Hasht bihisht (nine-part) plan

The hasht bihisht plan, also called the nine-part plan, divides a usually irregular octagon (a chamfered square, the musamman-i baghdadi) by four crossing lines into nine units: a domed octagonal chamber in the centre, open rectangular halls on the sides, and double-storeyed vaulted octagonal chambers at the corners. It gave buildings a radial symmetry, stressed further by axial and diagonal passages linking the nine chambers. ¹

Rezavi gives as Timurid examples the tomb of Abu Nasr Parsa at Balkh (c. 1460), the Ishratkhana at Samarqand (1464) and the tomb of Sharif Abdullah at Herat (1487). The Abu Nasr tomb directly influenced four Mughal tombs: the Sabz Burj and Nili Gumbad near Humayun's tomb (c. 1530-40), the Afsarwala tomb at Delhi (1560s) and the tomb of Shamsher Khan at Batala (1588-89). ¹

The most famous buildings on this plan are Humayun's tomb at Delhi and the Taj Mahal at Agra; the Taj is a single Baghdadi octagon on the nine-part plan, where Iranian planning is coupled with indigenous forms. Other examples are the tomb of Anarkali at Lahore and regular octagonal tombs of Akbar's reign such as that of Shah Quli Khan at Narnaul; the plan was also applied to Akbar's pavilion in Ajmer Fort and to the Buland Darwaza at Fathpur Sikri. ^{1 2}