The main dome was designed by Ismail Khan from the Ottoman Empire. He was considered to be the premier designer of hemispheres and builder of domes of that age.
Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome. Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen as the chief sculptor and was also in charge of the mosaics. Amanat Khan from Persian Shiraz, Iran was the chief calligrapher (this fact is attested on the Taj Mahal gateway itself, where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription).
Muhammad Hanif was the supervisor of masons. Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz, Iran handled finances and the management of daily production.
The creative team included sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers — thirty seven men in all formed the creative nucleus. To this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand workers recruited from across northern India.
European commentators, particularly during the early period of the British Raj, suggested that some or all of the Taj Mahal was the work of European artisans. Most of these suggestions were purely speculative.
One claim dates back to 1640, when a Spanish Friar who visited Agra wrote that Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian adventurer in Shah Jahan's court, was primarily responsible for the design.
There is no reliable scholarly evidence in the Taj Mahal history to back up this assertion, nor is Veroneo's name mentioned in any surviving documents relating to the construction.
E.B. Havell, the British scholar of Indian art in the later Raj, dismissed this theory as unsupported by any evidence, and as inconsistent with the known methods employed by the designers.
His conclusions were further supported by the Taj Mahal history research carried out by Muhammad Abdullah Chaghtai. He carefully examined the origin of the tradition that the Taj was designed by a European, and concluded that it was a spurious 19th century creation of Taj Mahal history.
Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome. Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen as the chief sculptor and was also in charge of the mosaics. Amanat Khan from Persian Shiraz, Iran was the chief calligrapher (this fact is attested on the Taj Mahal gateway itself, where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription).
Muhammad Hanif was the supervisor of masons. Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz, Iran handled finances and the management of daily production.
The creative team included sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers — thirty seven men in all formed the creative nucleus. To this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand workers recruited from across northern India.
European commentators, particularly during the early period of the British Raj, suggested that some or all of the Taj Mahal was the work of European artisans. Most of these suggestions were purely speculative.
One claim dates back to 1640, when a Spanish Friar who visited Agra wrote that Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian adventurer in Shah Jahan's court, was primarily responsible for the design.
There is no reliable scholarly evidence in the Taj Mahal history to back up this assertion, nor is Veroneo's name mentioned in any surviving documents relating to the construction.
E.B. Havell, the British scholar of Indian art in the later Raj, dismissed this theory as unsupported by any evidence, and as inconsistent with the known methods employed by the designers.
His conclusions were further supported by the Taj Mahal history research carried out by Muhammad Abdullah Chaghtai. He carefully examined the origin of the tradition that the Taj was designed by a European, and concluded that it was a spurious 19th century creation of Taj Mahal history.