Makramat Khan

The Encyclopaedia of Islam article on Agra says that the building of the Taj Mahal was carried out under the general supervision of Makramat Khan and Mir Abd al-Karim. ¹ The article on the Taj Mahal calls him "the Mughal official Makramat" and names him with Mir Abd al-Karim as an overseer of the work. ²

The Agra article reports, on the authority of the traveller Tavernier, that the tomb and its subsidiary buildings took about twenty-two years and that twenty thousand workmen were employed on them. ¹ The Taj article adds that contemporary sources play down the architects and stress the patron, which is why the individuals around the work are hard to define. ²

Neither article gives his birth or death date, origin, rank or other career, and the museum has not found an article devoted to him. The spelling "Makramat" is the Encyclopaedia's; no other spelling is asserted here. ^{1 2}