"When the city was founded in 1411, Ahmad Shah I initiated the construction of four buildings, which would define the ‘royal domain’ of the new city. At first, he built the Bhadra Fort in the centre of what would become the walled city. The Bhadra Fort was the residence of the ruler, as well as, the place from which he ruled the city. Only a small portion of the original rectangular fort remains now, while other elements were added to it in course of time, including a Mughal addition and a British built clock tower. The second major monument that was constructed in parallel with the Fort is the personal mosque of the Shah, which was completed in 1414. The mosque has all the distinctive features of the early Gujarati Sultanate style. It represents a merger of Islamic concepts of space and Hindu construction and stone-carving techniques. Not only were Hindu artisans used to construct_the building, many of the stone elements in the mosque were recycled from an earlier local Hindu temple. The interior of the mosque thus feels very much like a temple—tightly pillared hall, carved stone motifs, and abstracts from local practices such as flower garlands and blooming lotuses. The hall faces an open courtyard, allowing an overflow of worshippers and a natural space for the composition of the front facade to be admired from. The front facade consists of a series of arched openings, with two minarets on either sides of the central arched doorway. Unfortunately, these minarets fell during one of the many earthquakes that hit the city along the years. The construction of Jama Masjid was started in 1411 but took ten years to complete. Till that time, the much smaller Ahmed Shah Masjid was used for Friday prayers. Nonetheless, when the Jama Masjid was finally completed in 1424, it was the largest mosque on the Indian subcontinent— a testimony to the ambitions of its ruler."