2025 - Palimpsests Past & Present: The Sufis and Sultans of the Makli Necropolis (1380-1660), by Fatima Quraishi

Palimpsests Past and Present is the first monograph to take a multidisciplinary approach to trace the history of the significant, but understudied monumental funerary site, the Makli necropolis (established ca. 1380). The necropolis is situated about two kilometres west of the once-bustling medieval trade emporium of Thatta, along the sinuous curves of a natural limestone ridge in the Indus River’s deltaic plain in the southeastern province of Sindh (Pakistan). Established in the late fourteenth century as a modest hermitage, Makli was transformed by the enshrinement of the mystics who founded the site. These devotees, including poltical elites would flock to their tombs vying to be buried in the shadow of these saints. By the late seventeenth century the cemetery was over four kilometres long. Its architecture reflects the site’s proximity to ports of the Arabian Sea, a threshold into the Indian subcontinent. The monuments, an extraordinary conglomeration of intricately carved stone monuments, cenotaphs with finely executed calligraphic inscriptions, and brick tombs clad in brilliant turquoise, dark blue, and white tiles, testify to its long history and renown. They connect Makli to multiple aesthetic traditions and regions, from the lithic architecture of medieval Gujarat and Rajasthan in India to the monumental brick and tile tombs of Timurid Central Asia and Iran.

Palimpsests Past and Present demonstrates that South Asian funerary spaces have long been dynamic, vibrant sites of sociability and communality, re-writing long-standing perceptions of them as isolated, static containers of the past, exemplified by iconic mausolea such as the Taj Mahal. In the many entangled threads that constitute Makli are lessons for understanding monumental architectural landscapes, particularly funerary sites, and their relationships to people, to urban development, and to the environment.

Fatima Quraishi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. She specializes in the art and architecture of South Asia, with a particular interest in the visual culture of Muslim communities in the pre-modern period. Her research examines the intersection of transregional artistic styles with locally embedded practices, highlighting early modern mobilities, of people and of objects.