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 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. 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. , 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 . 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==