Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri

This article is the result of a collaboration between Renee and Raj Isar, drawing on th work of architect Satish Davar. Their aim in writing it was to honour the memory of Shaikh Salim Chishti and to draw the attention of the West to the deterioration of this once fine city. Sadaly, both Renee Isar and Satish Davar died during its writing. We publish the work as a tribute to their memory and the campaign of the authors on behalf of Fatehpur Sikri

'Agra and Fatehpore are two very great cities, either of them much greater than London and very populous. Between Agra and Fatehpore and all the way is a market of victuals and other things as full as though a man were still in a town and so many people as if a man were in a market.'
Ralph Fitch, English merchant who visited India in 1583-86, with letters from Queen Elizabeth I for the Emperor Akbar