Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque (চকবাজার শাহী মসজিদ)

Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque (the Chawk Mosque) is a Mughal mosque founded by the governor Shaista Khan in the Chawkbazar market of Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, with an inscription dated 1675 to 1676. It is the earliest dated mosque in Bengal on a high vaulted platform, and suits visitors exploring the Mughal history of the old city.

Founded by Subahdar Shaista Khan

Subahdar Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal, founded the mosque, which is why it is called Shahi, or royal. Construction is usually traced to 1664. A Persian verse inscription over a doorway gives 1086 AH (1675 to 1676) and names Shaista Khan as builder; he may have written it himself under his pen name Talib.

A mosque on a platform

The mosque stands on a high vaulted platform, a form that may draw on Tughlaq mosques in Delhi such as the Khirki and Kalan mosques, and it shaped later mosques in Dhaka and Murshidabad. The original prayer hall had three domes, copying Shaista Khan's three-domed mosque in the Mitford Hospital grounds by the Buriganga.

The first madrasa mosque in Bengal

Vaulted rooms under the platform have bookshelves set into the walls and probably housed teachers and students, while the terrace may have served for outdoor classes. For this reason it is seen as the first known residential madrasa mosque in Bengal.

Multi-storey rebuild and the rainbow minaret

Repeated renovations have turned it into a multi-storey building, hiding much of the Mughal form. A multicoloured minaret, often called the rainbow minaret, is now its best-known feature.