Khizrpur

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Khizrpur a medieval city situated at a site about a mile north of the present Narayanganj town at the confluence of the Dulai (Old Buriganga) and the Sitalakshya. In Rennell's Atlas, Khizrpur is located on the western bank of the Sitalakshya. The city of Khizrpur, now ruined, is likely to have been founded by isa khan Masnad-i-Ala, ruler of the Bhati, shortly after the transfer of his administrative headquarters from Katrabu to Sonargaon in 1584. Isa Khan is also said to have built a fort at Khizrpur. The implication of the name 'Khizrpur Qilah' to the hajiganj fort indicates that the city of Khizrpur was within close vicinity of the present Hajiganj locality of Narayanganj. A strongly fortified city commanding the only water route to Dhaka from this side, it was a strong military base under Isa Khan and his successor musa khan (1599-1611) and the chief naval port of eastern zone of Bengal from where all the great naval expeditions set out. During his war against the Mughals in 1610, Musa Khan while making preparation for his second trial made Sitalakshya his main line of defence and voluntarily evacuated Khizrpur. The Mughal subahdar islam khan fortified Khizrpur and made it the base of the imperal war-boats and artillery. After the fall of Musa Khan in 1611 AD, the Mughals developed Khizrpur as the strong base of the imperial nawara.

In view of the strategic importance of Khizrpur the Mughal subahdar mir jumla (1660-1663) constructed a highway connecting Khizrpur with the capital city of Dhaka. Another road with pucca bridges connecting the sonargaon proper with Khizrpur extended up to Baidyer Bazar in the east and panam on the north. Mir Jumla is said to have built a fort at Khizrpur along with some water forts built in or around 1660 to contercept the advance of the Portuguese and Magh pirates towards Dhaka. But the ruin of the solitary fort at Khizrpur indicates that it was rather a Mughal renaovation of the fort built by Isa Khan.

Of the ramnant of the ruined city of Khizrpur, the site now only projects the bibi mariam's mosque, the tomb of Bibi Mariam, and the fort area now mainly occupied by the Narayanganj Fire Brigade headquarters.

Under the Mughal sarkar Bazuha, Khizrpur was a pargana of which it was the administrative centre. [Muazzam Hussain Khan]