Kaladarshana - Ancient and Medieval Historical Indian Architecture and Art

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Bagerhat
This town in Southern Bangladesh has several Islamic monuments from the 15th century. Most of these are attributed to Khan Jahan Ali, a local ruler and celebrated Sufi saint. The buildings are in a style that is an unusual blend of Tughlak and Bengali architecture. Khan Jahan was a Tughlak nobleman who seems to have come to Bengal just after Timur's sack of Delhi in 1398, acquired this forested region as a jagir from the sultans of Delhi and Bengal, established a fortified capital at Khalifatabad (now Bagerhat), and launched an energetic building program. The most notable of his buildings are the Shaith Gombuz mosque, the Masjidkur mosque, his own tomb and mosque. Of these the Shaith Gumbaz Masjid (seen here) is the earliest and most ambitious. The Masjid stands in a large enclosure defined by a low wall and entered through an large gateway on the east embellished by terracotta decoration. The masjid itself is heavy, almost fort-like, in construction with thick sloping walls and bastion-like tapering corner towers with rounded cupolas, all Tughlak features. The slightly curved roof has rows of simple, hemispherical domes, except for the domes on the central aisle which are in the Bengali charchala style.