Mosque of Kartalab Khan

It was built at a time when Sultani era was at its end and Mughal era had just set in. According to the inscription found in the mosque, it was built by Nawab Mirza Murad Khan, son of Jawahar Ali Khan Kakshal, in 1582 AD (989 Hijri).

The end of the 16th century AD is regarded as a tumultuous period in the history of Bengal due to anti-Mughal resistance spearheaded by the Bara Bhuiyans. During this era, the region, mentioned as ‘Sherpur Morcha’ in Ain-i Akbari by abul fazal, was the stronghold of the Kakshal rebels. They expressed solidarity with the bara bhuiyans of Bengal and the Afghan leader Masum Khan Kabuli. In fact Khherua mosque came into being to serve the community. As it was built while a political crisis was going on, a degree of negligence is evident in the construction and ornamentation of the mosque.

The rectangular mosque is 17.34 meters long from north to south while 7.5 meters wide from west to east. Its dimension from inside is 13.72 meters long and 3.8 meters wide. The walls are about 1.83 meters thick. The mosque has three entrances on the east, of which the central one is bigger than the two on its sides. Also, there is an entry on each side on the north and the south. Inside the mosque, on the west wall, there are three half-cylindrical concave mihrabs within a rectangular frame. The one in the middle is bigger than the other two and all three are devoid of any ornamentation.

Kherua mosque has three domes in a row, which look like three bowls of same size placed upside down. There is no motif or ornamentation on the domes. The construction looks similar to that of Sultani era. The two sides of the cornice are slightly curved taking after the traditional hut of Bengal. This type of roof treatment is seen in most of the 15th century architectural works. In the front walls some paneling work was done. There was some ornamentation with terracotta tiles, which are no longer there now. There were two inscriptions engraved on the two sides of the central entrance. One inscription is still there while the other is being preserved in the Karachi Museum. From the shape of the stone used for the inscription, it is assumed that the piece was the part of a statue; and the inscription was inscribed on the backside of the statue and placed on the wall. Kherua Mosque demands a great importance as an example of early mughal mosques in Bengal.

Korapur Mia Bari Mosque (কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদ) is an old mosque from the Barisal district (বরিশাল জেলা). The mosque is located at the Mia Bari (মিয়া বাড়ি) of that area. It is believed that the mosque was built during 18th century. They have painted the mosque recently, and also doing some sort of restoration now. And thus it lost its antiquity entirely.

This mosque is built over a high plinth. Or, may be its better to call it a high basement instead of a plinth. Inside the basement it has several rooms at ground floor. These days it is being used as a resident for the student of nearby Madrasa (মাদ্রাসা). There is a wide stair available to reach at the mosque that is at the second floor.

It is a rectangular shaped mosque having three small sized domes at the top where the middle one is slightly larger than the other twos. The mosque has total eight minarets with four at front and four at the back side walls. Apart from these, there are several small minarets available in between. All the minarets and the upper portion of the mosque is highly decorated. At the eastern side of the mosque it has a very large water pond.

বরিশাল সদরের উত্তর কড়াপুর গ্রামে এই মসজিদটি অবস্থিত। বরিশাল জেলায় অবস্থিত একটি প্রাচীন মসজিদ হলো কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদ। মনে করা হয়ে থাকে ১৮শ শতকে এই মসজিদটি নির্মাণ করা হয়। সাম্প্রতিককালে কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদটি রঙ করা হয়েছে এবং বর্তমানে এটির মেরামত কার্যক্রম অব্যাহত আছে। এ কারনে এই মসজিদটির প্রাচীন বৈশিষ্ট্যগুলো পুরোপুরি বিলীন হয়ে গিয়েছে।

উঁচু বেসম্যাণ্টের উপর এই কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদটি নির্মাণ করা হয়েছে। নীচতলায় বেসম্যাণ্টের অভ্যন্তরে কয়েকটি কক্ষ রয়েছে যেগুলো মসজিদের নিকটে অবস্থিত মাদ্রাসার ছাত্রদের থাকার কাজে ব্যবহার করা হচ্ছে। মসজিদে প্রবেশ করার জন্য দোতলায় একটি প্রশস্ত সিঁড়ি রয়েছে।

আয়াতক্ষেত্রাকার এই মসজিদটির উপরিভাগে তিনটি ছোট আকারের গম্বুজ রয়েছে যেগুলোর মধ্যে মাঝখানের গম্বুজটি অন্য দুটি গম্বুজের চেয়ে আকারে কিছুটা বড়। কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদের সামনের দেয়ালে চারটি মিনার এবং পেছনের দেয়ালে চারটি মিনার সমেত মোট আটটি মিনার রয়েছে। এছাড়া সামনের এবং পেছনের দেয়ালের মধ্যবর্তী স্থানে কয়েকটি ছোট মিনার রয়েছে। মসজিদের উপরিভাগ এবং সবগুলো মিনারে ব্যাপকভাবে কারুকাজ করা হয়েছে। কড়াপুর মিয়াবাড়ি মসজিদের পূর্বদিকে একটি বিশালাকারের পুকুর রয়েছে।

Mahajampur was an ancient Muslim ruled region. This region is situated few miles north to Sonargaon town area. There is a Mosque found here, named Mahajampur Ahamad Shah Mosque, which was built around in 16^th C.E. The style of bricks engraving and placement of dome charms the visitors. There are so many Scholars who had described the location and beauty of this mosque at different time in various writing. Among them, ‘Parvin Hasan & A.K.M. Zakaria’ described its beauty in their writing.

Many ancient evidences of human settlement has been found along with this Mosque & Mazar structure. Archaeologist found a big quantity of ancient bricks wherever they conducted excavation in that region. Two inscriptions being discovered from this Mosque. From one of those inscriptions we came to know about Sultan Shams Uddin Ahmad Shah (1432-1436 AD), which make it named after by his name. But, it has been said that someone named Firoz khan built that Mosque.

This is a six domed Mosque, which is built following the stylistic beauty of Baba Adam Shahid Mosque. Domes over the roof are bearing the evidences of Sultani Architecture of Bengal. It contains various design and decorations which is certainly something needs to be observed meticulously.

Tengor Shahi Jame Mosque is a single-domed square shaped mosque and built entirely of brick.Through the analysis of An Arabic inscription, originally fixed over the central archway of eastern wall, can now be found fixed to an enclosure wall of a nearby newly built mosque, locally known as Pashchimpada masjid (mosque). According to the inscription, the Rikabi Bazar Mosque was built by one Malik Abdullah Miah, son of Amin Khan Fakir Miah, in 1569 AD during the reign of Sultan sulaiman karrani.

The walls of this mosque are about 2.13m thick.There were four corner-towers in the four exterior angles of the building, but these were removed at the time of renovation work. The mosque has five arched-doorways, three in the east and one each on the north and south sides. The north and south doors are now used as windows. All the arches are of the two-centered pointed variety. The central archway in the east is bigger than the flanking ones. Corresponding to the three eastern archways there are three renovated semi-circular mihrabs inside the qibla wall that are set within rectangular frames. Like the central doorway, the central mihrab is bigger than its flanking counterparts. The north and south walls have two alcoves on either side of the archway. The square prayer hall of the mosque is covered with a large brick shouldered dome, which rests on the four blocked arches over the central mihrab and the three axial doorways springing from the brick pilasters, two inside each wall, in combination with Bengali pendentives and half-domed squinches on the upper angles.

Architectural Features: Architectural features of this mosque include massive walls, a large dome, two-centered pointed archways and a dome supported by blocked arches springing from brick pilanters in combination with pendentive and half-domed squinches. These are very feature similar to the Goaldi Mosque in sonargaon and baba saleh’s mosque in Bandar, both in narayanganj district

An octagonal drum can be seen externally in the lower part of the dome. The parapets and the inner side of the dome is decorated with rows of blind merlons, and each rectangular frame of the three mihrabs is crowned by a frieze of blind merlons. These are not original ornamentations. The outer walls of the mosque were once ornamented with terracotta plaques, but now these are all missing. The mosque is at present covered with cement plaster.