symbol of love and adulation that
emerged from grief and heartache
as he laid his beloved to rest. The
story of two lovers, an emperor
and empress, and his wish to pre-
serve her legacy in one of the most
exquisite architectural structures in the world. This is
the story of the Taj Mahal.
Seeing it was a significant moment in time for me.
The trip to India was my first voyage beyond
the shores of the Cape of Good Hope. After
a brief stop over in Dubai, my flight continued
to Mumbai and then to New Delhi. In the wee
hours of the morning, while still dark outside,
I found myself at the railway station waiting to
travel to Agra, where this iconic mausoleum
complex can be found.
Nothing prepares you for the first steps
you take onto the grounds of this magnificent
structure. The grandeur of the lavish gardens
laid before the Taj Mahal was Shah Jahan’s
desire to create “heaven on earth” for his
beloved Mumtaz Mahal. Some stories have
it that he wanted to bring to life “paradise” in
the biblical or qur’anic sense, in other words,
“janaah”, the gardens of heaven.
I wanted to cherish the moment, the sweet antic-
ipation of seeing the Taj Mahal for the very first time.
The Sufi poet Rumi writes: “In your light I learn how to
love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance
inside my chest where no one sees you, but some-
times I do, and that sight becomes this art”. His words
went through my mind as I gazed at the white-marble
mausoleum.
I was awestruck by the sight of the building with
its intricate calligraphy and inlaid flowers made of
precious and semi- precious gemstones, and its mag-
nificent gardens. The words echoed: “You dance
inside my chest where no one sees you, but some-
times I do, and that sight becomes this art”.
The love language of the Taj Mahal is not evident
in the photographs you’ll see in tourist brochures
or on the inter net, but rather in the intricacies and
remark able craftsmanship, which can only be fully
Cariema Isaacs loves Islamic architecture and art, the kind of art that has depth and
soul, and can only be translated into words by poets like Rumi, Kahlil Gibran and Kabir.
THE LOVE LANGUAGE
OF THE TAJ MAHAL
A
PORTRAITTURHAAN SAMODIENappreciated up close. It is in the intimate expression
of the emperor’s love for his empress hidden in
the details, the beautifully hand-crafted gemstone
flowers, the curve of the blossoms, the delicately
shaped petals – all so astonishingly feminine and opu-
lent, all just for her.
I couldn’t refrain from running my fingers over
the flower inlays, perfectly embedded in the pristine
white marble. Forty-three types of precious and semi-
precious stones, I had been told,
were used in these flowers, creating
a kaleidoscope of colours against
the white marble: sapphire-blue
lapis lazuli from Sri Lanka, mala-
chite in shades of green from
Russia, blueish-green turquoise
from Tibet and emerald-coloured
jade from China, among others.
Skilled artisans created the
images of interwoven vines and
flowers using an inlay technique
called parchin kari: first cutting the
intricate designs into the marble
and then inlaying the stones.
English poet Sir Edwin Arnold
described the Taj Mahal thus: “Not a piece of architec-
ture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of
an emperor’s love wrought in living stones.”
I found an intimate love language in the stones,
one that beckons us all to love with intensity, to grieve
with immense heartache and to pay homage to that
which has moved us deeply: “You dance inside my
chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and
that sight becomes this art.”Cariema Jacobs lives in Dubai. She moved there nine
years ago because of her job, but has decided to make
it home. She says Dubai has a multitude of nationalities
and cultures. “It’s in this kind of inter mingling that I find my
own humanity, a keen sense of compassion and tolerance.
It keeps me grounded.” She works for an oil company as
a planning manager, but is also a chef, cookbook author
and food blogger. Her book Spice Odyssey (Penguin
Random House) is a collection of recipes inspired by her
Cape Malay heritage and her travels.“NOT A PIECE OF
ARCHITECTURE,
AS OTHER
BUILDINGS ARE,
BUT THE PROUD
PASSION OF AN
EMPEROR’S LOVE
WROUGHT IN
LIVING STONES.”visi.co.za JUNE/JULY 2019 42
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