The Pearl Mosque, located inside the Red Fort, was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. By 1658, Aurangzeb had killed his brothers, Dara Shikoh and Moorad and had imprisoned his father, Emperor Shahjahan. It is believed that Aurangzeb built a private mosque to pray and atone for his cruelty towards his brothers and his father (who used to pray at the Jama Masjid outside the Red Fort). The Pearl Mosque has a white marble dome that looks like a large pearl. It is ornate, especially in the mihrab (prayer niches). It has the typical symmetrical design that defines Mughal architecture and unusually, a line of domed kiosks that many feel is inspired from Hindu architecture. The mosque has twenty-one bays of which three have vaulted soffits. The marble tank is in the centre court with a sundial mounted on an octagonal marble pillar. The western wall has an inlaid mihrab that is beautifully carved with six niches corresponding to the arches. The main eastern entrance that is accessed through a staircase has a small door with decorated copper plates. The exterior wall aligns with the Red Fort and the interior wall faces the Mecca. It took five years to build and was completed in 1663.
During the Indian mutiny of 1857, the entire Red Fort was looted by the British whose Prize agents appointed to collect the loot, stripped down the gilded domes and auctioned them. When the domes started to deteriorate due to their defilement, the English replaced them with marble domes.
TRIAL AT THE RED FORT: Between November 1945 and May 1946, the Red Fort became the venue for a court-martial. Three Indian Commissioned Officers were accused of treason - waging war against the British King- while serving the British-Indian Army. They had deserted the British-Indian Army to join the Indian National Army (INA), where they became senior battlefield commanders and fought in Burma alongside the Japanese military. The lead defense counsel argued, “What is now on trial before the court is the right to wage war with immunity on the part of a subject race for their liberation.” The INA, he said, was constituted as an army and a state under international law and this authorized INA to conduct military operations and the Provisional Government to engage in administration and diplomacy. Therefore, contended Desai, they were “independent agents, free of any Japanese control and entitled to be regarded as an army and a State in international law which conducted its warfare, and its governmental and diplomatic activities fully in accordance with international law and state practice.” All three defendants were found guilty of waging war against then-British King George VI. This caused an uproar in India and the then British-Indian Army’s Commander-in-Chief, Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinlec intervened and suspended all sentences.