Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji was a Bengali author and poet from Sirajganj in present-day Bangladesh. He is considered to be one of the key authors of period of the Bengali Muslim reawakening; encouraging education and glorifying the Islamic heritage. He also contributed greatly to introducing the Khilafat Movement in Bengal, and provided medical supplies to the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. Anal-Prabaha, his first poetry book, was banned by the government and he was subsequently imprisoned as the first South Asian poet to allegedly call for independence against the British Raj. The government issued Section 144 against him 82 times in his lifetime.
Dhaka (Dacca) is one of the oldest inhabited mega cities of the World. The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Hindu Gauda Kingdom, Buddhist and Shaivite Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 10th century CE. After the Sena dynasty, the city was ruled by the Hindu Deva Dynasty. Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkic and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate, followed by the Bengal Sultanate, before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. The city became proto-industrialised and declared capital of the Mughal Bengal and commercial (financial) capital of the Mughal India. The Dhaka natural riverine port has a recorded existence since the 16th century CE. Dhaka's strategic riverine location in Bengal made it a hub for Eurasian traders, including Armenians, the Portuguese, French, Dutch and British. The bustling old city was known as the Venice of the East. After Mughals, British ruled the region for 200 years until the independence of India in 1947. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Dhaka became the capital of the new state.
Hakim Habibur Rahman was an Unani physician, litterateur, journalist, politician and chronicler in early 20th-century Dhaka.
Nāsir ad-Dīn Naṣrat Shāh, also known as Nusrat Shah, was the second Sultan of Bengal belonging to the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He continued with his father's expansionist policies but by 1526, had to contend with the Mughal ascendency in the Battle of Ghaghra. Simultaneously, Nasrat Shah's reign also suffered a reverse at the hands of the Ahom kingdom. The reigns of Alauddin Husain Shah and Nasrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal Sultanate.
Ḥusām ad-Dīn ʿIwaz bin Ḥusayn Khaljī, later known by his regnal title as Ghiyāth ad-Dīn ʿIwaz Shāh, was a two-time governor of Bengal under the Delhi Sultanate, and a member of the Khalji dynasty of Bengal. During his second term, lasting from 1212 to 1227, Khalji declared himself as an independent ruler of Bengal.
Musa Khan was the leader of the Bara-Bhuiyans of Bengal following the death of his father, Isa Khan.
Shāhzāda Bārbak, known by his regnal title as Ghiyāsuddīn Bārbak Shāh, was the Sultan of Bengal in 1487 and the founder of the Sultanate's Habshi dynasty. He was a former commander of the palace-guards of Jalaluddin Fateh Shah court.
Malik Andil Habshi, better known by his regnal title Saifuddin Firuz Shah was the second "Habshi" ruler of the Bengal Sultanate's Habshi dynasty. He was a former army commander of the Sultanate's Ilyas Shahi dynasty.
Mohammad Mozammel Huq was an Indian Bengali-language poet, novelist, magistrate and educationist. His writings were said to have been inspired by a "Muslim renaissance".
Nawab Bahadur was a title of honour bestowed during Mughal Empire and later during British Raj to Indian Muslim individuals for faithful service or acts of public welfare.
Masum Khan was a zamindar of Bengal. He was the eldest son and successor of Baro-Bhuiyan leader Musa Khan and the grandson of Isa Khan.
Shāh ʿAlī al-Baghdādī was a 15th-century Muslim missionary and Sufi saint based in the Faridpur and Dhaka regions of Bengal.
Sikhism in Bangladesh has an extensive heritage and history, although Sikhs had always been a minority community in Bengal. Their founder, Guru Nanak visited a number of places in Bengal in the early sixteenth century where he introduced Sikhism to locals and founded numerous establishments. In its early history, the Sikh gurus despatched their followers to propagate Sikh teachings in Bengal and issued hukamnamas to that region. Guru Tegh Bahadur lived in Bengal for two years, and his successor Guru Gobind Singh also visited the region. Sikhism in Bengal continued to exist during the colonial period as Sikhs found employment in the region, but it declined after the partition in 1947. Among the eighteen historical gurdwaras in Bangladesh, only five are extant. The Gurdwara Nanak Shahi of Dhaka is the principal and largest gurdwara in the country. The Sikh population in the country almost entirely consists of businessmen and government officials from the neighbouring Republic of India.
Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury was a Bengali politician who had served as general secretary of the Congress Party's Bengal branch, member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly and later as the Education Minister of Pakistan. He was an advocate of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy's United Bengal proposal.
Zain ud-Din Ahmad Khan, also known as Mirza Muhammad Hashim, was an aristocrat from the Nawab of Bengal family and the father of Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal.
Shia Muslims are a minority in Bangladesh, with roughly 2% of the population being Shia. Many Bangladeshi Shi'a Muslims belong to the Bihari community. Even though there are only small numbers of Shi'as, the observance commemorating the martyrdom of Ali's sons, Hasan and Husayn, are still widely observed by the nation's Sunni community; highlighting the historical influence that the Shi'ites had in Bengal.
The Kohinoor was a Bengali language newspaper, first published in July 1898. Initially focusing on miscellaneous topics such as Islamic culture, its third relaunch was a pivot of Hindu-Muslim harmony. The paper targeted both Hindu and Muslim clientele.
Tanda, also known as Tandah and Khwaspur Tandah, was a historic 16th-century city of Bengal in the eastern part of South Asia, and one of the most prominent medieval capitals; serving the Karrani Sultans of Bengal and the early Mughal governors of Bengal.
Mīrzā Lutfullāh Khān Tabrīzī, also known as Murshid Qulī Khān II, was an 18th-century administrator who served under the Nawabs of Bengal as the Naib Nazim of Jahangirnagar (Dhaka) and Orissa respectively. Lutfullah was also a calligrapher, as well as an author in the Persian language under the pen name Sarshār.
Mirza Agha Muhammad Baqer was an aristocrat of the Mughal Empire and the Zamindar of Buzurg-Umedpur and Salimabad. In the Mughal period, these two parganas were spread over a large part of the greater Barisal region. Baker was the son-in-law of Murshid Quli Khan II, the Naib Nazim of Orissa under Nawab Sarfaraz Khan. Baqer had an important role in the conflict between Tabrizi and Alivardi Khan regarding the inheritance of Orissa's Naib Nazimate. He also founded the port marketplace of Bakerganj, which later became the headquarters of the Backergunge District. The legendary origin of the Bakarkhani bread is also attributed to him.
