Ahsan Manzil,
This beautiful historical manzil is located on the banks of river Buriganga in Islampur of old Dhaka.It was formerly the palace of the Nawabs of Dhaka.It is currently being used as a museum.It was founded by Nawab Abdul Gani and he named it Ahsan Manzil after his son Khwaja Ahsanullah.
A meeting held here in 1906 decided to establish the Muslim League.Ahsan Manzil has been renovated several times, the most recent being recently renovated.It is now a museum run by the Bangladesh National Museum.
In Details,
The place where Ahsan Manzil now stands was formerly known as Kumartuli in Islampur.It is located in the southern part of Dhaka city.Zamindar Sheikh Enayetullah built a recreation building called Rangmahal in the middle of the eighteenth century in the then Jalalpur Pargana.Shortly afterwards, when Sheikh Enayetullah died, his son Sheikh Matiullah sold the luxurious palace to the then French merchants.The French then built their trading factory there.In this area, the French built a cistern called Lush Jalla in the northwest corner of what is now the Ahsan Manzil.The tub was relatively round.
Shortly afterwards, in 1830, Khwaja Azimullah bought the palace from French merchants and renovated it for residential purposes.Nawab Abdul Gani, son of Khwaja Azimullah, rebuilt the palace in 1859 and named it Ahsan Manzil after his own son Khwaja Ahsanullah.Then, on April 7, 1888, a severe cyclone engulfed several parts of the Ahsan Manzil.All in all, this terrible cyclone caused a lot of damage to Ahsan Manzil.This Ahsan Manzil was later rebuilt and a dome that is now visible can be added.At that time there was no other building in Dhaka as high as Ahsan Manzil.
So the high dome of Ahsan Manzil used to attract people's attention from far away.The part that can be seen with the big dome is called the palace building.And it used to be a Rangmahal and next to it there is another Andarmahal which was also known as 'Janana'.
The domed palace building is divided into two parts.The well-high octagonal round dome is raised on the round room in the middle. It has a two-storey living room, ring card room, library and 3 guest rooms on the east side and a dance hall on the west side.On the east side of the ground floor there is a dining room and on the west side there are court rooms, billiard rooms and treasury. After spending a lot of money on various public welfare works and other works, Nawabganj in Dhaka became indebted to the local moneylenders and the British government.As a result, Nawab Salimullah was forced to hand over the management of the fallen zamindari to the Courts of Warts in 1907.
After the death of Nawab Salimullah in 1915, his own son Habibullah succeeded his father and he had to lose one zamindari after another, including parganas, due to debts.Besides, other children are separated with their property.The palace was gradually abandoned due to neglect among themselves.After the death of Nawab Habibullah in 1958, his son Khwaja Hasan Askari became the only Nawab.After various speculations, the then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia inaugurated this Ahsan Manzil as a museum on September 20, 1992 with the consent of many plans.