Turkman Gate

This is one of the four surviving gates of the Shahjahanabad city wall. The road south once left through here. Its name, however, is far older than Shah Jahan's city.

1The saint of the wilderness

Turkman recalls Shah Turkman Bayabani, a Sufi who died around 1240. His nickname, Bayabani, means "of the wilderness" or "of the empty places". When he lived, four centuries before Old Delhi, this was open country far from the city of the sultans, which lay further south. His tomb ended up inside the lanes of the Mughal city and still draws devotees.

There's even a small mystery: some local historians argue that the tomb many people point to beside the gate isn't the saint's at all, and that the real one lies deeper in, in the neighbourhood called Mohalla Qabristan, "the graveyard quarter".

2The sultana and the saint

Tradition links the saint with Razia, the only woman to rule Delhi as sultan. She is said to have been his disciple and to have been buried near him for that reason. No document proves it, but it explains why her tomb, which we'll see shortly, is just a few steps away.

In Delhi the saints arrived before the walls, and the walls took their names.

The gate also carries a recent memory. In April 1976, during the Emergency, a campaign of demolitions and sterilisations sparked protests here that the police put down, leaving several dead.

3What to look for

• The pointed arch, typical of Shah Jahan's wall.
• The side bastions.
• The lanes that begin behind it.