Star Mosque (Tara Masjid)

 The embellished Star Mosque.

Star Mosque is situated in Abdul Khairat Road, Armanitola, in the old part of Dhaka city. Mirza Golam Pir, whose ancestors had come to Dhaka and settled in Mohalla Ale Abu Sayeed (present-day Armanitola), erected it. Originally it was an oblong three domed mosque. In 1926 a local businessman named Alijan Bepari added a verandah to the mosque on its eastern side, thereby almost doubling the width of the mosque without change it original plan. In 1987 the three-domed mosque was transformed into a five-domed mosque. The mosque, both inside and outside, is decorated with mosaic. Small chips of Chinaware-plate, cup etc and pieces of glass have been used for mosaic. This type of mosaic is called "Chini Tikri" work. Vase with flowers is an important decorative motif on the spandrel of the arches and elsewhere on the facade. Flower-vases, flower branches, rosset, crescent, star, and Arabic calligraphic writing have been used in the decoration of the mosque. The wall between the doors is decorated with the motif of Fujisan (Mount Fuji) on glazed tiles and a crescent-and-star design decorates the upper part of the facade. Hundreds of blue stars have been created on the domes of white marble. All over the mosque the motif of stars dominate the decoration and so the mosque is called the star mosque (Tara mosque).