The Miah Bari Mosque () is a

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 Karapur, in the

Barisal District Barisal District, officially Barishal District () is a district in south-central Bangladesh, it was formerly called Bakerganj district, and established in 1797. Its headquarters is in Barisal city, which is also the headquarters of Barisal ...

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 ...

. The 18th-century three-domed mosque and archaeological site is located in Miah Bari, in the village of North Karapur in Raipasha-Karapur Union,

Barisal Sadar Upazila Barisal Sadar () is an upazila of Barisal District in the division of Barisal, Bangladesh. Geography Barisal Sadar is located at . It has a total area of 324.41 km2. Demographics According to the 2011 Census of Bangladesh, Barisal Sadar ...

History

According to local tradition, this

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

style mosque was built in the 18th century by

Hayat Mahmud Hayat Mahmud () was a late 18th-century Bengali Muslim commander who later became the feudal lord of Buzurg-Umedpur in Barisal. He is best known as a freedom fighter against the British East India Company, and for the construction of the Miah ...

, the

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

of Buzurg-Umedpur Pargana. Mahmud was rebellious to the British government and exiled to

Penang Island Penang Island is the main constituent island of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is located off the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Malacca Strait, with the Penang Strait separating the island from Seberang Perai on the mainla ...

(formerly Prince of Wales Island) in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. His family was stripped of Umedpur's zamindarship. It was after Hayat's return to Bengal, sixteen years later, in which he built the Miah Bari Mosque taking inspiration from the

Kartalab Khan Mosque The Kartalab Khan Mosque, also known as the Begum Bazar Mosque, is a mosque, located in the Begum Bazar area in the Old City of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was built by Nawab Diwan Murshid Quli Khan (alias Kartalab Khan) between 1700 and 1704 CE. T ...

Old Dhaka Old Dhaka () is a term used to refer to the historic old city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was founded in 1608 as Jahangirabad or Jahangirnagar (), the capital of Bengal Subah, Mughal Province of Bengal and named after the Mughal em ...

. However, some believe the mosque was built by his son, Mahmud Zahid. The mosque is under the protection of Bangladeshi Department of Archaeology.

Architecture

It is a two-storied, typical Bengali Mughal type style mosque with six doors on the ground floor and three on the top floor. The space under the platform is currently used for

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

. A flight stairs lead to the platform where the rectangle shaped prayer hall is placed on the western side. It measures , while internally it has an oblong plan of , with a thick surrounding plastered brick wall. The whole length of the rectangular hall is divided into three unequal

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

using two arches emerging from the east and west walls. The square central bay is transformed into an octagonal area by using brick pendentives. Three small sized, fluted, bulbous domes are placed on the octagonal corners, and the central dome is larger than the other two. The domes have an octagonal shoulder and are crowned with elongated

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s. The eastern façade of the prayer hall has three openings, each of the openings are bounded by a slender engaged turret and the openings have a cusped arch on the outside surface. The mosque has three domes and eight large

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

s, four on the front wall and four on the back wall. In addition, there are 12 smaller minarets in the space between the front and back walls. The upper part of the north, south and west walls' outer wall surfaces is profusely ornamented in plaster. The floral relief has white surface coating and the recessed surface is painted in blue. The four corner turrets, one at each corner and two additional turrets on the front and back façades are octagonal in shape which extend high above the roof level with their plastered blind kiosk divided by three eaves and ended in a small

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

with an amla

kalasha A kalasha, also called Pūrṇa-Kalaśa, Pūrṇa-Kumbha, Pūrṇa-Ghaṭa, also called ghat or ghot or kumbh ( , Telugu: కలశము Kannada: ಕಳಶ literally "pitcher, pot"), is a metal (brass, copper, silver or gold) pot with a large ...

typed finial.

Gallery

File:Imgl1464-edited-1558860023834.jpg, Minaret

References

External links

{{Mosques in Bangladesh 18th-century establishments in British India 18th-century mosques in Bangladesh Archaeological sites in Barisal district Architecture in Bangladesh Mosque buildings with domes in Bangladesh Mosque buildings with minarets in Bangladesh Mosques in Barisal Division Mughal mosques

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

External links