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Home , Dome, Hypostyle, Riwaq (arcade)

PERWEEN HASAN

SULTANATE AND CONTINUITY IN BENGAL

The large number of mosques built in Bengal during examples of the symbolic usage of the can be the independent Sultanate (1338-1538)1 indicates the found among early Iranian (Damghan), Anatolian rapidity with wh ich the local population converted to (Diyarbakr), and Indian (Quwwatul ) mosques. 5 Islam, and within this period, the years 1450-1550 can The Adina , with its huge barrel-vaulted central be identified as the time of most intensive mosque­ , is elose to these early mosques, especially the Per­ . Of the total number of dated mosques con­ sian mosques and the Ulucami of Diyarbakr, wh ich structed in Bengal du ring the entire Muslim period were modeled on the mosque of Damascus, rather than (1203-ca.1800) almost three-quarters were built on the more straightforward of Iraq and between the mid fifteenth and the mid sixteenth cen­ Egypt. Although various elements in the Adina tury.2 The mosques that dotted the countryside ranged mosque-the corner towers, pointed , and terra­ from small to medium size, and were used for daily cotta decoration-become part of the Bengali mosque devotion. tradition, the hypostyle itself did not, perhaps because This intensive mosque-building during a critical one­ it was unsuited to the requirements and the elimate of hundred-year period indicates that profound changes a Bengal community. Certainly local craftsmen would were taking pI ace in Bengali society and much of it was not have been experienced in building vaults of such due to rapid conversion. Richard Eaton has described monumental proportions. how the local Muslim culture flowered during the years With the single exception of the Adina Mosque, when the Ilyas Shahi and Husain Shahi dynasties ruled mosques built in Bengal in the early Islamic period all the country. In the flourishing Bengali Islamic fall into two types: one rectangular or oblong; the other literature of the time, Islam is presented in idioms square. The rectangular building without enelosed familiar to the common folk. Similarly, the architecture became a popular type for both large and for mosques-the new building type-was not medium-sized mosques. The earliest extant mosque of imported; it combined and adapted elements found in this type is the mosque of Zafar Khan Ghazi (fig. 2), the tradition. in Tribeni, West BengaJ.6 On the basis of its style and Before launehing into adescription of the major an inscription found over the , which com­ mosque types of BengaI, the Adina Mosque of Hazrat memorates the building of a in 696 (1298), it Pandua in West (Indian) Bengal must be mentioned. 3 is presumed to have been built in the elosing years of This mosque, built in 1375, predates the intensive the thirteenth century. Its plan, which became typical mosque-building period and has the distinction of for later mosques, consists of a rectangular covered being the only mosque modeled after the traditional prayer chamber, where each aisle terminates on the hypostyle of early Islam (fig. 1). The monumental size west with a mihrab (west is the direction for of the mosque and its plan can be understood in the Bangladesh and the whole of North ) and on the light of its inscription. In it the tide assumed by the east with an entrance. The building is covered with , who is also the patron, shows Sikander Shah's several small . Their number is determined by determination to assert hirnself as a great king in the multiplying the number of front entrances by the context of the whole of the Muslim world. Not content number of entrances on the north and south sides. with being a sultan of Bengal or India, he calls hirnself Not only the courtyard, but the surrounding , the "most perfeet of the of Arabia and Persia. " ablution fountain, and the of Middle Eastern The traditional hypo style is generally associated with mosques are absent here. In external elevation this the introduction of Islam into new areas. 4 Other mosque also lacks the Bengali look developed between SULTANATE MOSQUES IN BENGAL ARCHITECTURE 59

something similar to the type, but it was really an adap­ tation of the traditional hypostyle mosque with enclosed 00' 00 lIoaoo Cf aODoooaO courtyard. 7 Changes were made to suit the climate, and · , ~ooooooooooooO the resulting building type was known as Ulucami. t\'l 0 They began by enclosing the open side of the zulla fac­ mI o 11 o ing the court, and eventually dispensed with the court­ EI o yard element altogether. However, the memory of the · · m o courtyard survived in places where apart of the 0 0 --.--i -- ' I!!I o ~ · LIlI o along the central row of was left open to the o 0 0 i · .. · · · .. o sky and a fountain (sadirvan) was placed under it. The • • ·J · Illl o had flat wooden roofs supported on wooden o 1 · .. columns. Rectangular mosques were also found in _1._.1_-" · lIiI o ·• a o Ottoman times, but they never had the same popularity o. · · · II1II o they enjoyed in Bengal. ·f!!IEi1ll1!!! · · ~ o o The Ulucami of Bursa (1369-99) and the Zin­ o cirlikuyu in (fifteenth century) bear a super­ o ficial resemblance to the Bengali rectangular mosques, D II1II o • but the differences between them are striking. In the 0 • , • L"Ii o • 0 • l1li o Turkish mosques, the building material is stone and the ·• • • D o o internal supports are piers; in Bengal, brick is the more D o o • ·0 • o o likely building material and columns the more likely · • o support. The Turkish mosques have only a single · •I!I • • o entrance in front, and one or two side entrances. The 0 , • lIlI o ·• • • • mI 0 Bengali mosques have multiple front and side D D o 0 entrances. Finally in the Ulucami ofBursa a cross-axial D • o 0 0 • D o 0 design IS established by the intersection of a · o 0 longitudinal axis formed by the main portal and the fI1 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 00000 Da 0 mihrab and the transverse axis formed by the two side 0 OaODoaoo GOD entrances. The square at the intersection is dif­ · 0 00 a oaau a DaDa. DDDO D · ferent from the rest of the bays. It has a pool in the center with a fountain, is lower by two steps, and resembles an inner court. In Bengal each entrance is q'l::=!>I:::':::'0'i:::. =:::::ifOM aligned to a mihrab on the west wall, and there are as 10 Hazrat Pandua, West BcngaJ. Adina Mosque. Plan. (After many side entrances, real or blind, as there are bays on Catherine Asher, "Inventory of Key ," Islamic Heritage 01 each side. Generally all the units are the same. Bengal [Paris, 1984], p. 110.) By its rarity it is apparent that the Ottoman architects did not favor the rectangular, multidomed type of mosque. They seem to have preferred building the fourteenth and sixteenth century. Its veneer of bigger and bigger single domes instead. Sometimes the stone, straight cornice, row of piers in front , instead of large central was accompanied by sm aller a screen of arches, and lack of corner towers set it apart satellites. As structural techniques improved, they from mosques built in the typical Bengal architectural strove to achieve articulated spatial expressions instead style. of tying themselves to dull, repetitive interiors. In spite As the early Muslim conquerors of Bengal were of of its general similarity in form and shape, the Ulucami Turkish origin, Turkey is often automatically con­ reveals attempts at variety that are lacking in the sidered to be the source of several art and architectural repetitive units so characteristic of the multidomed themes. The material presented here will show that any square and rectangular mosques of Bangladesh. resemblance is more obviously the result of coincidence In Bengal heavy monsoon rains dictate an entirely than of influence. To begin with the mosque lacking an covered building, but how it was covered may owe enclosed court yard , the Seljuqs of did create something to the western of the Quwwatul Islam