ABSTRACT
The palace of Fatehpur Sīkri is a unique Mughal development. It was not designed to form a section of a fort, as were the royal palaces of Āgra, Delhi and Johore. Addi tionally, it is the only major palace that dates entirely from the reign of one Mughal emperor; none of Akbar's successors (except Jahāngīr for a brief period) occupied it. Although most architecture surviving from Akbar's period is distin guished by the abundant use of Hindu features, the basic layout of the palace follows the Islamic preference for a series of separate pavilions rather than great ranges of buildings divided into separate rooms. As was usual in India, the palace is subdivided into a small public area, a mardana (male quarters), and a zenana (female quarters); the zenana occu pies two-thirds of the palace's total area.
