Dhaka (Dhākā, formerly Dacca) became the capital of the newly conquered Mughal province of Bengal (now Bangladesh) in the early eleventh/seventeenth century and remained the provincial capital for most of the time until 1129/1717, when the administration moved to Murshidābād. Its foundations, however, predate that period. It has again been the capital of the independent state of Bangladesh since 1971. Its strategic and commercial importance was and is due to its location on the north bank of the…