History
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 namely the Ghoradighi and Dargadighi), cisterns, and a very large number of mosques and tombs, and also palaces and his own mausoleum, all attributed in the same style known as the “Khan Jahan Style”; Khan Jehan also lived in the town and did extensive philanthropic work. It is also 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.
Ulug Khan was not only known for his unique capability as an administrator (administered the districts of Jhenaidah, Sathkira, Patuakhali, and Barisal in South Bengal) and a builder, but also as a pir, a saintly person who shunned personal aggrandizement (who shunned royal titles and did not issue any mint in his name). His tomb is thus venerated in Bangladesh and attracts a large number of pilgrims every year.
A study of ten mosques and tombs seen in the town reveals that seven of them namely the Shait Gumbaz Mosque, which adjoins the Ulug Khan Tomb, Ranbijaypur Mosque, Bibi Begni Mosque, Shingra Mosque, Chunakhola Mosque, the Nine Domed Mosque are in Ulugh Khan style; the other three mosques of a later period are the Ten Domed Mosque, Rezai Khan Mosque and Zinda Pir Tomb.
In 1895, an extensive survey of the area was conducted and restoration was put into effect in 1903-4 on the Shait Gumbaz mosque. In 1907-8 part of the roof and 28 domes were restored.
In 1982-3, UNESCO drew up a master plan for the Bagerhat area and it became a World Heritage Site in 1985.
Read more about this topic: Mosque City Of Bagerhat
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)