Jama Mosque of Delhi, is one of the largest mosques in India. The mosque has two names. The older one, bestowed by Shah Jahan, is ‘Masjid-i-Jehān-Numā’, roughly translating to “mosque commanding the view of the world” in Persian and Urdu. The other more common one is ‘Jāmā Masjid’, which emerged among the common populace.  Its literal translation in Arabic is “congregational mosque“. It is used in the sense of ‘Friday mosque’ (Juma Masjid), since this is when the congregational prayer is held. The term ‘Jama Masjid’ is not unique to Delhi’s mosque; since the 7th century, it has been used in the Islamic world to denote the community mosque, and hence many around the world bear this name and its variants.

The mosque predominantly uses red sandstone, and is set apart from its predecessors by a more extensive usage of white marble. Black marble also features as a decorative element. Arabic and Persian calligraphic pieces are found on various surfaces of the structure, whose content ranges from religious to panegyric.

Having been built on a hill, the mosque is situated on a plinth elevated 10 metres above the surrounding city. The complex is oriented to the west, towards Mecca. An imperial college, imperial dispensary, and madrasa used to lie adjacent to the structure, but were destroyed in the uprisings of 1857.

The mosque’s domes are flanked by two sandstone minarets, at the northeast and southeast corners. They are 40 metres high and longitudinally striped with white marble. Each minaret consists of 130 steps, along which viewing galleries occur at three places. Both minarets are topped with a marble chhatri.

The mosque and Red Fort were planned to be a larger planned city named Shahjahanbad. The mosque is considered as the best among all mosques built during the Mughal Empire as it has the best mixture of marble and limestone. The mosque has three great gates, four towers and two 40-metre tall minarets constructed of strips of red sandstone and smooth white marble. The northern gate has 39 steps and the southern side has 33 steps. The eastern gate was the royal entrance and has 35 steps. Out of all these gateways, the eastern one, which was used by the emperors, remains closed during weekdays. The mosque is built on a red sandstone porch, which is about 30 feet (9.1 m) from ground level and spreads over 1200 square metres. The dome is flanked by two lofty minarets which are 130 feet (40 m) high and consists of 130 steps, longitudinally striped with marble and red sandstone. The minarets consist of five storeys, each with a protruding balcony. The adjoining edifices are filled with calligraphy. The first three storeys of the minarets are made of red sandstone, the fourth of marble and the fifth of sandstone.

The courtyard can accommodate 25,000 worshippers and occupies 408 square feet. The mosque is about 261 feet (80 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) wide. The prayer hall measures 61 metres in length and 27.5 metres in breadth.[15] It is made up of high cusped arches and marble domes. The cabinet located in the north gate has a collection of relics of Muhammad – the Quran written on deerskin, a red beard-hair of the prophet, his sandals and his footprints embedded in a marble block.

The floor plan of the mosque is similar to that of the Jama Masjid of Agra. It is covered with white and black ornamented marble to look like a Muslim prayer mat. Beside it, a thin black border measuring 3 feet (0.91 m) long and 1.5 feet (0.46 m) wide is marked for the Muslim worshippers. There are 899 total such boxes. The architecture and plan of Badshahi Masjid, which was built by Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb in Lahore, is closely related to that of the mosque. Before the Revolt of 1857 there was a madrasa near the southern end of the mosque, which was destroyed during the revolt.