Habiganj District

Habiganj District (; ), formerly known as Habibganj District (), is a district in north-eastern Bangladesh, located in the Sylhet Division. It was established as a district in 1984 as a successor to its subdivision status since 1867. It is named after its founder, Syed Habib Ullah, son of Syed Hedayet Ullah, who is the founder of Sultani Habeli.

History

thumb|Map of Taraf|left

Ancient

Prehistoric settlements were said to have been discovered in the Chaklapunji tea garden, near Chandirmazar of Chunarughat. Habiganj has also revealed a significant number of prehistoric tools from the bed of Balu Stream, a small ephemeral stream (water remains here only for a few hours after rainfall). Angularity and freshness of the fossil wood artifacts suggest that they did not come from a great distance and probably came from nearby hillocks. Typologically, technologically, and morphometrically, the artifacts are more or less the same as those found in the Lalmai, Comilla. The fossil wood assemblages of both of these areas are often classified into two groups: pre-neolithic assemblages without polished tools (hand axes, cleavers, scrapers, chopping tools, points etc.) and neolithic assemblages (hand axes, polished Celts, awls etc.).

The Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata mentions the marriage of Duryodhana of the Kauravas into a family that are thought to be inhabitants of present-day Habiganj.

Early medieval

thumb|[[Shankarpasha Shahi Masjid was built by Shah Majlis Amin, one of the 12 Saint who took participation of the Capture of Taraf in 1304.|left]]

Historically, Habiganj was part of the Srihatta and Shilhatta region — which encompassed the current Greater Sylhet region. Though the borders of the kingdoms changed frequently, the region was ruled by the Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Harikela and Kamarupa before passing to the control of the Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties in the early medieval period. Parts of the current district of Habiganj were part of the Tungachal Kingdom — a vassal state of the Gour Kingdom — with its capital being in present-day Chunarughat Upazila.

left|thumb|Map of Harikela

The Kamarupa state, the first historical kingdom of Assam, ruled from 350 to 1140 CE and occasionally took control of what is now modern day Habiganj district.

thumb|The 7th and 8th century extent of Kamarupa kingdom, located on the eastern region of the [[Indian subcontinent, what is today modern-day Assam, Bengal and Bhutan. Kamarupa at its height covered the entire Brahmaputra Valley, parts of North Bengal, Bhutan and northern part of Bangladesh, and at times portions of West Bengal and Bihar.|left]]

In medieval times, there were numerous petty kingdoms that were situated in what is now Habiganj District such as Azmardan, Baniachang, and Tungachal. In 1254, the Governor of Bengal Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak invaded the Azmardan Raj. He defeated the local Raja, and plundered his wealth.

The feudal kingdom of Tungachal was given to Epivishnu by Raja Upananda of Brahmachal in the 11th century. It was based in Rajapur in southern Habiganj. Following the murder of Upananda by the Gour Kingdom loyalists, Epivishnu refused to acknowledge Tungachal as a part of Gour. This led to a battle in 1258 on the banks of Ghungi Jurir Haor in Tungachal in which Epivishnu was murdered and Shandul was subsequently appointed as Tungachal's governor by Raja Govardhan of Gour. In response to Epivishnu's murder, the King of Tripura managed to annex Tungachal away from Gour and appointed Bhadra Janardan, Epivishnu's minister, to govern Tungachal. Janardan was deposed during the reign of Govinda of Gour and replaced by Achak Narayan.

Following the Islamic Conquest of Sylhet in 1303, Syed Nasiruddin led a contingent of 1,000 soldiers along with the help of 12 Muslim saints to capture Tungachal in 1304. Nasiruddin was the military commander of Shamsuddin Firuz Shah, the Sultan of Lakhnauti (in western Bengal). After the successful capture and defeat of Achak Narayan, Tungachal was renamed to Taraf and incorporated into Bangalah (Bengal). Taraf was transformed to an esteemed centre of study in the subcontinent.

Late medieval

Between the thirteenth and early seventeenth centuries, parts of Habiganj were a part of the state of Nasirabad, based in Mymensingh.

Syed Musa became the zamindar of Taraf in the 16th century. During his office, the King of Tripura Amar Manikya called upon the Baro-Bhuiyans to contribute labourers to aid in the digging of a reservoir tank. Musa refused to accept such subordination to the Twipra Kingdom. As a result, the Battle of Jilkua emerged in 1581 leading to the imprisonment of Musa and his son Syed Adam Bairam.

By the middle of the 15th century, when all the divisions of Laur were united under the headship of Baniachang House (now of Muslim faith), it seems the Muslim area of Taraf passed under the control of Baniachung, which now became very powerful to include in its territory, the whole of present Sunamganj and Habiganj subdivisions. A town by the name of Habibganj was founded by Syed Habib Ullah who belonged to the Syed zamindar dynasty of Taraf. The name Habibganj eventually turned into Habiganj.

In Baniachang, a battle occurred between the Baro-Bhuiyan zamindars of Baniachang (Anwar Khan and Husayn Khan) with the Mughal army in the 17th century, which can be found in the Bahrastan-i-Gayebi. Khwaja Usman fled Bukai Nagar Fort and established a shelter at Putijuri on the foot of the Giripal. He also established a fort at Putijuri, which was extremely important for defense. The Mughal army took the advantage when Khwaja Osman's brother was absent from the fort, leading to the successful annexation of Baniachang and Taraf into Mughal Bengal.

Taraf was incorporated into the Sarkar of Sylhet. The Mughals made use of the fort at Taraf, often camping whilst on expeditions to defeat other rebellious chieftains such as Pahlawan of Matang and Bayazid Karrani II of Sylhet. With the establishment of the East India Company and later the British Raj, Taraf continued to exist as a pargana or fiscal division within Sylhet. Its area was 79.65 square miles, consisted of 1601 estates and had a land revenue of £4400 as of 1875.

Modern

thumb|right|Habiganj diaspora festival in the New York City borough of [[Queens.]]

During the British Raj, Habiganj was established as a Thana (police precinct) in 1790, under Dhaka district (1779–1793).

In the second session of the Congress held in Calcutta in 1886, the Indian National Congress was able to attract representatives from Habiganj District. Until 1896, Habiganj's administrative centre was in Court Andar, Laskarpur. On 12 September 1874 it came under Sylhet district (part of Assam). Habiganj was declared as subdivision in 1867. On 7 April 1893, according to Notification #273 of Assam Provincial Government, Habiganj Thana (Administrative unit) was established. Habiganj was rejoined with East-Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1911. Then the Office of the Circle Officer (Development) was established in 1960.

Habiganj is the historical place where the Mukti Bahini started their first guerrilla movement against rule of Pakistan Army. On 4 April 1971, during Bangladesh War of Independence, the senior army officers assembled at the headquarters of 2nd East Bengal Regiment at Teliapara, a semi-hilly area covered by tea gardens where General MAG Osmani, Lieutenant Colonel Abdur Rob, Lieutenant Colonel Salahuddin Mohammad Reja, Major Kazi Nuruzzaman, Major Khaled Mosharraf, Major Nurul Islam, Major Shafat Jamil, Major Mainul Hossain Chowdhury, and others were present.

At this meeting four senior commanders were entrusted with the responsibility of operational areas. Sylhet-Brahmanbaria area was placed under the command of Major Shafiullah, Comilla-Noakhali area was given to Major Khaled Mosharraf while Chittagong-Chittagong Hill Tracts was given to Major Ziaur Rahman and Kushtia-Jessore area was placed under command of Major Abu Osman Chowdhury. In the meeting the organization concept of the freedom fighter forces and the command structure were chalked out under the command of General MAG Osmani.

On 16 November 1971, Mukti Bahini fighter Jagat Jyoti and 11 villagers were killed in an encounter with the Pakistan army.

Geography

Habiganj is located at . Its area is 2,636.58 km² and bounded by Sunamganj District to the north, Tripura of India and Moulvibazar District to the east, Balaganj Upazila of Sylhet to the north-east, Brahmanbaria and Kishoreganj districts to the west.

According to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh, Habiganj District had 491,884 households and a population of 2,358,886, of whom, 15.03% of the inhabitants lived in urban areas. The population density was 895 people per km². 22.13% of the population was under 10 years of age. Habiganj had a literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 69.44%, compared to the national average of 74.80%, and a sex ratio of 94.16 males per 1000 females.