The Karapur Miah Bari Mosque ( bn, কড়াপুর মিঞা বাড়ি মসজিদ, ar, ) is a three domed ancient mosque and archaeological site located in the

Barisal District Barisal District, officially spelled Barishal District from April 2018, is a district in south-central Bangladesh, formerly called Bakerganj district, established in 1797. Its headquarters are in the city of Barisal, which is also the headqua ...

of Bangladesh. It is located in Miah Bari, in the village of North Karapur in Raipasha-Karapur Union, Barisal Sadar Upazila.

History

According to local tradition, this Mughal architecture style mosque was built by

Hayat Mahmud Hayat Mahmud ( bn, হায়াত মাহমুদ) was a late 18th-century Bengali Muslim commander who later became the feudal lord of Buzurg-Umedpur in Barisal. He is best known as a freedom fighter against the British East India Company, ...

, the

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

of Buzurg-Umedpur Pargana, in the 18th century. Mahmud was rebellious to the British government and exiled to

Penang Island Penang Island ( ms, Pulau Pinang; zh, 檳榔嶼; ta, பினாங்கு தீவு) is part of the state of Penang, on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was named Prince of Wales Island when it was occupied by the British Ea ...

(formerly Prince of Wales island) in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. His family was stripped of Umedpur's zamindarship. It was after Hayat's return to Bengal, sixteen years later, in which he built the Miah Bari Mosque taking inspiration from the Kartalab Khan Mosque in

Old Dhaka Old Dhaka ( bn, পুরান ঢাকা, Puran Dhaka) is a term used to refer to the historic old city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was founded in 1608 as Jahangirabad or Jahangirnagar ( bn, জাহাঙ্গীরনগ� ...

. However, some believe the mosque was built by his son, Mahmud Zahid. The mosque is now under the protection of Department of Archaeology.

Architecture

It is a two-storied, typical Bengali Mughal type style mosque with 6 doors on the ground floor and 3 on the top floor. The space under the platform is currently used for madrasa. A 3.02m wide flight stairs lead to the platform where the rectangle shaped prayer hall is placed on the western side, it measures 13.49m by 6.1m while internally it has an oblong plan of 11.2m x 3.9m with a 1.05m thick surrounding plastered brick wall. The whole length of the rectangular hall is divided into three unequal bays using two arches emerging from the east and west walls. The square central bay is transformed into an octagonal area by using brick pendentives. three small sized, fluted, bulbous domes are placed on the octagonal corners, here the central dome is larger than the other 2. The domes have an octagonal shoulder and are crowned with elongated finials. The eastern facade of the prayer hall has 3 openings, each of the openings are bounded by a slender engaged turret and the openings have a cusped arch on the outside surface. The mosque has three domes and eight big minarets, four on the front wall and four on the back wall. In addition, there are 12 smaller minarets in the space between the front and back walls. The upper part of the North, South & West walls’ outer wall surfaces is profusely ornamented in plaster. The floral relief has white surface coating and the recessed surface is painted in blue. The four corner turrets, one at each corner and two additional turrets on the front and back facades are octagonal in shape which extend high above the roof level with their plastered blind kiosk divided by three eaves and ended in a small cupola having an amla kalasha typed finial.

References

{{coord missing, Bangladesh Mosques in Bangladesh 18th-century establishments in British India Archaeological sites in Barisal district Architecture in Bangladesh

History

Architecture

See also

References