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Khan Mohammad Mridha Mosque

The Khan Mohammad Mirza Mosque on Lalbagh road is situated less than half a kilometre west of the Lalbagh Fort. Two Persian inscriptions, one over the central archway and the other over the central Mihrab, speak of its construction during 1704–05 AD by one Khan Muhammad Mirza.The large platform is 38.10 m from north to south and 28.96 m from east to west. Its height is about 5.18 m from the ground level. Underneath the platform are vaulted rooms on all sides except the eastern side. In the eastern side, there is a stairway which ends with a gateway aligning the central doorway of the mosque proper. It is through this gateway that one can reach the top of the platform.Khan Mohammad Mirza mosque, an archeological site located in southern Dhaka, near Lalbagh fort. in an area called Atish Khana. The mosque rises above its surroundings because the tahkhana or underground rooms of the mosque are above grade. The roof of the tahkhana forms the platform on which the mosque is situated.. The spacious prayer place before the main mosque is open in all directions allowing air to flow and keep the Musullis cool.The main mosque where the Imam and a few Musullis are accommodated consists of three domes bears testimony of the architecture practiced during the sixteenth century. Two Persian inscriptions, one over the central archway and the other over the central Mihrab. According to an inscription found, the mosque was built during the rule of Deputy Governor of Dhaka, Farrukh Siyar, by a Khan Muhammad Mirza, who could have been the architect. The construction was orders by a Qazi Ibadullah during 1704–05 AD. The platform is 16'-6" above the ground level. The tahkhana comprises vaulted rooms for living purposes. The mosque is accessed from the east, up a flight of twenty-five steps. Area wise, the mosque occupies only a small portion of the platform.The prayer hall is a rectangular structure measuring 48' x 24' and is capped by three domes, the central being the larger one. The smaller sizes of the side domes are achieved by using intermediary pendentives. The corners minarets are short and slender, rising just above the parapet and are capped by ribbed copulas. The annex to the north of the mosque serves as a madrasa or religious school and has a hujra or arcaded hall that is used for travelers and visitors. The facade of the mosque is decorated with paneling and ornamental merlons along the parapet. The entrances to the prayer hall are framed by multi-cusped arches and engaged columns on either side.

KHM Mosque

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Star Mosque
Star Mosque is a mosque located in Armanitola area, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The mosque has ornate designs and is decorated with motifs of blue stars. It was built in the first half of the 19th century by Mirza Golam Pir (Mirza Ahmed Jan).Star Mosque was first built by Mirza Ghulam Pir, as a three domed oblong edifice. But an over enthusiastic and zealous merchant named Ali Jan Bepari completely remodeled and reconstructed it with extremely delicate and richly colored tiles of variegated patterns. Ali Jan has added the new verandah, that is mentioned in the introduction, on the east and spent lavishly on importing Japanese and English decorated China clay tiles to improve the inner and outer show of the mosque. It is now a five domed structure. In 1987, two domes have been raised on an extension to the northern side without any respect to its antiquity, architectural style and decoration.Built in the Mughal style by Mirza Ghulam in the late 18th century, this mosque was originally a simple rectangular mosque, measuring 33' x 11' with three doorways on the east façade (main façade) and one on the north wall and another on the south wall. Three domes crowned the mosque, the central one being the larger. Towers accented the corners and the façades displayed plastered panel decoration. In early 20th century, Ali Jan Bepari financed its renovation when a front verandah was added. The surface was redone in ‘Chini Tikri’, a popular broken china decoration. The mosque is one of the very few examples of exclusive chinitikri mosaic, found in the striking blue star mosaic, which gave the mosque its name Star Mosque. In 1987, the prayer hall was extended by the Department of Architecture to include two more domes. It was decorated with imported china clay tiles and used both methods of applying chinitikri and used solid color, cur clay tiles and formed patterns by placing the colored tiles in white plaster. The domes and the exterior are covered with different colored star shaped china clay tiles. The upper portion of the eastern façade also incorporates a crescent motif. The work assumed another texture by using assorted glazed tiles on the interior. The three mibrabs and the doorways are decorated with mosaic floral pattern. A plant and vase motif is repeated as a decorative element on the pendantive and the interior of the verandah wall.In early 20th century, Ali Jan Bepari, a local businessman, financed the renovation of the mosque and added a new eastern verandah. The surface was redecorated with Chinitikri work (mosaic work of broken China porcelain pieces), a decorative style that was popular during the 1930s. The mosque, which previously lacked any historical significance, is one of the few remaining architectural example of the Chinitikri (Chinese pieces) method of mosaic decoration. This decorative technique is found in the striking star motif that is in part the reason for the mosque's current acclaim and popular name, Star Mosque or Sitara Masjid. In 1987, the Ministry of Religious Affairs commissioned Giasul Huque and Zahiruddin Zahiruddin to make additions to the prayer hall, which was extended to include two more domes.The mosque is decorated with Japanese and English china clay tiles and utilized both methods of the Chinitikri application. One approach uses solid color, cut clay tiles and form patterns through the placement of these colored tiles in white plaster. The domes and the exterior surface are covered with different colored star shaped China clay tiles. The upper portion of the eastern façade also incorporates a crescent motif.Chinitikri tile work assumes another texture by using assorted pieces of different designs of glazed tiles on the interior surfaces of the mosque. The three mihrabs and the doorways are decorated with mosaic floral pattern. A plant and vase motif is repeated as a decorative element on the pendentives as well as on the interior of the verandah wall. As a decorative element, the Japanese Fujiyama motif, is found on the surface between the doors.
Star Mosque

Star Mosque

Binat Bibi Mosque is the earliest surviving mosque in Dhaka built in 1454 by Bakht Binat, the daughter of Marhamat. It was during the rule of the Sultan of Bengal, Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (1435–1459). The mosque is located beside the Hayat Bepari's Bridge in Narinda area.

The mosque is a square, single domed mosque measuring 12 feet (3.7 m) square internally with a single hemispherical dome atop the square room. Entrances are from east, north and south. Pre-Mughal features included the curved cornices and battlements, corner octagonal turrets, and arches on the south, north and eastern sides. The ornamentation is modest and the building is coated with plaster.

Part of the mosque is being demolished as part of a renovation plan which includes building a 70-foot (21 m) high minaret, and the extension of the current building from three stories to seven.

Binat Bibi

Sat Gambuj Mosque

Sat Gambuj Mosque is located near the north-western outskirts of Dhaka in the Jafarbad area is the Sat Gambuj Mosque which illustrates a fine example of the provincial mughal style introduced in Bangladesh in the 17th Century. The mosque's most notable features are its seven bulbous domes crowning the roof and covering the main prayer hall. Probably erected by Governor Shaista Khan, the monument stands in a romantic setting on a buttressed 15'-0" high bank overlooking an extensive flood plain.

A few kilometers to the north of Peelkhana, for long the end of Mughal Dhaka, was the Jafarbad or Katasur area, originally part of mouza Sarai Begumpur; many of the mouzas or revenue circles were delineated during the reign of Shershah and later by Kartalab Khan. A small urban settlement on record on a route along the river, this was an alternative to reach Brahmaputra or Garh Jaripa without having to go through the hostile areas along the main stream of Sitalakhya and Brahmaputra on the east. This is evident from its geographic and strategic location, origin of the names of the locality and the remnants around it. The place where the seven-domed mosque is was variously known as Sarai Jafarbad or Katasur, under Sarai Begumpur. There was a small agricultural community in between Peelkhna and Jafarbad where the Sat Gambuj Mosque was built. The area in course of time became like a jungle due to disuse, dereliction and desertion mainly during the British period. However, in last 55 years it has become Dhanmondi- one of the planned and most expensive residential enclaves of Dhaka. The Satmasjid road is the major peripheral road of the district to its west, and believed to have been built roughly along where the old Bank river Turag was.

Picturesquely situated on the edge of a river, the Sat Gambuj Mosque in its exterior is the most innovative of all the Dhaka Mughal-period monuments. The north and south ends of this three-domed rectangular mosque are each marked by two enormous double-storied corner pavilions; when viewed from the east these give the impression that the mosque has five exterior bays. On the east are three cusped entrances arches flanked by shallow niches. Slender engaged columns with bulbous bases demarcate the central bay. As seen as the Lalbagh Fort Mosque, although this mosques's colonettes are more prominent. Its interior compares favourably with that of others dating to the second half of the seventeenth century. The central mihrab has two rows of cusping, and its surface is embellished with moulded plaster relief, recalling the ornateness of the mihrab in the mosque of Haji Khwaja Shahbaz.

'It used forms of different shapes- octagon, square, rectangle and circle all beautifully juxtaposed. Besides the typical three domes on the main prayer hall, there are four hollow double-storey domed corner towers that gave rise to its name (Seven-Domed Mosque). The corner turret provided structural stability and visual balance to the 38'×27' building on a river bank, and was probably used as viewing galleries for enjoying the river. The upper level of the octagonal turrets starts from around half the height of the main prayer hall. Both the levels have arched panels and windows, surmounted by cornice and capped by domes with kalasha (pitcher) finials planted on lotus base.

Otherwise with a bigger dome in the middle flanked by two smaller ones, the mosque bears all the characteristic features of Shaista Khani style. However, though the qibla facades of most such buildings remain unadorned, that of the Sat Gambuj Mosque is decorated with recessions within moulded panels, the middle portion delineated by two slender pilasters slightly protruding. These are much bigger than those usually seen at the front. The three central panels have an arch-shape on the lower part.

The mosque has three cusped entrance arches, the middle one being taller and edged with multi-foil arch a late- Mughal refinement, flanked by shallow niches and rectangular panels and echoed by mihrabs on the qibla wall, slender engaged pilasters with bulbous base demarcating the central bay, mihrab surface embellished with moulded plaster relief, corner turret stretched above merlon parapet with pinnacles, single, openings on side walls, etc. The side entrances have mere decoration applied to their external faces some of which may not be original. All these elements emphasize the symmetrical and axial arrangement along with the central dome and the mihrab. The style is very common among most of the surviving historic mosques of Dhaka. Built on a spacious and solid podium, it has many elements resembling those in Khwaja Shahbaz Mosque, Khan Muhammad Mirdha's Mosque, and the mosque inside the Lalbagh Fort.

The heights of the entrances and other openings have, however, been distorted or dwarfed by elevation of the plinth level as the ground around was constantly elevated to remain free above flood level. However, the two slender pinnacles rising on both sides of the panel provide some kind of vertically to this otherwise horizontal and little stout structure. This element achieved a level of perfection and hence elegance in the Mridha's Mosque built quarter of a century later. There are eight small panels on each side of the door, all of which are enclosing arched niches. The transition from the square to the circle of the dome base is made by pendentives. However, the domes as conventional, rest on octagonal drum shoulder, embellished with blind merlons. The brick lime walls of the naturally cool structures are 4' deep.

There is a graveyard in front of the mosque used as late as the 1950s originally inside a wider garden that was gradual eroded by river and encroached by buildings. A distinct gateway in front of the sahn that was now subsided because of gradual rise in the surrounding levels can be climbed over for azan (prayer call). The river Turag on which the picturesque structure was standing even few decades back, has now moved nearly a kilometer away from it due to silt, encroachment by filling up, and change of course. The surrounding reclaimed lands for many years were used by small scale manufacturers, semi-permanent houses and slums. But now heavier and more intensive uses can be seen.

Sat Gambuj Mosque

Baitul Mukarram National Mosque

Baitul Mukarram, also spelled as Baytul Mukarrom is the National Mosque of Bangladesh. Located at the center of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, the mosque was completed in 1968. The mosque has a capacity of 30,000, giving it the respectable position of being the 10th biggest mosque in the world. However the mosque is constantly getting overcrowded. This especially occurs during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which has resulted in the Bangladeshi government having to add extensions to the mosque, thus increasing the capacity to at least 40,000.The mosque complex was designed by architect, T Abdul Hussain Thariani. In 1959, owner of then Bawany Jute Mills, Haji Abdul Latif Bawany proposed to Major General Omrao Khan, then military administrator of East Pakistan, of building a grande mosque in Dhaka. Omrao Khan agreed to help on building such mosque. Same year, 'Baitul Mukarram mosque committee' had been established and 8.30 acre of land between new Dhaka and old Dhaka had been chosen. At that time, there was a large pond in present mosque's location. It was known as 'Paltan pond. The pond was filled up and in 27th January, 1960 then president of Pakistan Ayub Khan commenced the work. Pray for first time took place on Friday, 25th january, 1963.The plan included shops, offices, libraries and parking areas within the complex. Though there has been a tradition of dome mosque for Muslim, this building did not maintain the rule of traditional mosque in that time. A Mosque without a dome over the roof of its main prayer hall must have been a unique experiment. The mosque was built when the country was the Part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Baitul Mukarram Mosque

Baitul Mukarram Mosque