Sixty Dome Mosque
• The ancient & historical Sixty Dome Mosque (more commonly known as Shait Gambuj Mosque or Saith
Gunbad Masjid) is a mosque in Bangladesh, the largest in that country from the Sultanate period. It has been described as "the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of the Indian subcontinent. The mosque has an architectural style that strongly resembles other pre-mughal mosques of Bengal
• In mid-15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the unfriendly mangrove forest of the Sundarbans near the coastline in the Bagerhat district by an obscure saint-General, named Ulugh Khan Jahan. a Muslim
Saint of Turkish origin who was a ruler in the area at the time. He was the earliest torch bearer of Islam in the South who laid the center of an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (1442-59), then known as 'Khalifalabad' (present Bagerhat). Khan Jahan aborned his city with numerous mosques, tanks, roads and other public buildings, the spectacular ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and largest multidomed mosques in Bangladesh, known as the Shait-Gumbad Masjid (160'X108'). The stately fabric of the monument, serene and impressive, stands on the eastern bank of an unusually vast sweet-water tank, clustered around by the heavy foliage of a low-laying countryside, characteristic of a sea-coast landscape. So in the year 1459 the great Azam Ulugh Khan Jahan established this mosque, which called Shat Gambuj Mosjid. In Bengali Shat means the number 60. Though it is called Shat Gambuj Mosjid, actually the numbers of Gamboj in the mosque are 81.it’s made by the Tughlaq architecture of Delhi.
• There are few theories as to the name Shatgumbad, which, literally in Bangla means 60 domes. The mosque does not have 60 domes. There are at least three theories. The first theory suggests the actual name to be ‘Chatgumbad’ meaning ‘domed-roof’, which has later corrupted into Shatgumbad. A second theory suggests that the name Shatgumbad is a corruption of Satgumbad, meaning seven-domed, indicating the seven four-faceted domes running through the center of the mosque. Perhaps the most probable theory is that the name Shatgumbad is a corruption of Persian ‘Shast Khumbaz’ meaning 60 pillars. Persian was the language of business of Khan Jahan Ali; and the mosque does have a total of 60 pillars.
• There are four massive circular towers located at the four corners of the mosque. The towers are slightly tapered towards the top, with a chamber above the roof level. The upper chamber of the two west towers has four windows, while the east towers has two windows. The height of the chamber of the east towers is also smaller than the west towers. Both the west towers have circular stairways reaching the top; which have recently been closed by brick filings.
• The western wall has ten arched-mihrabs. The central mihrab, is entirely made of black stones. Most of the decorative motifs have disappeared, but much is still preserved in a decaying condition. The decorations show intriguing stone carvings.
• The remaining nine mihrabs are entirely made of bricks, showing cusping in their faces. Although much of their ornamentations have disappeared, enough still survives to show that these, not unlike the central mihrab, were originally exquisitely decorated, but with terracotta. The motifs and designs used are primarily the same, but they differ in their arrangement from mihrab to mihrab.
• The north and south walls are internally marked with decorative cusped niches, twelve in each wall. Each of these niches is topped by two moldings. While these moldings show rosettes alternating with diaper motifs, the space in between is ornamented with floral scrolls in terracotta.
• The Shatgumbad Mosque appears to have been the earliest as well as the greatest architectural work of Khan Jahan Ali. Architecturally the mosque is a combination of concepts and designs inherited from outside Bengal with ideas from within Bengal. Its bastion-like tapering corner towers with their rounded domes and two-storied conception, which rise high above the roof, appears to have been dictated by similar examples of the Khirki and the Kalan Mosques in Delhi. The interior pillars and arches of the mosque remind one of the designs of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, or the great mosque of Cordova in Spain. The idea of four-faceted domes appears to be similar to the chau-chala huts of Bengal
• The ancient & historical Sixty Dome Mosque (more commonly known as Shait Gambuj Mosque or Saith
• In mid-15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the unfriendly mangrove forest of the Sundarbans near the coastline in the Bagerhat district by an obscure saint-General, named Ulugh Khan Jahan. a Muslim
• There are few theories as to the name Shatgumbad, which, literally in Bangla means 60 domes. The mosque does not have 60 domes. There are at least three theories. The first theory suggests the actual name to be ‘Chatgumbad’ meaning ‘domed-roof’, which has later corrupted into Shatgumbad. A second theory suggests that the name Shatgumbad is a corruption of Satgumbad, meaning seven-domed, indicating the seven four-faceted domes running through the center of the mosque. Perhaps the most probable theory is that the name Shatgumbad is a corruption of Persian ‘Shast Khumbaz’ meaning 60 pillars. Persian was the language of business of Khan Jahan Ali; and the mosque does have a total of 60 pillars.• There are four massive circular towers located at the four corners of the mosque. The towers are slightly tapered towards the top, with a chamber above the roof level. The upper chamber of the two west towers has four windows, while the east towers has two windows. The height of the chamber of the east towers is also smaller than the west towers. Both the west towers have circular stairways reaching the top; which have recently been closed by brick filings.
• The western wall has ten arched-mihrabs. The central mihrab, is entirely made of black stones. Most of the decorative motifs have disappeared, but much is still preserved in a decaying condition. The decorations show intriguing stone carvings.
• The remaining nine mihrabs are entirely made of bricks, showing cusping in their faces. Although much of their ornamentations have disappeared, enough still survives to show that these, not unlike the central mihrab, were originally exquisitely decorated, but with terracotta. The motifs and designs used are primarily the same, but they differ in their arrangement from mihrab to mihrab.
• The north and south walls are internally marked with decorative cusped niches, twelve in each wall. Each of these niches is topped by two moldings. While these moldings show rosettes alternating with diaper motifs, the space in between is ornamented with floral scrolls in terracotta.
• The Shatgumbad Mosque appears to have been the earliest as well as the greatest architectural work of Khan Jahan Ali. Architecturally the mosque is a combination of concepts and designs inherited from outside Bengal with ideas from within Bengal. Its bastion-like tapering corner towers with their rounded domes and two-storied conception, which rise high above the roof, appears to have been dictated by similar examples of the Khirki and the Kalan Mosques in Delhi. The interior pillars and arches of the mosque remind one of the designs of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, or the great mosque of Cordova in Spain. The idea of four-faceted domes appears to be similar to the chau-chala huts of Bengal
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