Khan Jahan Ali

'Sixty-Dome Mosque' in the historical mosque town of Bagerhat

Khan Jahan Ali or just Khan Jahan (* around 1380; † October 25, 1459 ) was a Turkish-born military leader under the ruling Tughluq Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud Shah (ruled 1442-1459) in Delhi . Sometimes he is also described as a Sufi . During his lifetime he received the honorary titles Ulugh Khan ('Great Prince') and Khan-i-Azam , which are immortalized on the cenotaph of his tomb near Bagerhat ( Bangladesh ).

history

Khan Jahan Ali seems to have come to Bengal immediately after the conquest of Delhi (1398) by Timur (also known in the West as Tamerlan or Timur Lenk ), in which he may have participated . After initial clean-up activities in the Sundarbans, he went to the less flood-prone areas of central Bengal , where he founded a city called Khalifatabad (today's Bagerhat), which under his leadership was soon able to break free from the power structure of other Bengali sultanates.

buildings

Khan Jahan founded numerous villages, built roads and water catchment basins ( dighis ) and built mosques , Koran schools and palaces. His most important building is probably the 'sixty-domed mosque' ( Shaith-Gumbad-Masjid ) in Khalifatabad , built around the middle of the 15th century , in which architectural influences from Delhi (e.g. Khirki-Masjid ) are combined with Bengali shapes Mix. The mosque of Masjidkur (Bangladesh) and his own tomb in the vicinity of Bagerhat, which is visited by many Muslim pilgrims, were built around the same time .

Web links

• Article on Khan Jahan (Banglapedia English)
• Article on Khalifatabad (Banglapedia English)
• Sixty-Dome Mosque - Photos, Floor Plan + Info (Banglapedia English)