Old Dhaka (original) (raw)

Old Dhaka (Bengali: পুরান ঢাকা, romanized: Puran Dhaka) is a term used to refer to the historic old city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was founded in 1608 as Jahangirabad or Jahangirnagar (Bengali: জাহাঙ্গীরনগর, romanized: Jahangirnogor, lit. 'City of Jahangir'), the capital of Mughal Province of Bengal and named after the Mughal emperor Jahangir. It is located on the banks of the Buriganga River. It was one of the largest and most prosperous cities of South Asia and the center of the worldwide muslin trade. The then Nawab of Bengal Murshid Quli Khan shifted the capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad in the early-18th century. With the rise of Calcutta (now Kolkata) during the British rule, Dhaka began to decline and came to be known as the "City of Magnificent Ruins". The British how