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Singair Mosque
সিংগাইর মসজিদ
Singair Mosque; সিংগাইর মসজিদ
	The mosque's east facade
Religion
Affiliation	Sunni Islam
Location
Country	Bangladesh
Geographic coordinates	22°40′22″N 89°44′33″E / 22.6728°N 89.7425°E
Architecture
Type	Mosque
Style	Indo-Islamic, Sultanate
Completed	Mid fifteenth century CE
Specifications
Dome(s)	1
Materials	Burnt brick

The Singar Mosque (Bengali: সিঙ্গাইর মসজিদ)^{[note 1]} is a 15th-century mosque that forms a part of the Mosque City of Bagerhat, a designated World Heritage Site in the southwestern region of Bangladesh. This mosque is characterized by its single-domed, square structure constructed with exposed brick and adorned with terracotta decorations.

Location

The Singar Mosque is indeed a constituent of the Mosque City of Bagerhat, located in the south-western region of Bangladesh.^[1] Positioned on the southern side of the Bagerhat-Khulna Highway, it is situated approximately 200 metres (660 ft) southeast of the Sixty Dome Mosque.^[2]^[3]

History

The Singar Mosque lacks any inscriptions that can be used to establish its exact date of construction.^[2] Architect Abu Sayeed M Ahmed estimates that it is from the 15th century.^[4] Other experts believe, based on the known ages of stylistically similar local buildings, that it was built in the mid-15th century.^[2]^[5]^[6] There is archaeological evidence that at one time the mosque compound was surrounded by a wall with towers at the corners and an entrance gate on the east.^[5]^[7]

Banglapedia describes the mosque's condition in the early 1970s as "in utter ruin". The government's Department of Archaeology took over the site in 1975.^[6] In 1984, archaeologist Johanna E. van Lohuizen de Leeuw wrote that the building had been partly restored, but "its corner towers are still in a shocking state".^[7] The Mosque City of Bagerhat, of which Singair Mosque is a part, was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites in 1985.^[1] The mosque was rated as being in a "fair state of preservation" in the 2010s.^[6]

Architecture

The mosque is a square of 43'9" x 43'9" externally while internally it has a square plan of 26'0" x 26'0".^[9] It has a single hemispherical dome. The entirety is constructed of brick. There are three doorways in the east, and one each in the north and south.^[2] The central doorway in the east is higher and wider than the others.^[10] The exterior of the west wall has a mihrab projection from the ground to the cornice.^[5] At the four corners of the building are engaged circular towers which rise to roof level.^[2]^[6] The cornice is gently curved, being 12 inches (0.30 m) higher at the center than at the ends.^[10]

The doorways are pointed archways set within rectangular recesses,^[2] at the top of which are several horizontal rows of terracotta ornamentation.^[5] The corner towers are divided horizontally at regular intervals by raised bands. The cornice has two bands decorated with terracotta.^[6]

The mosque's walls are 7 feet (2.1 m) thick.^[5] The interior has a single mihrab in the qibla wall, on axis with the central entrance in the east. It is flanked by two decorated octagonal pilasters from which springs a multifoil arch with terracotta rosettes in the spandrels. All these are bordered by two rectangular frames, the space between which is filled with a four-petalled mesh in terracotta.^[2]^[10] To each side of the mihrab is a multifoil arched niche in a rectangular recess. The north and south walls each have two similar, but smaller niches.^[5]^[10]

Squinches spring from brick pilasters to support the base of the dome.^[2]

Notes

^ Transliterations vary. Signage on site spells it Singair. Perween Hasan uses Shingria and Banglapedia uses Singria, whereas most other sources use Singair.

References

^ ^a ^b "Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat". World Heritage Convention. UNESCO. Archived from the original on 3 July 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hasan, Perween (2007). Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. I.B. Tauris. pp. 125–127. ISBN 978-1-84511-381-0.
^ "Singar Mosque". ArchNet. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 11 Oct 2019.
^ Ahmed, Abu Sayeed M (2006). Mosque Architecture in Bangladesh (PDF). Dhaka: UNESCO. p. 205. ISBN 984-32-3469-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-16. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Alamgir, Khoundkar (2008–2009). "Single Unit Square Type Sultanate Buildings of Bengal". Journal of Bengal Art. 13–14: 241. Archived from the original on 2023-12-17. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Bari, M. A. (2012). "Singra Mosque". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
^ ^a ^b van Lohuizen de Leeuw, Johanna E. (1984). "The early Muslim monuments at Bagerhat". In Michell, George (ed.). The Islamic Heritage of Bengal (PDF). UNESCO. p. 176. ISBN 92-3-102174-5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-06. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
^ Hasan, Perween (2007). Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. I.B. Tauris. pp. 23, 49. ISBN 978-1-84511-381-0.
^ Reza, Mohammad Habib; Hossain, Md Shajjad (2017). Documentation of Islamic Heritage of Bangladesh (pdf). Dhaka: Brac University. Archived from the original on 2022-06-05. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Naqi, Md. Ali (March 2003). The Architecture of the Khan-e-Jahan Style: Context and Influence (PDF) (Masters of Architecture). Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. p. 83–84. Retrieved 8 June 2020.