Katra Masjid

Architecture

Murshid Quli Khan, on reaching old age, expressed his desire to construct his tomb adjacent to a mosque. He entrusted the responsibility for constructing the mosque to his trusted follower who was an architect, Murad Farash Khan.

The former mosque is reportedly a copy of the Kartalab Khan Mosque in Dhaka, also built by Murshid Quli Khan, approximately 25 years earlier. The Katra Masjid stands on a square plinth, built of brick, and surrounded by double storied domed cells that were built for those who read the Quran, like a madrasa. Up to 700 Quran readers can be accommodated in these rooms that from a cloister to the huge courtyard.

Four large minars stood at the four corners, of which two have since been partially destroyed. These are octagonal in plan and taper upwards. The two towers or the minarets in front of the mosque are 21 metres (70 ft) high and 7.6 metres (25 ft) in diameter. The whole mosque is quadrangular in shape, has no pillars, and is supported by a raised platform below the mosque and by several arches. The mosque was, however, partially destroyed in the 1897 earthquake. Each minar has a winding staircase which leads to the top, and a major part of the city of Murshidabad may be viewed from the top of the minars. At the two ends of the mosque, the two minarets are in a dilapidated condition, and they had bulbous domes, also destroyed in the 1897 earthquake. In 1780 CE, a traveller named William Hodges wrote that 700 Quran readers lived in the mosque. In his book, Select Views of India, Hodges described the mosques as "a grand seminary of Musalman learning, adorned by a mosque which rises high above all the surrounding buildings".

The former mosque is rectangular in plan. The dimensions are 45.5 by 7.32 metres (149.3 by 24.0 ft). It was divided into five bays, each with an arched entrance and the central one is the most prominent one as it has a slender turret. The mosque has five domes. Some of them have been destroyed others have survived the great earthquake of 1897, which almost destroyed most of the building. The total site area is 19.5 acres (7.9 ha). The mosque can accommodate 2,000 Namaz readers, with 2,000 squared type mats depicted on the floor, each of them used by a single Namaz reader.

The cells in the former mosque, locally called Katra, are two storied and are 20 square feet (1.9 m²); and each have six arched doorways. There are fifteen steps edged with stones lead up to the gate with five arches on either sides and a stone paved pathway which leads to the central door of the mosque. The open spaces between these cells and the mosque are 4.0 metres (13 ft) wide on either sides and 13 metres (42 ft) wide at the back of the mosque. The terrace in front of the mosque is 51 by 34 metres (166 by 110 ft).

The former mosque has two inscriptions on basalt slabs, that translated from Persian, state that the mosque was constructed by Nawab Nazim Murshid Quli Khan in 1137 AH (1724/1725 CE); and, that translated from Arabic, read, "Muhammad, the Arabian, is the glory of both worlds. Dust be on the head of him who is not the dust of his portal."

Tomb

The eastern entrance to the mosque is by a flight of fourteen stairs. Nawab Murshid Quli Khan was buried under these stairs. The Nawab's humble wish was to repentant for his misdeeds. He wanted to be buried in a place where he could be trodden on and could get the foot prints and the touch of the feet of the noble men who climb those stairs and enter the mosque. He was buried under the stairs in 1725 CE.

Communal uprising

The mosque has been protected and maintained by the ASI since 1910, used only as a centre for scholarly pursuits. At the 1987 election, the Muslim League was successful in gaining a seat in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on a platform of allowing constituents the right to pray at all mosques, including the Katra Masjid and another eleven mosques in West Bengal managed by the ASI. The Muslim League submitted to government authorities requests for the right to pray at Katra Masjid that were ignored, and in response, the government tightened security around the mosque. Permission for a protest march was granted to the Muslim League to gather at a village near Berhampore, some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the mosque. Approximately 35,000 Muslims turned up to protest. A group of Muslims broke away from the march and clashed with local Hindus, resulting in the death of at least 12 (and possibly up to 21) unarmed Muslims in Cossimbazar. The Muslim League blamed the state government authorities, "Either the Government must allow us to pray at Katra Masjid or scrap the right to religion from the Constitution."