Hussaini Dalan, Shia Islamic shrine in Bakshibazar, Bangladesh

Hussaini Dalan is a long rectangular white imambara on a raised platform, its south verandah facing a square pond that touches the walls. Six plain columns support the colonnade, with arched openings behind and a parapet of small red merlons above; rounded corner towers carry blue and white patterned domes. Inside, the Shirni and Khutba halls sit back to back.

Built in 1642 under Mughal rule by Syed Mir Murad, the shrine became a major center for Shia devotion in the region. Major reconstruction took place following the 1897 earthquake, funded by the prominent businessman Khwaja Ahsanullah.

The name Dalan refers to the building itself, and a Persian poem carved on its wall gives the pronunciation Hosayni Dalan. Every year during the first ten days of Muharram the halls fill for majlis mourning gatherings, and Sunni as well as Shia residents of old Dhaka join. Mourning continues until the 10th of Safar, ending with an Ashura procession through the streets.

The complex is accessible daily and organized with separate spaces for prayer, burial, and ritual needs including a water tank. Visitors should dress modestly and remove their shoes before entering the prayer halls.

The 2011 restoration was funded and carried out with Iranian help: Iranian architects and artists replaced the earlier coloured glasswork inside with blue tiles bearing verses and suras, imported from Iran. Similar tiles were fixed on the eastern gateway and the square columns on the north side, a change that drew controversy in Bangladesh.