Hussaini Dalan

Dhaka


A block north of the central jail is Hussaini Dalan, looking more like a Hindu rajbari (landowner’s palace) than an Islamic building. It was built in 1642 as the house of the imam of the Shi’ia community. Though the architecture seems baroque in inspiration, the original building was purely Mughal.

The Hussaini Dalan changed somewhat with restorations after the 1897 earthquake, when the roof collapsed. You can see a silver filigree model of the original building in the National Museum.