ntrated on great architectural works, and art becomes
an epitome of the age. For the Taj was not a creation of a single
master-mind, but the consummation of a great art epoch. Since the
time of Akbar the best architects, artists, and art workmen of India,
Persia, Arabia, and Central Asia had been attracted to the Mogul
court. All the resources of a great empire were at their disposal,
for Shah Jahan desired that this monument of his grief should be one
of the wonders of the world. The sad circumstances which attended
the early death of the devoted wife who had endeared herself to the
people might well inspire all his subjects to join in the Emperor's
pious intentions.

According to the old Tartar custom, a garden was chosen as a site
for the tomb--a garden planted with flowers and flowering shrubs,
the emblems of life, and solemn cypress, the emblem of death
and eternity. Such a garden, in the Mogul days, was kept up as a
pleasure-ground during the owner's lifetime, and used as his last
resting-place after his death. The old tradition laid down that it
must be acquired by fair means, and not by force or fraud. So Rajah
Jey Singh, to whom the garden belonged, was compensated by the gift
of another property from the Emperor's private estate. Shah Jahan
next appointed a council of the best architects of his empire for
preparing the design for the building. Drawings of many of the most
celebrated buildings of the world were shown and discussed. It is even
believed that one Geronimo Verroneo, an Italian who was then in the
Mogul service, submitted designs for Shah Jahan's inspection, a fact
which has led many writers into the error of supposing that the Taj,
as completed, was actually designed by him. [8] The design eventually
accepted was by Ustad Isa, who is stated in one account to have been
a Byzantine Turk, and in another a native of Shiraz, in Persia.

The master-builders came from many different parts; the chief
masons from Baghdad, Delhi, and Multan; the dome builders from
Asiatic Turkey and from Samarkand; the mosaic workers from Kanauj
and from Baghdad; the principal calligraphist for the inscriptions
from Shiraz. Every part of India and Central Asia contributed the
materials; Jaipur, the marble; Fatehpur Sikri, the red sandstone;
the Panjab, jasper; China, the jade and crystal; Tibet, turquoises;
Ceylon, lapis lazuli and sapphires; Arabia, coral and cornelian;
Panna in Bundelkund, diamonds; Persia, onyx and amet