Lalbagh Shahi Masjid (Dhaka)

 place with historical importance, mosque

Also known as Farrukh Siyar Masjid is located within a few yards of the south eastern gate of the Lalbagh fort at Dhaka. This is the largest Mughal masjid in Bangladesh, capable of accommodating some 1500 devotees at a time. It was built by Prince Farrukh Siyar between 1703 and 1706, while he was at Dhaka as a representative of his viceroy father Prince Azim-us-Shan. There had been a series of later repair and extension works, The earliest known repair works to the masjid were done around 1870 at the instance of Khwaja Abdul Ghani and it was at that time that the present masonry roof of the masjid replaced its original wooden one. A new minaret was built in the Pakistan period. In the 1980s the masjid was thoroughly repaired and a large extension, covered with a flat masonry roof, was built in the east.

The masjid still retains its original layout. Its outer dimension is 49.99m from north to south and 16.46m from east to west. Internally it is 47.85m by 14.33m and the thickness of the walls is 1.07m only. The massive octagonal towers on the four exterior angles rise above the horizontal parapet and were originally topped by solid kiosks and cupolas that still exist in a ruinous state above the southeastern one.

There is a single semi-octagonal mihrab inside in the centre of the qibla wall, now widened. The nine doorways in the eastern facade and the three in the side walls suggest that the interior of the mosque was originally divided into three longitudinal aisles and nine bays by two rows of free standing pillars, eight in each row. Originally the mosque had a flat roof, made of wood and planks. The roof is still flat but masonry built, supported by heavy iron beams on the four walls and two rows of brick pillars. Nothing of the original ornamentation of the building now survives, except the traces of muqarnas works inside the half-domed top of the central mihrab niche.