The
Mosque City of Bagerhat (Bengali:
মসজিদের শহর বাগেরহাট) is a formerly lost city, located in the suburbs of Bagerhat city in Bagerhat District, in the Khulna Division of southwest of Bangladesh. Bagerhat is about 15 miles south east of Khulna and 200 miles southwest of Dhaka
Originally known as
Khalifatabad and nicknamed the "mint town of the Bengal Sultanate",
the city was founded in the 15th century by the warrior saint Turkish general Ulugh Khan Jahan.
The historic city, listed by Forbes
as one of the 15 lost cities of the world, has more than 50 Islamic
monuments which have been found after removing the vegetation that had
obscured them from view for many centuries. The site has been recognized
as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
in 1983 under criteria (iv), "as an outstanding example of an
architectural ensemble which illustrates a significant stage in human
history",
of which the Sixty Pillar Mosque (Shat Gombuj Masjid in Bengali), constructed with 60 pillars and 77 domes, is the most well known.
Apart from these monuments, UNESCO also includes the mausoleum of Khan
Jahan, the mosques of Singar, Bibi Begni, Reza Khoda, Zindavir among the
unique monuments.
The history of the present-day Bagerhat is traced to the Bengal
Sultanate under the rule of Sultan Nasir al-din Mahmud Shah (1442–1459
).
It was established by the Ulug Khan Jahan (1433–1459), an administrator
under the sultanate in the 15th century; an inscription on his tomb
here mentions 1459 as his date of death, testifying the construction of
the city in the mid 15th century. He was responsible for establishing a
planned township with roads, bridges, and water supply tanks (ponds –
two are still surviving: the
Ghoradighi and
Dargadighi),
cisterns, and a very large number of mosques and tombs, and palaces and
his own mausoleum, all attributed in the same “Khan Jahan Style”; Khan
Jehan lived in the town and did extensive philanthropic work.
It is mentioned that the Delhi Sultanate, for political and religious reasons, wanted to establish an outpost of Islam in the then-remote part of India in Bengal and deputed Ulug Khan Jahan to brave this task.
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[source:wikipedia.org]
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