Chawk Mosque

Not to be confused with Chawk Masjid, a mosque in Murshidabad, India.

Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque
চকবাজার শাহী মসজিদ
Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque in November 2020
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Location
Location	Chowk Bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Shown within Bangladesh
Geographic coordinates	23.7160°N 90.3957°E / 23.7160; 90.3957
Architecture
Style	Mughal
Completed	1664
Specifications
Capacity	10,000 people approx.
Dome(s)	3
Minaret(s)	2 Large 8 Smaller

Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque (Bengali: চকবাজার শাহী মসজিদ) also known as Chawk Mosque is a mosque located in the Chowk Bazaar area in the old city of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The mosque was constructed in 1664 by Subahdar Shaista Khan. The mosque is known as the Shahi Mosque because it was founded by Subahdar Shaista Khan. The mosque is built above a raised platform. The three domed mosque above the platform, now transformed into a multi-storied structure was originally a copy of Shaista Khan's another three domed mosque at the Mitford Hospital compound near the Buriganga River. There are some square-shaped rooms built for the Imam and for students of the madrasa. Today the original building design has lost much of its original form through multiple renovations and extensions. The mosque is noted for having a rainbow minaret.

Interior & exterior design

The central Mihrab

The three domes

The interior of the mosque in May 2019

The promenade around the three domed prayer chamber, since there was no separate structure for study purpose, might have been used for open-air classes and the vaulted room with book-shelves on their walls underneath the platform may have been designed to provide residential accommodation for those who used to teach and study here. In that context Chawk Mosque may be regarded as the first known example of Residential Madrasa Mosque.

It is an ingenious way of accommodating two structures-a madrasa and a mosque in a single building which not only saved space but also a considerable amount of money.

History

Shahi Mosque in Chowk Bazaar (on the upper-left) - photograph taken by Johnston and Hoffmann in 1885

The construction has been dated to 1664, as noted by an inscription in the Persian language over a doorway.

The inscription reads: "The rightly guided Amīr al-Umarā Shaista Khan - built this mosque for the sake of God / To the seeker (t̤ālib) enquiring its date - I said, "God's bidding is accomplished" / Year 1086 Hijri (1675-76 CE)." It has been suggested that Shaista Khan himself had composed the versified inscription, as his poetic nom de plume was "Talib."

The inscription attributes the project to Subahdar Shaista Khan. So far known this is the earliest dated mosque in the History of Muslim Architecture in Bengal built on a high vaulted platform. Its architectural design was perhaps influenced by Tughlaq Architectures; such as Khirki Masjid or Kalan Mosque of Delhi. Influenced by this structure some other mosques were built in Dhaka and Murshidabad.

Further reading

• Mamoon, M. (1993). Dhaka-Smriti Bismritir Nogori. Dhaka: Anannya (page 78)
• Husain, A. B. (2007). Architecture – A History Through Ages. Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (page 287)
• Karim, Abdul. (1992) Corpus of the Arabic and Persian Inscriptions of Bengal. Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (page 469)

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20131121010239/http://www.dhakacalling.com/archive/2009/oct/cover_story.php
• https://web.archive.org/web/20161220174321/http://www.kaladarshana.com/essays/essay-tughlak.html