page_title: History of Dhaka
section_title: Sultanate Period
hierarchical_section_title: History of Dhaka / Sultanate Period
caption_attribution_description: This mosque is more than 900 years old, situated in Narinda, Old Dhaka, Bangladesh. My Students, "Arafat &amp; Hossien" helped me taking this picture.
context_page_description: Dacca or Dhaka is the capital and one of the oldest cities of Bangladesh. The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Sena dynasty in the 9th century CE. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkic and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. After Mughals, British ruled the region for 200 years until the independence of India. In 1947, Dhaka became the capital of the East Bengal province under the Dominion of Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Dhaka became the capital of the new state.
context_section_description: Upon arrival of Islam in this region, Turkish and Afghan rulers reigned the area from the early 14th century until the late 16th century. An Afghan fort (also known as Old Fort of Dhaka) was built at that time which was later converted to the present-form of Old Dhaka Central Jail in 1820 by the British. A 17th-century historian, Mirza Nathan, described the fort in his book Baharistan-i-Ghaibi as "surrounded by mud walls and the largest and strongest in pre-Mughal era".
  In 1412, Shah Ali Baghdadi, a saint arrived in Delhi and then came to Dhaka where he became a disciple of Shah Bahar of the Chishti Order. His shrine is still at Mirpur Thana area.
  Binat Bibi Mosque was built in 1454 at Narinda area of Dhaka during the reign of the Sultan of Bengal, Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (r. 1435–1459). It is the oldest brick structure that still exists in the city.
  According to the inscription found near the present-day Old Central Jail area, the gate of Naswallagali Mosque was renovated in 1459.
  Around 1550 a Portuguese historian, João de Barros, first inserted Dhaka into the map in his book Décadas da Ásia (Decades of Asia).
caption: Binat Bibi Mosque (built 1454) – the earliest known mosque surviving in Dhaka
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