History

In the middle of the 15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans, near the coast in the Bagerhat District by a saint-General, named Khan Jahan Ali. He preached in an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, then known as 'Khalifalabad'.[2] Khan Jahan adorned this city with more than a dozen mosques, the ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and largest multi-domed mosques in Bangladesh, known as the Shait-Gumbad Masjid (160'×108').[2] The construction of the mosque was started in 1442[2] and it was completed in 1459. The mosque was used for prayers, and also as a madrasha and assembly hall.[3]

Front side

Side caption

Door model

Gombuj

Inside picture

Back side

Location

It is located in Bagerhat district in southern Bangladesh which is in Khulna Division. It is about 3 miles far from the main town of Bagerhat. Bagerhat is nearly 200 miles away from Dhaka which is the capital of Bangladesh.

Sixty Domes or Sixty Columns

The mosque is locally known as the 'Shat Gombuj Masjid', which in Bangla means Sixty Domed Mosque. However, there are 77 domes over the main hall and exactly 60 stone pillars.[4] It is possible that the mosque was originally referred to as the Sixty Pillared Mosque where Amud (شصت عمؤد ) meaning column in Arabic/Persian, later got corrupted to Gombuj in Bangla, which means domes.