Madina Mosque is situated in Murshidabad, West Bengal, and is part of the Nizamat Imambara.
In fact Madina Mosque refers to both the old mosque built by Nawab Siraj ud-Duala (1733 – 1757) and to the new mosque built by Nawab Mansur Ali Khan in 1847 when he also rebuilt the Nizamat Imambara in 1847, after the old Imambara was completely destroyed by fire.
The old mosque constructed by Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah with soil brought from the Holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia and mixed with its foundation, so that it could provide an opportunity to the poorer members of the local Muslim community who could not undertake the journet to have an experience of Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
The new Madina mosque lies within the new Imambara, built on a raised platform decorated with ornamental china tiles, and the foundation contains soil from the Holy city of Karbala, Iraq. The arches and the walls of the mosque are ornamented with texts from the Holy Qur’an.
The Nizamat Imambara with the dome of the new Madina Mosque seen with the old Madina Mosque on the left.