Goaldi Mosque
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The Goaldi Mosque is a mosque in the historic Bengali capital of
Sonargaon Sonargaon ( bn, সোনারগাঁও; pronounced as ''Show-naar-gaa''; lit. ''Golden Hamlet'') is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division. Sonargaon is one ...
. It was built during the
Bengal Sultanate The Sultanate of Bengal ( Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা ''Shahī Baṅgala'', Classical Persian: ''Saltanat-e-Bangālah'') was an empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the dominan ...
under the reign of Sultan
Alauddin Hussain Shah Ala-ud-din Husain Shah ( bn, আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ (1494–1519)Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2006). ''The Delhi Sultanate'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, pp.215-20 was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who ...
. It is one of the few surviving medieval monuments in
Sonargaon Upazila Sonargaon ( bn, সোনারগাঁও) is an upazila of Narayanganj District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Demographics As of the 1991 Bangladesh census, Sonargaon has a population of 261,881 in 44,405 households. Males constitute 5 ...
, Bangladesh.


History

The mosque was established in 1519. It was built by Mulla Hizabar Akbar Khan during the reign of Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah of Bengal at a place called Goaldi - half a mile northeast of Panam village in Sonargaon. Sonargaon was a Mint Town of the Bengal Sultanate and often served as a royal capital. The Sultans often launched raids into
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
and
Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...
from Sonargaon. The town was the principal administrative center of eastern
Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, particularly the
Bhati Bhati is a clan of Rajputs History The Bhatis reportedly originated in Mathura through a common ancestor named Bhati, who was a descendant of Pradyumn. According to the seventeenth-century Nainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathura ...
region. The area falls under present-day
Narayanganj District Narayanganj District ( bn, নারায়ণগঞ্জ, Narayoṇgonj) is a district in central Bangladesh which is a part of the Dhaka Division. It is home to the ancient city of Sonargaon and is one of the oldest industrial districts in the ...
,
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. The mosque is of the more elegant and ornate sultanate-era mosques in the country.


Architectural features

The Goaldi mosque is a good example of the 'enclosed square type' mosque of Bengal that is distinguished by a cubical prayer chamber with corner towers and entrances on all sides except the qibla wall. A single dome caps the mosque; engaged ribbed turrets define the four corners; and the cornice is gently sloped. Circular corner towers are a deviation from the usual octagonal corner towers. This is the only example of circular corner towers in the Dhaka district. Accentuating the cornice is a row of small niches with floral motifs inside. The east facade has three arched openings, embellished on either sides with rectangular panels of delicate relief work in the form of a niche with an ornamental hanging lamp motif. The north and south facades similarly display three arches, though only the center arch is open while the two side arches are blind. The cubical prayer chamber measures 7.57 m and the walls are 2 m thick. The dome is carried on squinches that spring from the tops of stone pilasters, two on each wall. The qibla wall has three mihrabs. The use of black basalt for the central
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 ...
was a common practice during the sixteenth century. It is decorated with beautiful, intricate patterns composed of an ornamental hanging lamp motif. The two flanking mihrabs are decorated in similar fashion but instead of black basalt they are made of brick and fine terra cotta work. Lotus motifs are found carved in the spandrels and are closely related to the lotuses held by the Hindu god, Surya.


Present condition

The condition of mosque had deteriorated: with the exception of the qibla wall the entire mosque had collapsed, including the dome. Careful restoration was executed by the Department of Archaeology and Museums and this small graceful mosque is now restored to resemble its original design.


References

* Ahmed, Nazimuddin. 1984. Discover the monuments of Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press Limited, 155, 156. * Asher, Catherine B. 1984. Inventory of Key Monuments. Art and Archaeology Research Papers: The Islamic Heritage of Bengal. Paris: UNESCO, 133. * Hasan, Syed Mahmudul. 1984. Classification of Mosques According to Ground Plan. Art and Archaeology Research Papers: The Islamic Heritage of Bengal. Paris: UNESCO, 141, 144. * Hasan, Perween. 1984. Eight Sultanate Mosques in Dhaka District. Art and Archaeology Research Papers: The Islamic Heritage of Bengal. Paris: UNESCO, 186. * Munshi Rahman Ali Tayesh with translation by Dr. A.M.M Sharfuddin. Tawarikh-e-Dhaka.


External links

* http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bangladesh/dhaka-division/sonargaon/sights/religious/goaldi-mosque-3-1431675 * https://web.archive.org/web/20130225164604/http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=7184 ''Images'' * https://web.archive.org/web/20080930184605/http://www.kaladarshana.com/sites/dhaka/IMG00063.html * http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/11/10/heritage.htm {{Mosques in Bangladesh Mosques completed in 1519 Bengal Sultanate mosques Mosques in Dhaka