Mazar-e-Quaid History: Building Jinnah's Mausoleum

The history of Mazar-e-Quaid begins with Muhammad Ali Jinnah's burial in Karachi on 12 September 1948 and ends, as a building, in January 1971, when the finished mausoleum opened to the public. In between came a public memorial fund, three rejected international designs, a choice made at Fatima Jinnah's insistence, and ten years of construction. The white marble tomb was designed by Yahya C. Merchant, a Bombay architect who had known Jinnah personally, and it cost Rs 14.8 million to build.

This guide follows that story in order: the first grave, the fund, the design contest, the construction, what the crypt and chandelier are, and the five other national figures buried in the complex. For opening hours and current access, see our separate Mazar-e-Quaid timings guide.

The figures in this guide come mainly from the management board's own account of the building on the QMMB website, checked against other published histories. Where sources disagree, we say so.

Where was Jinnah first buried?

Jinnah died at his home in Karachi at 10:20 pm on 11 September 1948. He was buried the next day, after funeral prayers led by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, with crowds usually put at around a million people. The grave was dug on open ground in the city, and that ground is where the mausoleum stands today. The building was raised around the grave, not the other way round.

For its first years the grave was simple. Contemporary descriptions record a large white marble slab on a raised plinth reached by marble steps. By 1952 a small domed structure had been put over it, with a cabinet of some of his personal belongings against a wall near the grave. The site was not well kept in those years, and the gap between this modest shelter and the stature of the man buried in it became a public complaint, which pushed the project forward.

Who paid for the mausoleum?

The building was paid for largely by the public. After Jinnah's death a Quaid-i-Azam Memorial Fund was set up, and Governor General Khawaja Nazimuddin appealed for donations. By 31 December 1973, according to the management board, the fund had collected Rs 26.036 million.

The fund was not meant only for a tomb. Four memorial projects were proposed at first:

• a mausoleum in Karachi
• a Jamia Masjid in Karachi
• a Dar-ul-Uloom in Multan
• a National Institute of Technology in East Pakistan

At a committee meeting on 21 January 1956 the members decided that, because there was not enough money for everything, the mausoleum would come first.

Which designs were rejected?

The design took longer than the building. Over several years the memorial committee looked at proposals from three architects, and turned all of them down:

1. A. Vasfi Egeli, a Turkish architect. Wikipedia's account says his proposal was rejected as too elaborate.
2. Nawab Zain Yar Jang, an Indian architect. His design did not win enough agreement in the committee.
3. Raglan Squire, the British firm that won the international competition. The design is credited to William Whitfield of Raglan Squire and Partners, and it was strikingly modern: a raised platform with a central parabolic form and pointed corners reaching upwards.

Sources date the contest differently. The management board says the international tender was issued in 1958; Wikipedia dates the competition to 1957 and the earlier Turkish and Indian proposals to 1955 and 1954. What is not in doubt is the result. Fatima Jinnah, the Quaid's sister, was unhappy with the winning modernist scheme and pressed for a different architect.

Who designed Mazar-e-Quaid?

In December 1959 the committee, in the board's words "on the express wish of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah", approved a design by Yahya C. Merchant. Merchant was an architect based in Bombay and a personal friend of Jinnah.

His design is often described as a traditional monument built in a modernist period. Instead of the parabolic shell, he proposed a square block clad in white marble, with tall curved arches on each face and copper grilles, set on a raised platform with a dome above. It recalls the domed tombs of the Muslim world without copying any single one of them, and its simplicity is what makes it read so clearly from the far end of the gardens.

How long did it take to build?

About ten years, in clear stages. The board's record gives the dates:

1. Work on site began on 8 February 1960.
2. President General Ayub Khan laid the foundation stone on 31 July 1960.
3. Piling started on 7 March 1961.
4. The basement, which holds the actual grave, was built between 7 May 1961 and 10 March 1962.
5. The upper structure rose between 1 August 1962 and 31 May 1966.
6. Marble cladding began on 6 August 1966.
7. The work was completed on 2 June 1970.

The mausoleum was inaugurated and opened to the public by President Yahya Khan in January 1971. The board gives the date as 15 January; Wikipedia gives 18 January. Total construction spending was Rs 14.8 million.

The board also lists what went into it: 6,000 tons of cement, 21,200 cubic feet of marble, 500 tons of steel and 12 tons of copper.

What is the building made of?

According to the board's description:

• The main building measures 116 feet by 116 feet at the plinth. (Wikipedia gives a larger footprint of 75 by 75 metres and a height of 43 metres, which probably counts the platform; we use the board's figure for the building itself.)
• The walls are clad in white Mullaghori marble.
• The dome is 70 feet and made of reinforced cement concrete.
• The main chamber is octagonal inside, 22 feet wide and 36 feet high.

The platform it stands on is approached by a long axis of lawns and a row of fountains, so most people's first view is head on, across water. At night the building is floodlit and visible from the roads around it.

Is Jinnah's grave in the main chamber?

No. The marble tomb you see in the main chamber is a replica. Jinnah's actual grave is in the basement directly below, the crypt that was the first part of the structure to be built. In the chamber, the replica is enclosed by a bronze and silver fence, and four staircases at the corners lead down to the basement.

Hanging from the dome is the chandelier that most visitors remember. It was a gift from the Muslim Association of the People's Republic of China. The board describes it as covered in gold leaf, with 48 shaded lights in four tiers and a total length of 81 feet.

We could not confirm whether ordinary visitors are currently allowed down to the crypt, so do not count on it. Ask the guards when you visit.

Who else is buried in the Mazar-e-Quaid complex?

Five other national figures are buried in the complex, in what the board calls the Quaideen Grave Hall on the eastern side of the mausoleum. Their graves are clad in the same Malagori marble as the Quaid's.

Three of these burials came before the mausoleum was built. Liaquat Ali Khan was laid to rest beside Jinnah in 1951, Nishtar in 1958 and Fatima Jinnah in 1967, so the building that rose in the 1960s was in effect raised over a small national graveyard that already existed. We cover two of these graves in more detail in our guides to Liaquat Ali Khan's tomb and Fatima Jinnah's grave.

What happened after 1971?

The management body itself was reorganised after the building opened. The Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Protection and Maintenance Ordinance of 1971 led to the board being reconstituted as the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board on 3 April 1972. It looks after the building, the gardens, the guard ceremonies and the relic collection.

Two major additions followed:

• Aiwan-e-Nawadrat-e-Quaid-i-Azam, the museum of Jinnah's personal belongings, on the western side.
• Bagh-e-Quaid-i-Azam, the formal terraced gardens, completed in December 2000. The board says 131.71 acres were earmarked for the project in total: about 61 acres of gardens around the mausoleum, and some 70 acres held for future use.

More recently the board added an audio-visual hall of about 5,800 square feet with 169 seats, used to show documentaries on Jinnah's life.

Is it worth visiting for the history?

Yes, if you go with the history in mind. Stand at the far end of the fountains and the logic of Merchant's design is clear: one square, white, domed block that you can recognise from half a kilometre away, at the centre of a garden built for crowds on national days. Then look at the eastern hall and you see the early state in one row: its first prime minister, a founding minister, its most famous woman politician of the 1960s, a Bengali leader who stayed with Pakistan in 1971, and a governor.

It suits school groups, families with older children and anyone interested in architecture or the Pakistan Movement. It is less rewarding if you come only for a photograph and leave; the story is in the details. Be aware that public access has been restricted in recent years, so check our timings guide before you go. On national days, the formal change of guard ceremony adds another layer to a visit.

To see the rest of Jinnah's Karachi in the same trip, add Wazir Mansion, where he was born, and the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum, where he lived from 1944. Our experiences page has more ideas for heritage-led trips.

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