I visited the celebrated mosque known by the name of Jami (Jumma)
Masjid, a fine building raised by Shah Jahan, and finished in six
years, A.H. 1060, at a cost of ten lakhs of rupees or one hundred
thousand pounds. Money compared to man's labour and subsistence is
still four times more valuable in India than in England; and a
similar building in England would cost at least four hundred thousand
pounds. It is, like all the buildings raised by this Emperor, in the
best taste and style.[19] I was attended by three well-dressed and
modest Hindoos, and a Muhammadan servant of the Emperor. My attention
was so much taken up with the edifice that I did not perceive, till I
was about to return, that the doorkeepers had stopped my three
Hindoos. I found that they had offered to leave their shoes behind,
and submit to anything to be permitted to follow me; but the porters
had, they said, strict orders to admit no worshippers of idols; for
their master was a man of the book, and had, therefore, got a little
of the truth in him, though unhappily not much, since his heart had
not been opened to that of the Koran.
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