Hazrat Pandua

Hazrat Pandua was a capital of the independent Bengal Sultanate, known to its Muslim rulers as Firuzabad. Its mosques and tombs show both the ambitions of the sultans and the emergence of a distinctive Bengali architectural style. The vast Adina Mosque, built of brick faced with stone, was designed for congregational prayer on a scale befitting a royal capital.

Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah made Pandua his capital after establishing an independent Bengal. His successor Sikandar Shah built the Adina Mosque in the later fourteenth century. Arcades carrying hundreds of small domes surrounded its great courtyard, while a vaulted central nave marked the prayer hall. Some of the stone was reused from earlier Hindu buildings, and local craftsmen also carved new decorative work for the mosque. Its size proclaimed the standing of the new dynasty.

The Eklakhi mausoleum, traditionally identified as the tomb of Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah and his family, belongs to the early fifteenth century. Its square brick chamber, single dome, corner towers and curved cornices anticipated forms that became characteristic of Bengal. The royal capital later returned to Gaur, but Pandua remained a religious centre. In 1582 a descendant of the Sufi saint Nur Qutb Alam built the Qutb Shahi Mosque near his shrine, adding another monument to the city’s sacred landscape.