Ghaznavid Minarets

One of the least known constructions from Ghaznavid period is the minaret of Sultan Mas’ud III at Ghazni about which as yet there has been no detailed publication. The earliest evidence on this minaret is a sketch published by the English traveller G.T. Vigne who visited Ghazni in 1836, the veracity of which was later corroborated by a photograph made in 1880. In fact, the present work is the first detailed report on the minaret. This paper refrains from entering into the discussion concerning the reasons behind its construction, and instead focuses on describing and comparing its plan and inscriptions with other related monuments. The brick upper part of the minaret of Sultan Mas’ud includes five vertical panels with different and various Kufic inscriptions. These inscriptions clearly reflect the religious beliefs of its builders. The endless repeat of interlocking Kufic is another characteristic of the minaret. The content of the interlocking Kufici nscriptionsis invariably religious, with this one exception of Mas’ud’s minaret. It is probable that once there existed a religious building next to this minaret, a hypothesis that must be tested by excavation. The question of whether or not this monument was a minaret in the true sense of the word, “the place where the call to prayer is given,” is left open in this paper.