(lute). Ismail Adil Shah had high admiration for Central Asian music. Music received greater encouragement under Ibrahim Adil Shah II. He was the greatest musician of his age. He was poet and singer and maintained an inordinately a large number of musicians and minstrels (three or four thousand) at his court. The band of musicians was known as Lashkar-e-Nauras (army of Nauras) they were paid by the government regularly. At Nauraspur he constructed Sangeet Mahal and residential mansions for songsters, minstrels and dancing girls. With great pomp the festival of Nauras (musical concert) was celebrated during his time. In a number of paintings Ibrahim Adil Shah II was depicted playing musical instruments like ‘'Tambur'’, ‘'Sitar'’, ‘'Veena'’ and ‘'Guitar'’. Emperor Jahangir, and Mirza Asad Baig the Mughal envoy considerably praised Ibrahim Adil Shah II's love for music. Mirza Asad Baig writes in his ‘'Wakiyat'’ that he was invited to the royal palace to bid farewell to Ibrahim Adil Shah II Art and architecture The Adil Shahi Sultans had concentrated their energies almost exclusively on architecture and the allied arts, each Sultan endeavouring to excel his predecessor in the number, size, or splendor of his building projects. The architecture of Bijapur is a combination of Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Deccani styles. It is amazing to note mat in Ibrahim Rouzah, Dilkusha Mahal (Mahatar Mahal), Malikah-e-Jahan Mosque, Jal Mahal, etc. the Bijapur sculptors have carved beautiful designs in stones, as the carpenters do in wood. The stucco plaster designing in some monuments is superb. Adil Shahi arts and heritage The contribution of the Adil Shahi kings to the architecture, painting, language, literature and music of Karnataka is unique. Bijapur (Kannada form of the Sanskrit Vidyapur or Vidyanagari) became a cosmopolitan city, and it attracted many scholars, artists, musicians, and Sufi saints from Turkey, Persia (Iran) Iraq, Turkey, Turkestan, etc. The unfinished Jami Masjid, started in 1565, has an arcaded prayer hall with fine aisles supported on massive piers has an impressive dome. The Ibrahim Rouza which contains the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah II, is a fine structure with delicate carvings. Persian artists of Adil Shahi court have left a rare treasure of miniature paintings, some of which are well-preserved in Europe's great museums. The Dakhani language, an amalgam of Persian-Arabic, Urdu, Marathi, and Kannada, developed into an independent spoken and literary language. Under the Adil Shahis many literary works were published in