History of Sirhind

Sirhind is the older and more popular name of Fatehgarh Sahib. It is situated on the Delhi to Lahore Highway. It has a population of about 60,852. It is now a district headquarters in the state of Punjab; the name of the district is Fatehgarh Sahib.

The antiquity of the city is traceable to the beginning of the Common era. It was a military outpost of Prithviraj Chauhan against Muhammad Ghori. In 1192 it became a part of Ghauri Sultanate after the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan. It was refounded by Emperor Firuz Shah Tughlaq in 1361 AD at the behest of Sayyid Jalaluddin Bukhari, the spiritual guide of that King. He made it a new pargana by dividing the old fief of Samana. Firuz Shah dug a canal from the Sutlej. It was an important stronghold of Delhi Sultanate. In 1415 Khizr Khan the first Sayyid ruler of Delhi, nominated his son Malik Mubarak as a governor of Sirhind. in 1420 Khizr khan defeated insurgent Sarang Khan at Sirhind. In 1451 here, Bahlul Khan Lodhi assumed the title of Sultan under the governorship of Malik Sultan Shah Lodhi.

However it reached the zenith of its glory under the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth century. This city was a home of sixteenth-century saint Ahmad Sirhindi, popularly known as Mujadid Alif Sani which means 'Revivor of the Faith in the Second Millennium'. The mausoleum of this saint is still there. Under Akbar it had turned the highest yielding sarkar. Under Sirhind sarkar there were 28 parganas. Due to its prosperity during the Mughal Empire it was known as Sirhind Bāvani which means Sirhind Fifty-two because it yielded a revenue of 52 lakh Rs, i.e. 5 million 200 thousand Rs per year. Emperor Shah Jahan built a famous garden known as Aam khas Bagh.

Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and his Sikh army in 1710 destroyed the city of Sirhind completely and Wazir Khan the governor, was killed in the Battle of Chappar Chiri. Sikhs occupied Sirhind and made Bhai Baj Singh the governor.

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