Ilyas Shahi dynasty

(Sixty Dome Mosque in Mosque city of Bagerhat was built in the 15th century and is the largest historical mosque in Bangladesh, as well as a World Heritage site.) Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah founded an independent dynasty that lasted from 1342 to 1487. The dynasty successfully repulsed attempts by Delhi to conquer them. They continued to extend their territory across what is modern-day Bengal, reaching to Khulna in the south and Sylhet in the east. The sultans developed civic institutions and became more responsive and "native" in their outlook and became increasingly independent from Delhi influence and control. Considerable architectural projects were completed including the massive Adina Mosque and the Darasbari Mosque which still stands in Bangladesh near the border with India. The Sultans of Bengal were patrons of Bengali literature and began a process in which Bengali culture and identity would flourish. During the rule of this dynasty, Bengal, for the first time, achieved a separate identity. Indeed, Ilyas Shah named this province as 'Bangalah' and united different parts into a single, unified territory.[25] The Ilyas Shahi Dynasty was interrupted by an uprising by the Hindus under Raja Ganesha. However, the Ilyas Shahi dynasty was restored by Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah. The Moroccan traveller and scholar, Ibn Battuta, arrived in Bengal during Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah's reign.[26] In his account of Bengal in his Rihla, he depicts a land full of abundance. Bengal was a progressive state with commercial links to China, Java and Ceylon. Merchant ships arrived and departed from various destinations.

Mahmud Shahi dynasty

The Mahmud Shahi dynasty started when Nasiruddin Bughra Khan declared independence in Bengal. Nasiruddin Bughra Khan and his successors ruled Bengal for 23 years before finally being incorporated back into Delhi Sultanate by Ghyiasuddin Tughlaq.

Mamluk rule

The weak successors of Iltutmish enabled the local governors to declare their independence. Bengal was sufficiently remote from Delhi that its governors would declare independence on occasion, styling themselves as Sultans of Bengal. It was during this time that Bengal earned the name "Bulgakpur" (land of the rebels). Tughral Togun Khan added Oudh and Bihar to Bengal. Mughisuddin Yuzbak also conquered Bihar and Oudh from Delhi but was killed during an unsuccessful expedition in Assam. Two Turkic attempts to push east of the broad Jamuna and Brahmaputra rivers were repulsed, but a third led by Mughisuddin Tughral conquered the Sonargaon area south of Dhaka to Faridpur, bringing the Sen Kingdom officially to an end by 1277. Mughisuddin Tughral repulsed two massive attacks from the sultanate of Delhi before finally being defeated and killed by Ghiyas ud din Balban.

Khiljis

The period after Bakhtiar Khilji's death in 1207 involved infighting among the Khiljis. This was typical of a pattern of succession struggles and intra-sultanate intrigues during later Turkic regimes. In this case, Ghiyasuddin Iwaz Khalji prevailed and extended the Sultan's domain south to Jessore and made the eastern Bang province a tributary. The capital was established at Lakhnauti on the Ganges near the older Bengal capital of Gaur. He managed to make Kamarupa and Trihut pay tribute to him. But he was later defeated by Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish.

Turkic rule

In 1203 AD, the first Muslim ruler, Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji, a Turk, captured Nadia and established Muslim rule. The political influence of Islam began to spread across Bengal with the conquest of Nadia, the capital city of the Sen ruler Lakshmana. Bakhtiyar captured Nadia in an interesting manner. Being made aware of the presence of a strong army of Lakshmana Sen on the main route to Nadia, Bakhtiyar proceeded instead through the jungle of Jharkhand. He divided his army into several groups, and he himself led a group of 17 horsemen and advanced towards Nadia in the guise of horse-traders. In this manner, Bakhtiyar had no problem in entering through the gates of the city. Shortly afterwards, Bakhityar's main army joined him and within a short while Nadia was captured. After capturing Nadia, Bakhtiyar advanced towards Gauda (Lakhnuti), another major city of the Sena kingdom, conquered it and made it his capital in 1205. In the following year, Bakhtiyar set out on an expedition to capture Tibet, but this attempt failed and he had to return to Bengal in poor health and with a reduced army. Shortly afterwards, he was killed by one of his commanders, Ali Mardan Khalji.[24] In the mean time, Lakshman Sen and his two sons retreated to Vikramapur (in the present-day Munshiganj District in Bangladesh), where their diminished dominion lasted until the late 13th century.

Late Middle Ages - Advent of Islam

Islam made its first appearance in the Bengal region during the 7th century AD through Arab Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries, and the subsequent Muslim conquest of Bengal in the 12th century led to the establishment of Islam across the region.[20] Beginning in 1202, a military commander from the Delhi Sultanate, Bakhtiar Khilji, overran Bihar and Bengal. He conquered Nabadwip from the old emperor Lakshman Sen in 1203.[21] He advanced across much of Bengal as far east as Rangpur and Bogra ushering in Muslim rule to Bengal.[22] Under the Muslim rulers, Bengal entered a new era as cities were developed; palaces, forts, mosques, mausoleums and gardens sprang up; roads and bridges were constructed; and new trade routes brought prosperity and a new cultural life.[23] However, smaller Hindu states, such as the Deva dynasty, continued to exist in the southern and the eastern parts of Bengal until the 1450s . Some independent small Hindu states were also established in Bengal during the Mughal period including Maharaja Pratapaditya of Jessore and Raja Sitaram Ray of Burdwan. These kingdoms contributed to the diverse economic and cultural landscape of Bengal. Militarily, these served as bulwarks against Portuguese and Burmese attacks. Many of these kingdoms are recorded to have fallen during the late 1700s. However, the Koch Bihar Kingdom in the north flourished during the 16th and 17th centuries until the advent of the British.

Deva Kingdom

The Deva Kingdom was a Hindu dynasty of medieval Bengal that ruled over eastern Bengal after the collapse Sena Empire. The capital of this dynasty was Bikrampur in present-day Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. The inscriptional evidences show that his kingdom was extended up to the present-day Comilla-Noakhali-Chittagong region. A later ruler of the dynasty Ariraja-Danuja-Madhava Dasharathadeva extended his kingdom to cover much of East Bengal.[19]