son of Yusuf son of Soofi. Again it seems there are reasons to hide the details. There is even a Prayer Book of Baba Usman written by an earlier age Ahmad Mimar in his life time.

The most factual detail is given in Tazkira Aulia written by Lutufullah Ahmad in 1099 AH and the copy of it is in the National Library Berlin. Petermann collection there. I was able to obtain a copy of the last few pages, as getting it all printed was very expensive. I had the whole manuscript done as a microfilm in 1976, but the film got spoiled with time. Here Lutufullah refers to various generations of him, as Lutfullah son of Ahmad, son of Yusuf, son of Hussain, son of Abdul Lateef. Two places Yusuf, one place Barkhurdar. In the Berlin Library more steps of ancestry go up. And this manuscript was written by Lutufullah Ahmad at the house of Haji Harmain al Shareef Haji Muhammed Samar Marhoom  of Khana Kaaba. This shows that Luufullah Ahmad in process of time had also become a Haji.

Turkish historians mention two architects who accompanied Emperor Babur to Hindustan, and their names were Yusuf Mimar and Isa Mimar. There is a calligraphic Qita of Isa, on which there is even a story by him of his own life. There is a manuscript of Fatwa Qazi Khan written by Yusuf Sirhindi in 998 AH in some area of Punjab, perhaps Lahore. It shows his association with Sirhind which is not very far away from Lahore.  And the manuscript was in possession of some lady, namely Bibi Ashoor daughter of Muhammed Ameen. And the manuscript is a Royal copy with seals  of various Royal people, including seals of Lutufullah Ahmad.

In an article entitled “The fugitive architect” Dr Abdullah Chaghatai writes about an architect known as Ustad herawai, the name remains hidden in text. The Ustad is mentioned by Abdur Raheem Khan Khanan in very clear terms, but no name at all. (Although Masserai Raheemi does give a name we will discuss in another blog). A monument in Herat is directly linked to a monument in Lahore. That means that the architect was a fugitive. People talk of an architect who disobeyed the orders of the Shahenshah of Iran, due to his stress on waiting for the base of construction for some time.

Lahore is attached to the name of Ustad Ahmad right from the start and is totally documented in time. But in tracing the ancestry of Qaleemullah Dehlavi an historian has made the mistake of linking the ancestry to an unknown area Khanjand, related to family. Khalique Ahmad Nizami misled into thinking of Hamid Mimar as the father of Ahmad Mimar, which is absolutely wrong. Further the ancestry is misled to the Caliph of Islam.  Dr Abdullah Chaghatai has already researched that evidence as a mistake. In fact he added the name of Aleemullah as a brother of Qaleemullah, which was there as a footnote on a manuscript of astronomy in the National Museum Karachi. I discovered a PunjSura written  by Aleemullah. We also found manuscripts written by Qaleemullah as well as some from his own library. Our extensive research gives us manuscripts and books to fill a complete almirah of same. We will add what we can for this blog but it is a large research area. It was necessary to add here to remind us that we do not talk in a vacuum,we talk with documentation. 

We have added various names to the tree of Usta Ahmad Mimar Lahori, and we will start talking about it in later blogs. More on the entire family, and relevant research on Attaullah Rushddi. More particularly his son Hafiz Hafeez (Nur Muhammed), who was responsible for the mausoleum of Princess Zebunnisa. Nore on Amiruddin Ali, son of Imamuddin Riazi, who was a Naqsha Navees Sultani for Lucknow Nawabs, as well as author of horoscopes for famous people like Lalla Hukam Chand. 

An ancestral tree was available in the past. We gave one too. But it gets refined as we discover more and more manuscripts with mimar reference in them. It is a painstaking search. Only obsession can drive one on and on. Soon we will turn to descendents of Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori. Stay with us!