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Jinjira Palace situated on the southern bank of the buriganga almost opposite to the bara katra of Dhaka was built by Mughal
subahdar ibrahim khan II (1689-1697) as his recreation resort. The site of the palace with the outlying area having been surrounded by rivers had the natural characteristics of an island, and hence the palace erected therein was named Qasr-i-Jazirah meaning palace of the island. The palace having originally been built just on the riverbank is said to have been connected with the Dhaka city by a wooden bridge thrown across the river at Bara Katra point. The palace is now extinct except two octagonal side towers, the dilapidated gateway (dewri) on the south and the remains of its broad foundation with the surrounding moat. The site of the palace is now indicated as howli (corruption of haveli) by the local people and is encircled by dense habitation and commercial establishments.
The recreation resort of Ibrahim Khan became the residence
of murshid
quli khan on his getting the diwani
of Bengal and continued as such till the transfer of the seat of his revenue
administration to Maqsudabad (1703). He used to stay in this palace while
on official visits to Dhaka. This palace had been the family residence
of Husain Quli Khan, a deputy to nawazish
muhammad khan, absentia naib
nazim of Dhaka. The palace had played its melancholy role during
the closing years of the Murshidabad nizamat. After the fall of
Nawab sarfaraz
khan (1739-1740) his mother, wife, sister and children along
with some women of his harem
were kept confined in the Jinjira palace. On the murder of Husain
Quli Khan (1754) in the street of Murshidabad his family members who were
living in this palace suffered the similar fate. Ironically, after the
fall of sirajuddaula,
Alivardi's daughters ghaseti
begum and amina
begum, Siraj's wife lutfunnisa
begum with her daughter Qudsia Begum alias Umme Zohra were
sent to the Jinjia palace where they were kept under strict surveillance.
Tradition goes that Ghaseti Begum and Amina Begum were taken out and drowned
with their barge into the Dhaleswari (June 1760) at the instance of Mir
Sadeq Ali Khan alias Miran, son of mir
jafar. [Muazzam Hussain Khan] |
