Sonargaon's importance in the pre-Muslim time is borne out by its very old name of Suvarnagrama (the golden village), from which it is obvious how the Muslim version of the name is derived, as well as by the existence of Langalbandh and Panchamighat, the two traditional holy bathing places of the Hindus, in this tract of land on the west bank of the old Brahmaputra. Sonargaon rose to be the place of an independent ruler under Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah, and after his fall it was the head office of the eastern province of Bengal under the Tughlaqs till 1338. Sonargaon emerged as the center of an independent Sultanate under Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah (1338-1349). In the middle betwwen nineteenth and twentieth century Panam Nagar was developed in a part of medieval Sonargaon.
By the fourteenth century AD Sonargaon had developed into a commercial city. Ibn Batuta describes Sonargaon as an significant port city, which had direct commercial relations with countries like China, Indonesia and the Maldives. Muslin produced in Sonargaon, especially its luxury variety called khasa, had a worldwide reputation. With the loss of political status in the seventeenth century AD Sonargaon slowly lost its commercial importance as well. It again rose to some distinction in the nineteenth century AD when Panam Nagar was built up as a trading centre in cotton fabrics, chiefly English piece goods. Sonargaon developed into a seat of Islamic culture under the deferent scholar Maulana Sharfuddin Abu Tawwamah of Bokhara who came to Sonargaon sometime between 1282 and 1287 and established a Khanqah and madrasa wherein all branches of Islamic learning as well as secular sciences were taught and studied.
0 comments:
Post a Comment