Certain accounts claim that Itimad-ad Daula’s tomb was the first tomb to be made in marble and served as a draft for the Taj Mahal. It marks the transition of Mughal architecture from its intial phase, dominated by sandstone, to the next where marble would become the de rigeur material for building.

The complex was commissioned by Noor Jahan, Emperor Jahangir’s wife, in honour of her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg who was honoured with the title Itimad-ad Daula (or Pillar of the State). The tomb features exquisite workmanship where the jali marble slabs are arranged such that their joints are practically invisible. The pattern consists of a deconstructed octagon, filled in with filigree that lends the principal bands a more delicate dimension. In Islamic architecture, octagons were symbols for the Eight Paradises or hasht bihisht and were therefore used extensively.