Sonargaon (Bengali: সোনারগাঁও; also transcribed as Sunārgāon, meaning City of Gold) was a historic administrative, commercial and maritime center in Bengal. Situated in the center of theGanges delta, it was the seat of the medieval Muslim rulers and governors of eastern Bengal. Sonargaon was described by numerous historic travelers, including Ibn Battuta, Ma Huan,Niccolò de' Conti and Ralph Fitch as a thriving center of trade and commerce. It was an administrative center of Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah's sultanate, the Bengal Sultanateand the Kingdom of Bhati.
The name Sonargaon came as the Bangla version of the ancient name Suvarnagrama. Buddhist ruler Danujamadhava Dasharathadeva shifted his capital to Suvarnagrama fromBikrampur sometime in the middle of the 13th century. In early 14th century, Bauddha ruling in this area ended when Shamsuddin Firoz Shah (reigned 1301–1322) of Lakhnautioccupied and annexed it to his kingdom.
Muslim settlers first arrive in Sonargaon region in around 1281. Sharfuddin Abu Tawwamah, a medieval Sufisaint and Islamic philosopher came and settled here sometime between 1282 and 1287. Firoz Shah built a mint in Sonargaon from where a large number of coins were issued. When he died in 1322, his son,Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah, replaced him as the ruler. In 1324 Delhi Sultan, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, declared war against him and after the battle, Bahadur Shah was captured and Bengal, including Sonargaon, became a province of Delhi Sultanate. The same year, Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, son and successor of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, released him and appointed him as the governor of Sonargaon province.
After 4 years of governorship, in 1328, Bahadur Shah declared independence of Bengal. Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq sent his general, Bahram Khan, to depose him. In the battle, Bahadur Shah was defeated and killed. Bahram Khan recaptured Sonargaon for the Delhi Sultanate and he was also appointed the governor of Sonargaon. Ilyas Shah, the independent ruler of Lakhnauti, attacked Sonargaon in 1352. After defeatingIkhtiyaruddin Ghazi Shah, he became the sole ruler of whole Bengal for the first time in history and thus he became the founder of a sultanate of the unified Bengal. Source: Wikipedia
Picture Source: Collected from Internet
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