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Sonargaon's importance in the pre-Muslim period is borne
out by its ancient 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 seat of an
independent ruler under Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah, and
after his fall it was the headquarters of the eastern
province of Bengal under the Tughlaqs till 1338.
Sonargaon emerged as the capital of an independent
Sultanate under Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah (1338-1349). In
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Panam
Nagar was developed in a part of medieval Sonargaon.
By the second Quarter of the fourteenth century AD
Sonargaon had developed into a commercial metropolis;
seafaring boats could easily reach Sonargaon from west
Asian and southeast Asian countries. Ibn Batuta
describes Sonargaon as an important port city, which had
direct commercial relations with countries like China,
Indonesia (Java) and the Maldives. Muslin produced in
Sonargaon, especially its finest variety called khasa,
had a worldwide reputation. With the loss of political
status in the second decade of the seventeenth century
AD Sonargaon gradually lost its commercial importance as
well. It again rose to some eminence in the nineteenth
century AD when Panam Nagar was established as a trading
centre in cotton fabrics, chiefly English piece goods.
Sonargaon developed into a seat of Islamic learning
under the versatile 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.
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