Ghūrid Architecture in the Indus Valley: The Tomb of Shaykh Sādan Shahīd

This paper discusses a small brick tomb near Multān in the Panjāb, which was brought to the attention of scholars just over a decade ago. It offers comparative evidence from eastern Iran to support the suggestion that this was a funerary monument built for a Ghūrid patron in the late twelfth century and discusses the tomb in relation to other extant Ghūrid structures in South Asia. It emphasizes the degree of regional continuity in Ghūrid architecture by highlighting aspects of the building's design that are also present in the pre-Ghūrid Buddhist and Hindu architecture of the Indus Valley but absent in the medieval monuments of eastern Iran or western India. Accounting for the transculturation to which the tomb bears witness, the author draws attention to the mutual receptivity of eastern Iranian and South Asian architecture in the late twelfth century.