File:14th century Alai Darwaza inscription western gate Qutb complex Delhi.jpg

English: These inscriptions are found on the gateway to the Qutb complex in Mehrauli, south Delhi.

• Sayed Ahmad Khan published the first complete set of these inscriptions in the 19th-century. Carr Stephen published the first translations of these inscriptions in the 19th-century. Ghulam Yazdani published a more scholarly analysis and revised translation of these inscriptions in early 20th-century.
• These are found on the gateway to the Qutb complex.
• Language: Persian with a strong admixture of Arabic
• Date: 1310 CE (710 AH)
• Style: bold, vigorous Naskh letters (1.5 feet high), Pathan style fonts
• Attribution: Sultan Alauddin Khalji

Summary of translation:

• Right pier: this portion of the inscription is a preface to other sections on the western gateway. It states that when God revived the "ceremonies of the Islamic faith and Muhammadan law and selected the lord of caliphs of the world" to strengthen the foundation of Islam every moment, the elected representative of God [Sultan] erected mosques.
• Left pier: A part of the inscription is lost. The surviving part calls the Sultan the "right arm of Khilafat" and elevator of the institutions of Islam. It also records the date of inscription as 15th of Shawwal 710 AH (Sunday 7th March 1310 CE).
• Outer arch: calls the Sultan as the "lord of kings, glorious like Mustafa", defender of al-Islam and Muslims, the second Alexander, the right arm of Khilafat, and credits him for building this mosque of the Sunnis (Sunnat u Jamaat).
• Inner arch: calls the mosque as a second Bait-i-Mamur and like paradise, credits the Sultan for building it, and refers to him again as "lord of the kings of his time" and the "right arm of Khilafat".

Additional details and a complete translation of this inscription can be found in Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica 1917–1918, by Ghulam Yazdani (pages 23–30). Additional commentary on these inscriptions and its historical notability was published by Carr Stephen in Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi (pages 54–68).

This is a photograph of a personal copy of the archived original 2D ink estampage published by Ghulam Yazdani in 1919 issue of Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica. It is in public domain. Wikimedia commons PD-Art guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer, I herewith donate to wikimedia commons with public domain (CC0) license.