Taj-ul-Masajid

The Taj-ul-Masajid (Arabic: تَاجُ ٱلْمَسَاجِد, romanized: Tāj-ul-Masājid, lit. 'Crown of Mosques'), also known as the Tāj-ul-Masjid (Arabic: تَاجُ ٱلْمَسْجِد), is a Sunni mosque, affiliated with Tablighi Jamaat, part of the Deobandi movement, located in Bhopal, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. With capacity for c. 26,000 worshippers, it is the largest mosque in India and, as of 2014, was the ninth largest mosque in the world. == History == The construction of the Taj-ul-Masajid was started by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal, in the newly built walled suburb of Shahjahanabad. The exact year when construction was started is unclear; estimated it to be 1871. The Bhopal-based journalist and the author of Masajid-e-Bhopal (transl. The Mosques in Bhopal), Aarif Aziz stated the date as 1887. After Shah Jahan Begum died in 1901, the mosque continued to be built by her daughter, Sultan Jahan Begum, till the end of her lifetime. The structure was planned in the midst of three water bodies, namely: Munshi Hussain Talab; Noor Mahal Talab; and Motia Talab. Hamidullah Khan helped construct one gate of the mosque on the suggestions of Shah Jahan Begum. The construction work was later led by Islamic scholar Imran Khan Nadwi, whose brother Salman Khan Nadwi, supervised the constructions. The construction was complete by 1958 at an expenditure of 20 million Indian rupees.