Bhodesar Mosque, an Oldest Mosque of the Thar Desert

Bhodesar Mosque is the oldest mosque in Thar desert which was built in 1505 A.D (880 A.H) by Sultan Mehmood Shah Bin Muzaffar Shah Bin Ghiyyas-ud-Din, the ruler of Gujarat (India). This five centuries years old mosque built of white marbles & limestones, is still in use by Muslims for prayers.

Sultan Mehmood Shah Begada

Location of Bhodesar Mosque:

Bhodesar mosque is geographically located on the foot of mountain range of Karoonjhar hills, 6.8.km (4.2 miles) away from Nagarparkar town via Islamkot Road. It is situated besides the famous Bhodesar lake (reservoir) with major source of water from rains of monsoon. 

GPS Coordinates: 24.39917, 70.73100

Construction & Design of Bhodesar Mosque:

The rectangular shaped Bhodesar mosque measuring area of about (25 x 17) ft squares, was built in 1505 A.D, with white marbles and lime-stones. This mosque is surrounded with boundary wall of around 45ft x 40 ft . Its design and architecture highly reflects with the nearby Jain temples and art. Further, it is also said that some craftsmen people of Jain religion took part in the construction of this mosque and set the example of religious tolerance and harmony.

Top Eagle view of Bhodesar Mosque and Bhodesar Lake behind of it.

Top Front view of Bhodesar Mosque

Back View of Bhodesar Mosque

Design of ceiling border of Bhodesar Mosque

Left Picture: Pillars and a dome of Bhodesar Mosque.
Right Picture: Pillars and a dome (Mandapa) of Gori Jain Temple

Top Inner view of largest dome of Bhodesar Mosque

Top Inner view of largest dome with pillars of Bhodesar mosque

Interior view of three Mohrab of Bhodesar Mosque

Bhodesar mosque has a roof with five domes, one largest dome in center and four smaller domes in four corners. These domes of mosque are supported with more than 12 pillars of carved marble stones. There are some some historic and old graveyard can be seen in the courtyard of mosque.

Records from History:

According to book 'Puraano Parkar', author Mangharam Ojha has written his findings that, once upon a time Sultan Mehmood Ghaznvi stayed near Bhodesar lake for two days, when returning back to his capital in Afghanistan via route of Thar desert.

As per other historians, Sultan Mehmood Shah who was known with title of Mahmood Begara had captured Nagarparkar after defeating tribes of Sodha (rajputs), assassinating the huge number of army of them and then return back to capital Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India). Sometimes later, Sultan's mother Bibi Mughli was passing by Bhodesar with a caravan and was stopped by Sodhas who tried to receive bribe. After reaching the capital Ahmedabad, Bibi Mughli told the whole story of incident to his son who got anger over that behaviour of Sodhas. He marched with the his huge army to Bhodesar defeated Sodhas once again after their revolt. Sultan Mehmood Shah settled a large number of his army at Bhodesar and built a mosque in 1505 A.D, so that local Sodhas would not revolt and gain power again.

Conservation and Promotion as Heritage Site

Every year, thousands of tourists from whole Pakistan as well as around the world visit this historical and marvelous site, especially during the monsoon seasons. Provincial government of Sindh has also been taking steps in order to conserve and restore the structure and promotion of this historical mosque as tourist site.