Jinjira Palace

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.