Sidi Saiyyed Mosque

The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was built in 1572–1573 by Sidi Saiyyed (or Sidi Saeed), a noble in the court of the last Gujarat Sultan Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III. It is one of the last great mosques of the Gujarat Sultanate, completed barely a year before the Mughal conquest of 1573 ended sultanate rule. What makes it world-famous is not the mosque structure itself but its ten arched jali (stone-tracery) windows, particularly the two on the rear wall. These are carved from single slabs of yellow sandstone in the most intricate tracery work in any Indian mosque — palm trees, intertwining tendrils, and the celebrated 'Tree of Life' jali (the second from the right) whose curving branches and palm leaves have been adopted as the unofficial logo of the city of Ahmedabad. The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad uses the same Tree of Life jali as its institutional emblem. The mosque is a working place of worship; non-Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times. Photography of the jalis from inside the mosque is permitted. The structure was partly damaged during a 1573 siege and the front wall is the result of a 19th-century restoration.