Thatta’s Shah Jahan Mosque: A Slice of Samarkand

In an unremarkable town in Pakistan’s Sindh province is a stunning blue mosque, a magnificent slice of Samarkand marooned in the Indian subcontinent. Enter the gates of the mosque complex in Thatta and behold a grand masjid unlike any other built by the Mughals.

Called the Shah Jahan Mosque, after the Mughal Emperor who built it in the 17th century CE, the structure is not made of sandstone and marble as are most Mughal monuments. Instead, the Jamia Masjid of Thatta or the Shah Jahan Mosque of Thatta boasts the most elaborate and most beautiful display of tile-work in the subcontinent. An exquisite example of Central Asian architecture, it closely resembles the marvellous mosques, mausoleums and madrasas of Samarkand, the heart of the Mughal homeland.