In mid-15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the inhospitable mangrove forest of the Sundarbans (situated in Bangladesh & now counting as world’s natural wonder) near the seacoast in Bagerhat district by a saint Ulugh Khan Jahan.
He was the earliest torchbearer of Islam in the South who laid the nucleus of an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (1442-59), then known as `Khalifatabad’ (present Bagerhat). Khan Jahan adorned his city with numerous mosques, tanks, roads and public buildings. The most spectacular of which is the imposing multi-domed mosque in Bangladesh, known as the Shat Gambuj Masjid. The stately fabric of the monument stands on the eastern bank of a vast sweet-water tank, clustered around by the heavy foliage of a low-laying countryside characteristic of a seacoast landscape.
The mosque is roofed over with 77 squat domes, including 7 four-sided domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall is provided with 11 arched doorways on east and 7 each on north and south for ventilation and light. It has 7 longitudinal aisles and 11 deep bays by a forest of slender stones columns. From these columns spring rows of endless arches, supporting the domes. The arches are six feet in thickness, have slightly tapering hollow and round walls. The interior and the exterior of the mosque give a view of rather plain architecture but the interior western wall of the mosque was beautifully decorated with terracotta flowers and foliage. Besides being used as a prayer hall the mosque was also used as the court of Khan Jahan Ali. Now it is one of the greatest tourist attractions and best architectural beauties of Bangladesh.
