The Greater Sylhet district region predominantly included the Sylhet Division in Bangladesh, and Karimganj district in Assam, India. The history of the Sylhet region begins with the existence of expanded commercial centres in the area that is now Sylhet City. Historically known as Srihatta and Shilhatta, it was ruled by the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of Vanga, Harikela before passing to the control of the Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties in the early medieval period. Buddhism was prevalent in the first millennium. After the fall of these Buddhist and Hindu principalities, the region became home to many more independent petty kingdoms such as Jaintia, Gour, Laur, and later Taraf, Pratapgarh, Jagannathpur, Chandrapur and Ita. After the Conquest of Sylhet in the 14th century, the region was absorbed into Shamsuddin Firoz Shah's independent principality based in Lakhnauti, Western Bengal. It was then successively ruled by the Muslim sultanates of Delhi and the Bengal Sultanate before collapsing into Muslim petty kingdoms, mostly ruled by Afghan chieftains, after the fall of the Karrani dynasty in 1576. Described as Bengal's Wild East, the Mughals struggled in defeating the chieftains of Sylhet. After the defeat of Khwaja Usman, their most formidable opponent, the area finally came under Mughal rule in 1612. Sylhet emerged as the Mughals' most significant imperial outpost in the east and its importance remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. After the Mughals, the British Empire ruled the region for over 180 years until the independence of Pakistan and India. There was a complete list of the different amils who governed Sylhet which was recorded in the office of the Qanungoh (revenue officers) of Sylhet. However, most complete copies have been lost or destroyed. Dates from letters and seal traces show evidence that the amils were constantly changed. In 1947, when a referendum was held, Sylhet decided to join the Pakistani province of East Bengal. However, when the Radcliffe Line was drawn up, Karimganj district of Barak Valley was given to India by the commission after being pleaded by Abdul Matlib Mazumdar's delegation. Throughout the history of Sylhet, raids and invasions were also common from neighbouring kingdoms as well as tribes such as the Khasis and Kukis.
Ancient
According to historians, Sylhet was an expanded commercial centre inhabited by Brahmins under the realm of the Harikela and Kamarupa kingdoms of ancient Bengal and Assam. The Nidhanpur copperplate inscription of the 7th-century gives a detailed account 56 gotras of Vaidika Brahmanas settling in and around village of Nidhanpur.
The Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata mentions the marriage of Duryodhana of the Kauravas into a family in Habiganj, Sylhet. The Purana also mentions the hero Arjuna travelling to the Jaintia to regain his horse held captive by a princess. The region is also home to two of the fifty-one body parts of Sati, a form of Durga, that fell on Earth according to accepted legends. Shri Shail and Jayanti are where the neck and left palm of Sati fell and are Shakta pithas.
The Gour Kingdom, established in the 7th century, took part in many battles with its neighbouring states. Eventually it would split into two - Gour (Sylhet) and Brahmachal (South Sylhet/modern-day Moulvibazar). The region was also home to many petty kingdoms such as Laur and Jagannathpur and part of larger kingdoms such as the Jaintia and Twipra Kingdoms. In 640, the Raja of Tripura Dharma Fa planned a ceremony and invited five Brahmans from Etawah, Mithila and Kannauj. To compensate for their long journey, the Raja granted them land in a place which came to be known as Panchakhanda (meaning five parts) in Western Sylhet. Towards the end of the millennium, the Chandras ruled over Bengal.
A 930 AD copper-plate of Srichandra, of the Chandra dynasty of East Bengal, was found in Tengubazar Mandir, Paschimbhag, Rajnagar detailing his successful campaign against the Kingdom of Kamarupa. In the early medieval period, the area was dominated by Hindu principalities, which were under the nominal suzerainty of the Senas and Devas. The history of the dynasties in the region is documented by their copper-plate charters.
Evidence from inscriptions also suggest there was an ancient university in Panchgaon, Rajnagar. A copper-plate inscription of Raja Marundanath in Kalapur, Srimangal was discovered dating back to the 11th century. In 1195, Nidhipati Shastri, a Brahman from Panchakhanda who was descended from Ananda Shastri of Mithila, was given land in Ita (Rajnagar) by the Raja of Tripura. Ita was feudal to the Kingdom of Tripura and part of its Manukul Pradesh. Nidhipati became the founder of the Ita dynasty which would later gain a Raja status and based himself in Bhumiura-Ettolatoli. He established many dighis (ponds) and khamar (fields) which still exist today such as Shoptopar Dighi and Nidhipatir Khamar. He was succeeded over the feudal rule of Ita by his son, Bhudhar and then his grandson, Kandarpadi.
Keshab Misra, a Brahman from Kannauj, migrated to Laur where he established a Hindu kingdom. After the death of Raja Upananda of Brahmachal (modern-day Baramchal, Kulaura), Govardhan of Gour allowed Amar Singh to rule over southern Sylhet. Singh was unable to cope and died shortly after. The Kuki chiefs then annexed Brahmachal (Southern Sylhet) to the Twipra Kingdom ruled by Ratan Manikya. Jaidev Rai was appointed to govern Brahmachal under the Tripura king. The penultimate Raja Govardhan of Gour was killed in a battle against Kuki rebels and the Jaintia Kingdom in 1260. He would be succeeded by his nephew, Gour Govinda, who would reunite Northern Sylhet (Gour) and Southern Sylhet (Brahmachal). Govinda dismissed Govardhan's chief minister Madan Rai and appointed Mona Rai as his minister instead.
Medieval Delhi Sultanate period
During the time of the Delhi Sultanate's conquest of Bengal, Sylhet continued to be made up of petty kingdoms. Ghiyasuddin Iwaz Shah, the governor of Bengal who later claimed independence from Delhi, carried out invasions into neighbouring regions such as Assam, Tripura, Bihar and Sylhet and making them his tributary states.KingListsFarEast Bengal In 1254, Governor of Bengal Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak invaded the Azmardan Raj (present-day Ajmiriganj). He defeated the local Raja, and plundered his wealth.
The 14th century marked the beginning of an emerging Islamic influence in Sylhet. In 1303, the Sultan of Lakhnauti Shamsuddin Firoz Shah's army defeated the Hindu Raja Gour Govinda. This war began when Ghazi Burhanuddin, a Muslim living in Tultikar sacrificed a cow for his newborn son's aqiqah or celebration of birth. Govinda, in a fury for what he saw as sacrilege, had the newborn killed as well as having Burhanuddin's right hand cut off.EB, Suharwardy Yemani Sylheti, Shaikhul Mashaikh Hazrat Makhdum Ghazi Shaikh Jalaluddin Mujjarad, in Hanif, N. "Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and Middle East. Vol. 2". Sarup & Sons, 2002. p.459 The general's army was aided by a Sufi missionary, Shah Jalal, and his companions. Chief minister Mona Rai was killed in the battle and Govinda fled with his family. The city of Srihatta was given the epithet Jalalabad (settlement of Jalal) under the Lakhnauti Sultanate. Sikandar Khan Ghazi, one of the commanders of the battle and Firoz's nephew, was then made the first Muslim wazir to rule over Sylhet. Sikander ruled for a number of years under Shamsuddin Firoz Shah until his death, when he drowned while riding a boat.Sreehatter Itibritta – Purbangsho (A History of Sylhet), Part 2, Volume 1, Chapter 1, Achyut Charan Choudhury; Publisher: Mustafa Selim; Source publication, 2004 He was succeeded by Haydar Ghazi, appointed by Shah Jalal himself.Syed Murtaza Ali's History of Sylhet; Moinul Islam
The Raja of Laur, Ramnath (descendant of Keshab Misra), had three sons with only one remaining in central Laur. Ramnath's second son, Durbar Khan, migrated to Jagannathpur to build his own palace. He later seized his youngest brother, Gobind Singh's, territory in Baniachong.
Sonargaon rule
The Delhi Sultanate's control of Bengal gradually weakened as rebel governors declared independence. During the early 14th-century, Bengal was divided between three small sultanates- Sonargaon in the east, Lakhnauti in the west, and Satgaon in the south. Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah became the independent Sultan of eastern Bengal with a realm covering Sonargaon, Sylhet, and Chittagong. His kingdom was powerful enough to withstand the kingdoms of Arakan and Tripura. The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited Sylhet during this period and met with Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah and Shah Jalal. Fakhruddin was succeeded by his son Ikhtiyaruddin Ghazi Shah.
Bengal Sultanate period
After the defeat of the last Sultans of Lakhnauti and Sonargaon between 1342 and 1352, Sylhet passed to the control of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah who unified a wider region into the Bengal Sultanate. Bengali Muslims were exploiting the fertile land of Sylhet for agricultural production and enjoyed relative prosperity innovating a contemporary agrarian society. The Taraf Kingdom, founded by Syed Nasiruddin, was transformed into a hub of Islamic and linguistic education. Prominent writers and poets hailing from medieval Taraf and its surrounding areas included Syed Shah Israil (Sylhet's first author), Muhammad Arshad, Syed Pir Badshah and Syed Rayhan ad-Din. The region began to experience an influx of Muslim settlers, including Turks, Pashtuns, Arabs, and Persians. After the death of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, Bengal was ruled by Sikandar Shah.
In 1384, a young Persian man by the name of Mirza Malik Muhammad Turani migrated to Sylhet with a large force and established the Pratapgarh Kingdom (also including Deorali and Bhanugach) after marrying the daughter of the local ruler who had no children to take the throne. The Kingdom was subordinate to the Maharaja Maha Manikya of the Manikya dynasty of Tripura.
In 1437, Adwaitacharya was born in Nabagram, Laur Kingdom. Muqabil Khan was the Wazir of Sylhet in 1440. In 1463, Sylhet was governed by Khurshid Khan who built a mosque near Anair Haor in Hatkhola. Many mosques were built during this period such as an Adina Mosque replica in Dargah Mahalla built by Majlis Alam, the Dastur of Sylhet, in 1472. Alam also built the Goyghor Mosque in South Sylhet with his father, Musa ibn Haji Amir. Shankarpasha Shahi Masjid in Taraf as well as numerous dargah complexes commemorating Shah Jalal and his disciples were also built in this period. Alam was succeeded by Muqarrab ud-Daulah and Muazzam Khalis Khan respectively. In 1479, a mosque inscription in Tilapara, Muktarpur mentions another minister by the name of Malik Sikandar.
In addition, 1486 marked the birth of Chaitanya whose ancestral homes are in Golapganj and Baniachong. Hindus believe Chaitanya was a reincarnation of Krishna and will return during the Kholi Zug. In 1499, a Persian nobleman from Isfahan known as Prince Sakhi Salamat settled in a rural village in South Sylhet known as Prithimpassa (now located in Kulaura). Being a wealthy nobleman; his son, Ismail Khan Lodhi, was granted a jagir by the Mughals and given the status of Nawab in addition to other prestigious titles. In 1511, Alauddin Husain Shah's Turk general Rukn Khan was made the governor of Sylhet. In 1512, Khan enlarged the dargah of Shah Jalal, according to an ancient Persian inscription. Khan was succeeded by Gawhar Khan Aswari.
Bhanu Narayan of the Ita dynasty defeated a rebel of the Tripura Kingdom. The Tripura Raja then awarded him as the first raja of the Ita kingdom (Rajnagar), subordinate to the Kingdom.