Atia Mosque (, ) is a four-domed

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

located in Tangail District,

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. It was built in the 17th century during the Mughal period and lies on the eastern banks of the Louhajang River. The country's Department of Archaeology has designated it as a protected monument.

Location

The mosque, which is located about south from the city of

Tangail Tangail (, ) is a city of Tangail District in central Bangladesh. A significant city in Bangladesh, Tangail lies on the bank of the Louhajang River, northwest of Dhaka, the nation's capital. Etymology ''Tangail'' originates from the Beng ...

, is in the village of Atia in Delduar Upazila.

History

According to one of the inscriptions discovered in the mosque (which is now preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum), it was constructed between 1610 and 1611 CE. This was during the reign of

Mughal emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal ...

, when the Emperor gifted the

Pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

of Atia to Sayeed Khan Panni, the son of Bayazid Khan Panni of the Karatia Zamindari. Panni instructed for the mosque to be built and it was built in honour of Shahan Shah Baba Adam Kashmiri, a prominent

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saint of Atia who died in 1507 CE and whose

mazar (mausoleum) A ''mazār'' (), also transliterated as mazaar, also known as ''marqad'' () or in the Maghreb as ''ḍarīḥ'' (), is a mausoleum or shrine in some places of the world, typically that of a saint or notable religious leader. Medieval Arabic ...

is in close proximity to the mosque. It is said that the finest of masons and builders were hired by Panni for the job. The mosque suffered damage during an earthquake in the early 19th century. In 1837, a female merchant from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

by the name of Rowshun Khatoon Chowdhurani repaired the mosque. It was repaired for another time in 1909 by Zamindar Abu Ahmad Ghuznavi Khan of Delduar with the co-operation of other local Zamindars namely Wajed Ali Khan Panni of Karatia.

Description

The mosques combines elements of

Mughal architecture Mughal architecture is the style of architecture developed in the Mughal Empire in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout the ever-changing extent of their empire in the Indian subcontinent. It developed from the architectural styles of ea ...

with that of the common architecture during the

Bengal Sultanate The Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: , Classical Persian: ) was a Post-classical history, late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region in the eastern South Asia between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges- ...

period. Panni also had a large water tank built in the western part of the compound, most likely for ablutionary purposes. The exterior of this small mosque measures 18.29m x 12.19m and its walls are 2.23m wide. The rectangular mosque consists of a large domed and square-shaped prayer hall attached to a veranda to its east side, that has three smaller domes on top of it. Three arched entrances to the east, the middle one slightly higher than the two sided entrances. The arches of the Atiya Mosque are quadrangular in style. The main prayer room can be entered through three entrances from the veranda. In addition, there are two side entrances each to the prayer hall and veranda. There are three ornate

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', 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'' wall". ...

s on the wall of the

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

. The four corners of the mosque have octagonal towers divided into parallel moulding designs. The side towers, ornamented by several levels of raised design, rise to the top of the roof cornice. At the end of all the towers are small domes with ornaments and decorated with flat fluted cupolas with lotus and ''kalasa'' finials.

Legacy

In popular culture, the Atia Mosque is dubbed the ''10 Taka Mosque'' as the

Government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the ...

issued a ৳10 banknote from 3 August 1978 which had an image of the mosque in its obverse. On 6 February 2010, the 400th anniversary of the mosque was commemorated in nearby Shahan Shah High School and some of the people present included Mohammad Abdur Razzaque,

Khandaker Abdul Baten Khandaker Abdul Baten (17 May 1946 – 21 January 2019) was a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a member of Parliament from Tangail-6. Early life Baten completed his education up till the undergraduate level, securing a B.A. with honours. ...

and Fazlur Rahman Faruque. The anniversary also celebrated the publication of ''Atianama'', a book on the history of the mosque.

References

{{Mosques in Bangladesh Mosques in Dhaka Division Tangail District Mosques completed in the 1600s Religious buildings and structures completed in 1609 17th-century mosques in Bangladesh Mosque buildings with domes in Bangladesh Mosque buildings with minarets in Bangladesh

Location

History

Description

Legacy

See also

References