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| Figure 26 – The Kusumba Mosque is in the Rajshahi District of Bangladesh and was built in 1558 AD by a patron named Sulaiman, who has been linked to a local landholder named Chilman Majumdar who was a convert to Islam. It was built during the period of Afghan rule in Bengal, in the reign of Ghiyas al-Din Bahadur Shah, the last of the Suri rulers. With six domes, it is built in the Bengali style of that period; although it has the unusual feature of a women’s gallery in the upper storey. A ‘Mihrab’ is a ‘prayer niche’ in a mosque that indicates the position of Mecca, the direction Muslims face while praying. The Mihrab of the Kusumba Mosque is decorated with some of the finest stone carvings in any of the Bangladeshi mosques, showing great elegance and maintaining exquisite lines. |