Majidbaria Shahi Mosque
The Majidbaria Shahi Mosque is a mosque and archaeological site located in the village of Majidbaria in Mirzaganj Upazila, part of the Patuakhali District of southern Bangladesh. The name is taken from its location "Masjidbari" which literally translates "Mosque House". Completed during the 15th-century, it is the oldest mosque and first brick building in the Greater Barisal region having been built during the reign of Sultan Ruknuddin Barbak Shah.
History
During the reign of Sultan Ruknuddin Barbak Shah, his minister Khan-i-Azam Uzayr Khan constructed this mosque in between.In 1584, a cyclone severely damaged infrastructure in the Bakla-Chandradwip region. During this period, the area was under the rule of Kandarpanarayan Rai, the Raja of Chandradwip, who also evacuated his capital in Bakla. Without fully recovering from the natural disaster, Chandradwip was then faced with Magh and Portuguese pirates. Muslim-dominant villages such as Madhabkhali, Mirzaganj, Bibichini, Talgachia, Maqamia, Karuna, Gulishahkhali, Ghuslkhali, Faqirkhali, Auliyapur and Dhulia were deserted and the area became covered in jungle, effectively becoming a part of the Sundarbans again.
In the 1860s, British Raj began plans to cultivate the Sundarbans and rediscovered the mosque, which was being inhabited by a fakir. The mosque was visited by Henry Beveridge, the District Magistrate of Barisal. In 1904, the interior of the mosque was renovated under Nicholas Beatson-Bell, the erstwhile District Magistrate of Backergunge district. The area then became known as Masjidbari or Masjidbaria by the locals, and later became corrupted to Majidbaria, though others claim that it was named after a local chairman named Majid. The mosque is under the protection of the Bangladeshi Department of Archaeology, though it continues to be actively used by worshippers.