Ahmedabad 600- Potraits of a City

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About the Book Established in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah and named after him, Ahmadabad in Gujarat is one of India's most well preserved medieval cities. Wealthy from its inception, it continued to prosper, and in the first half of the 20th century became home to a booming textile industry. Ahmadabad was at the forefront of the nationalist movement, and became the crucible of modern architecture and design in independent India. The city's culture has responded to the social, political, and economic challenges of each passing century, creating its multifaceted character.

Spanning the traditional and the modern in architecture, arts, and crafts, this volume commemorates 600 years of the founding of Ahmadabad with eloquent portraits by scholars - many of whom have made this city their home.

Introduction T This volume presents portraits of one of India's most prosperous cities on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of its foundation Established in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah and named after him. Ahmadabad was a magnificent "City of Beauties from the early years after its inception. Abu Fazl called Ahmedabad "a noble city in a high state of prosperity" and its riches later drew the Marathas and the British in it. And it has continued to prosper, unlike its contemporaries, which today are either in ruins or insignificant towns with none of their former glory. This steady expansion and growth has been possible because the city and its citizens have continuously transformed to respond to the changing social, political, and economic challenges that each passing century has posed. In the process it has acquired blemishes too. For the disgusted Mughal emperor Jahangir it was gardabad (dusty city), bimaristan (land of the ill), and jahannamabad (hellish city). Dalpatram, the eminent Gujarati poet of the 19th century, drew attention to the city's filth, while Mahatma Gandhi despaired of its excessive railyarritti; the tendency of Ahmadabad’s to see all aspects of life in terms of profit and loss. Yet, the city's ever-expanding urban boundaries are still organically linked to its medieval core with the modem and the traditional faces influencing and molding each other. Which is why this volume takes the form of portraits, in the plural, as no one view of Ahmedabad can do justice to the city's multifaceted complexity.

The City's Birth and Growth The early years of the 15th century were the twilight years of the Delhi Sultanate when provincial leaders found the opportunity to break free of the waning power and authority of Delhi and established independent sultanates in different parts of the subcontinent. One such noble was Zafar Khan who established the independent Gujarat Sultanate in 1407, assuming the title Muzaffar Shah 1. It was during the reign of his grandson Ahmed Shah that the Gujarat Sultanate was consolidated and came into its own. The decisive moment was when Ahmed Shah laid the foundation of a new capital on the banks of the Sabarmati river in 1411, asserting and underlining his authority by ending the association with Patan which had been the capital of Gujarat since the 10th century.

The Sultanate period lasted about 200 years during which Ahmedabad became a prosperous trading and craft-manufacturing centre. Under successive sultans, particularly Mahmud Begada and Muzaffar Shah II. Ahmadabad’s architecture, art, crafts, and textiles flowered. The city exerted a centripetal force, drawing skill and scholarship from all over the subcontinent and the larger pan-Islamic community of West Asia. Simultaneously. the centrifugal force of Indian Ocean trade networks took Ahmadabad’s as far east as Malacca and west to Africa. In 1573, after a battle on the banks of the Sabarmati, Akbar took over Ahmedabad and annexed Gujarat to the Mughal empire. Gujarat was prized not only for its wealth and manufactures but also because its ports, particularly Cambay (Khambat) lying 70 kilometers south of Ahmedabad, were the gateways to Mecca. For European traders, Cambay was the gateway to India and it was in the Mughal period that Ahmedabad had its first encounter with Dutch and English traders who established factories in the city to deal in textiles, indigo, saltpeter, and paper. However, though Ahmedabad was visited by Europeans much before other major Indian cities, there was no substantive cultural impact.

**Contents and Sample Pages**