Bengal Sultanate
The Sixty Dome Mosque of Bagerhat
A brick mosque-city in the Bengal delta, c. 1450 CE
c. 846-863 AH / 1442-1459 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Bagerhat, in the south of the Bengal delta
22.6741, 89.7414 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
In the fifteenth century, in the days of the Bengal Sultanate, a remarkable Muslim town grew up in the low, wild, forested country of the southern Bengal delta, near the edge of the great mangrove swamp of the Sundarbans, at the place now called Bagerhat. Its founder, by tradition, was Khan Jahan Ali (rahimahu Allah), a saint and a governor who came into this watery wilderness, cleared and drained and settled it, dug great tanks of fresh water against the salt of the delta, and raised within it a whole city of mosques, tombs, bridges and roads, bringing the region under cultivation and under Islam. The greatest of his monuments is the mosque known as the Shat Gombuj, the Sixty Domes, although in fact it carries many more. It is a vast, long, low and very broad building of brick, in the distinctive style of the Bengal Sultanate: roofed not by one great dome but by a multitude of low domes set in rows, dozens of them, carried within on a whole forest of slender stone pillars, with thick tapering brick towers at its corners, moulded terracotta ornament, and a gently curved cornice that echoes the line of the thatched bamboo huts of the Bengal countryside, a form rooted in the building of the land itself. The mosque served as a place of prayer and, it is said, also of assembly and of teaching, the heart of the new Muslim settlement. The Sixty Dome Mosque and the mosque-city of Bagerhat survive as a masterpiece of the brick architecture of Muslim Bengal and a monument to the saint-governors and Sufis through whom Islam took root in the delta; the wider complex, including the great tank beside the mosque, is today protected as a World Heritage site. This scene shows the standing mosque as it appears now, its weathered red brick under the open delta sky, the long arcaded wall and its rows of domes seen from across the paved court, with the stepped water tank, palms and shade trees to one side. In keeping with the project's ethics any figure present is anonymous and at a distance.
What you see
A long, low, very broad mosque of dull red brick spreads across the whole horizon, far wider than it is tall. Its flat roofline is crowned not by one great dome but by rows of many small low domes, set close together; this is no soaring building but one that lies wide and heavy under an open sky.
At the corner of the building rises a thick, solid, drum-shaped brick tower that tapers as it climbs and is capped by a small dome. Along the long wall runs an arcade of curved-and-pointed arched openings, their brick surfaces once carrying moulded terracotta ornament; the gently curved cornice of the eaves echoes the line of a thatched bamboo hut of the Bengal countryside.
To one side of the mosque lies a wide rectangular tank of standing water, its edges stepped down in stone landings where people draw water and bathe. Tall palms and broad shade trees ring the open brick-paved court; the flat, green, well-watered land is that of the low Bengal delta.
This is the great mosque called the Sixty Domes, the chief monument of a planned Muslim town raised in the southern Bengal delta in the fifteenth century by the saint and governor Khan Jahan Ali (rahimahu Allah), who cleared and settled this wild forested country and brought it to Islam.
By the same hand who raised the mosque were dug great tanks of sweet water against the salt of the delta, and built other mosques, tombs, bridges and roads. The mosque served the congregation for prayer and, it is said, also as a hall of audience and a school, the heart of a new Muslim settlement in the wilderness.
The town stands in the low, flooded, forested country of the southern delta, near the edge of the great mangrove swamp of the Sundarbans, the watery frontier where the many rivers of Bengal run down to meet the sea.
The Sixty Dome Mosque and the mosque-city of Bagerhat are extant monuments, here shown as they stand today, weathered brick under the delta sun. No individual is shown by likeness; the small figures at the tank and on the court are distant and anonymous.
Further reading & cross-references
The Sixty Dome Mosque and the monuments of Bagerhat (extant buildings): The primary monuments. Used for the mosque, its domes, pillars and terracotta and the planned town. Confidence high.
Bengali traditions and histories of Khan Jahan Ali (rahimahu Allah): Used for the saint-governor founder, the clearing and settling of the country and the building of the town and its tanks; his tomb inscription dates his death to 863 AH (1459) and anchors the mid-century date. Confidence medium (the traditions blend history and hagiography).
Ghulam Husain Salim, Riyaz al-Salatin (later Persian history of Bengal): A later Sunni narrative source for the Bengal Sultanate and its governors; supplies the dynastic frame but post-dates the events by centuries, so used for context not fine chronology.
Studies of the architecture of the Bengal Sultanate: Used for the distinctive Bengal mosque style: rows of low domes, the curved hut-line cornice, the tapering corner towers, the stone pillars and the moulded terracotta over a brick core. Confidence high.
Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat, World Heritage documentation (extant site): Documents the surviving monuments, the great tank beside the mosque and the present conserved state of the weathered brick fabric shown here; date, place and material only. Confidence high.
The southern Bengal delta and the Sundarbans (geographic context): The flooded forested delta near the mangrove swamp constrains the depiction.
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