Shahbaz Khan Mosque is a historic mosque located in
Dhaka,
Bangladesh. Located near
Mir Jumla’s Gate, this mosque serves as an example of late
Mughal architecture in
Bengal, known as the
Shaista Khan architectural style.
History
The
mosque and the adjacent
shrine were built in 1679 AD by Hazi Khwaja Shahbaz Khan, an affluent merchant from Dhaka, who was buried in the shrine after his death.
Architecture
The mosque is rectangular and divided into three equal interior sections, each of which is roofed over by an
onion dome. The eastern
façade of the mosque has three arched openings, and the northern and southern façades have single-arched openings leading to the prayer hall. The prayer hall houses three semi-octagonal
mihrab
Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...
s, each aligned with one opening through the eastern façade. The central mihrab is larger and highly ornamented with Cyprus-filled kanjuras (decorative
merlons), ornate
arabesque plastic relief on the
spandrels, a cusped arch, and engaged
colonette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ce ...
s standing on bulbous floral bases. At the four corners, there are four ribbed, octagonal
turrets
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* M ...
, capped with plastered
cupolas.
In 1950, the Eastern circle of the Pakistan Directorate of Archaeology (DOA) took over the mosque for restoration.
Gallery
Image:Shahbaz Khan Mosque.jpg, Dargah (shrine) of Shahbaz Khan
Image:Shahbaz_Khan_Mosque_20.jpg, alt=, center, This is a picture of the Shahbaz Khan Mosque taken on September 26, 2016
Image:Shahbaz_Khan_Mosque_13.jpg, alt=, center, Shahbaz Khan Mosque September 26, 2016
See also
*
List of archaeological sites in Bangladesh
References
Further reading
* The Islamic Heritage of Bengal, UNESCO,
* Mahbubur Rahman "City of an architect ’, Delivistaa Foundation, , 2011
* Mahfuzal Haque and Zahirul Haque 2006. "Tourist Attractions of Bangladesh", External Publicity Wing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Bangladesh
*“Khwaja Shahbaz Tomb.” ''Archnet'', archnet.org/sites/15897.
{{Mosques in Bangladesh
Mosques in Dhaka
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1679