Satoir Mosque

Walipur Alamgiri Mosque is situated in Walipur village under Hajiganj Upazila of Chandpur district. There are two mosques in the same locality - one known as Shahi Alamgiri Mosque and the other as Shah Shuja Mosque. The Alamgiri mosque has suffered much due to subsequent restoration works. Nevertheless, enough still survives to give an idea of its original plan and design. A Persian inscription in fine nastaliq character, fixed over the central doorway, records the construction of the mosque by one Abdullah in 1692 AD in the reign of Alamgir Aurangzeb.

In the middle of the eastern facade of the oblong mosque (15.24 m by 8.23 m) there is a projected fronton bordered with octagonal turrets through which opens out the main doorway. This has a higher arch with a half-dome within a rectangular frame. There are two more doorways in the eastern facade, one on either side of the central opening, having an outer arch with a half-dome below. Each of the north and south walls is pierced with a pair of arched doorways. The mosque has therefore seven archways in total -three in the east and two on each of the north and south walls. The four exterior angles of the building are strengthened by octagonal towers, which are carried beyond the horizontal parapets and topped over with kalasa finials, but have now been renovated.

Two massive octagonal brick pillars divide the interior of the mosque into five square bays - a large one in the middle (5.87m a side) and two smaller ones on its either side which are arranged in the east-west axis. Archways interconnect the bays; the arches are placed directly on two free standing octagonal pillars and engaged semi-octagonal pillars. It is worth noting that these arches are continued upwards as walls to make the bays above. This special device has given the mosque a two-storied appearance internally. All the five bays are roofed over with domes crowned with lotus and kalasa finials on cylindrical drums. The domes are carried on half-domed squinches on the upper corners and the blocked arches in between the square inches in the middle of the walls.

Octagonal turrets rising high above the horizontal parapets border the outside projection of the central mihrab, like that of the central archway. Inside, there are three mihrabs in the qibla wall. The central mihrab is semi-octagonal in design, but the flanking mihrabs are of the shallow rectangular type.

The original plastering of the building has been replaced by modern cement plaster. The horizontal parapet is now plain. The facade of the central archway projection is marked with shallow rectangular panels, each being further enriched with such motifs as plants and small trees with flowers in stucco. The central mihrab arch springs from beautifully decorated pilasters and has foliaged designs at its spandrels. The rectangular frame of the central mihrab, though now barely plain, is topped over with a frieze of blind merlons. A fine specimen of Mughal stucco ornamentation is still preserved in the squinches and blocked arches in between, which support the domes above. The extrados of the squinch arches and blocked arches are ornamented with interlocking scrolls, while the tympanums of the blocked arches are minutely embellished with floral scrolls with intertwining rosettes in the centers. Above them all round the interior base of the cylindrical drum runs a slightly sunken frieze decorated with floral scrolls.

Five-domed type mosque, one of the important varieties of Bengal mosques, shows two sub-types: (a) a mosque with a large central dome and a pair of small domes on each side in the same line and (b) a mosque with a large central dome and four small domes on the corners. The present mosque is the culminating example of the second variety. Both in planning and in the execution of elevation details of the building, the architect and the artisans have left behind a clear mark of their skills and perfection of ideas. The division of the interior of the mosque into five squares has been very scientifically effected by the disposition of two octagonal short massive freestanding pillars instead of the two east-west wide arches of the previous examples of the series. Mosques on this model were not built in Bengal for a long time, but almost two centuries later the type reappeared in the Becharam Dewri Mosque (1872) in the city of Dhaka. In plan Becharam Dewri Mosque is an exact copy of the Alamgiri Mosque but inferior in quality and elevation details.

Such mosque design in Bengal started with austagram mosque and evolved through the sarail mosque and the Walipur Alamgiri Mosque. The design is really unique. Question may now arise as to the origin of this particular kind of Bengal mosques. In Turkey under the early Ottomans the mosque of Rustam Celebi (c first half of the 15th century) at Tokat provides perhaps the earliest known example of its kind with five domes - the large central one and a small one on four corners. Similar plan is also found in such other Ottoman mosques as the Guzelce Hasan Bey Mosque (1406) in Hayrabolu and the Uc Serefeli Cam (1437-47) at Edirne. These mosques are generally regarded as the precursors of the great Ottoman mosques at Istambul - Bayezid mosque (1501-06), Sulaymaniya Mosque (1550-59), and the beautiful Selimya Mosque (1569-75) at Edirne. The five-roomed or five-domed planning of the Ottoman mosques may perhaps be said to have been dictated by those of some early Muslim buildings of Syria.

In India the Jamat Khana Mosque (1310-16) at Delhi is a lone example of its kind. This mosque design continued to have been practiced in Northern India in an elaborated form in Humayun's Mosque (1530) at Agra, where four small domed-rooms, instead of two, are attached on either side of the large central domed chamber. It may, therefore, be said that the plan of the second variety of the five-domed type mosques in Bengal was not innovated by Bengal architects, and its idea is very likely to have been borrowed from the sources stated above, particularly perhaps from those of Turkey or Upper India.

Written by: MA Bari

Belabo Bazar Mosque,a grand mosque constructed with Tk 35 million, was inaugurated on 8th of November 2008. At least 12,000 people can say their prayers at a time at the mosque of 200 feet length and 125 feet width. Renowned industrialist of Narsingdi district Abdul Kadir Mollah carried the whole construction cost of the mosque.

The first founder and land owner of the Moque named 'Alhajj Mahmud Ali Bhuiyan' donated his land for building this Mosque. Who is known as 'Mamdi Bepari'. Later Abdul Kadir Mollah announced his grand donation on a public place in Belabo to build this Mosque as a Mega Structure. Local people feels proud to be the inhabitants of this Upazila. Many people from different direction come to visit this Mosque everyday.

Musa Khan Mosque (মুসা খাঁ মসজিদ) is yet another edifice inside the Dhaka University premise that was built during the Mughal era. Location of the antique mosque is at south of Doyel Chattar, beside the Karzon Hall, opposite of the Dhaka University swimming complex. Exact Google map coordinate is (23°43'36.33"N, 90°24'2.92"E). You can find another mosque (Shahbaz Khan Mosque) near that place contemporary to this one.

Probably this mosque was built by Musa Khan, son of Isha Khan who was a prominent Zamindar from Baro Bhuiyan. It was quite unsure about the original time when it was built. Musa Khan died during 1623, but the structure of the mosque is almost similar to the Khwaja Shahbaz's Mosque and it was built during 1679. So neither the date nor the builder of the mosque is confirmed. Some people believe this one was built by either Shaista Khan or even later by Dewan Manawar Khan.

The mosque has a vault platform, and over this plinth the main architecture of the mosque is planted. It is a small building just like any other mosques during that period. It has three domes over the top. Middle one is the larger than other twos. Both the inside and outside of the mosque is plastered with cement and washed white with lime. There is a grave of Musa Khan is available at the northeast side.

The mosque has gone through several renovations. Also from the first sight it seemed to me, it is currently not under proper care. The authority just placed a signboard beside the mosque and thought their works are done. It is not a good practice to color this building with yellow this year, and next year white(I have seen this mosque in several colors over the last few years), and finally let the color be disappeared. We are not in a position to do experiment on such a precious object.

Bozra Shahi Mosque is an elegant historic mosque. Amanullah built it during the 1741-42 AD and later it was repaired by the Bazra Zamindar named Khan Bahadur Ali Ahmad and Khan Bahadur Mujir Uddin Ahmad. This mosque has similar complexion of the mosques during that era. The main difference is the stylish outer walls. It has three domes at the top; the middle dome is slight larger.

Also it has lot of small minarets at the columns of the mosque. It has three doorways at the eastern side, just under the domes. The mosque had a large water tank at the eastern side, but now it’s just shrinking into one percent of its original size. Southern side of the mosque has a large graveyard.

একটি চমৎকার ঐতিহাসিক মসজিদের নাম বজরা শাহী মসজিদ। ১৭৪১-৪২ সালে জনৈক আমানুল্লাহ এই মসজিদটি নির্মাণ করেন এবং পরবর্তীতে বজরার জমিদার খান বাহাদুর আলী আহমাদ এবং খান বাহাদুর মুজিরউদ্দিন আহমাদ এই মসজিদটি মেরামত করেন। সেসময়কার অন্যান্য মসজিদের সাথে এই মসজিদটির স্থাপত্যশৈলীতে মিল থাকলেও বাইরের নকশা করা দেয়ালে মূল পার্থক্য পরিলক্ষিত হয়। মসজিদের তিনটি গম্বুজের মধ্যে মাঝখানের গম্বুজটি সামান্য বড়। মসজিদের খামগুলোর সাথে বেশকিছু ছোট মিনার রয়েছে। মসজিদের পূর্বদিকে গম্বুজের নীচেই তিনটি ফটক রয়েছে। মসজিদের পূর্বদিকে একটি বড় পানির ট্যাংক ছিল তবে বর্তমানে সেটির আকার অনেক ছোট। মসজিদের দক্ষিনদিকে একটি বড় কবরস্থান রয়েছে।