recorded Faridpur as
Fatiabas in the 16th century in
Madhukhali Upazila|left The town of Fatehabad was located by a stream known as the Dead Padma, which was from the main channel of the Padma River. Sultan
Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah established a
mint in Fatehabad during his reign in the early 15th century. Fatehabad continued to be a mint town of the
Bengal Sultanate until 1538. In
Ain-i-Akbari, it was named as
Haweli Mahal Fatehabad during the reign of
Emperor Akbar in the
Mughal Empire. The
Portuguese cartographer
João de Barros mentioned it as
Fatiabas. The Dutch map of Van den Brouck described it as
Fathur. Its first mention in
Bengali literature was by Daulat Uzir Bahram Khan in his adaption of
Layla and Majnun. Fathabad was a strategically important base in south and southwestern
Bengal. It was a well-developed urban centre. The town was home to important Mughal government officials, including generals, civil servants and
jagirdars. During the reign of
Emperor Jahangir in the 17th century, local
zamindars Satrajit and Mukund resisted the Mughal government. By the 19th century, the town was renamed as Faridpur in honour of the
Sufi saint Shah Fariduddin Masud, a follower of the
Chishti order of
Ajmer. The Faridpur Subdivision was a part of Dacca Division in the
Bengal Presidency established by the
East India Company. The municipality of Faridpur was established in 1869. The subdivision covered modern day Faridpur,
Rajbari,
Madaripur,
Shariatpur and
Gopalganj districts (collectively known as Greater Faridpur). It was included in
Eastern Bengal and Assam during the
British Raj between 1905 and 1912. Faridpur was a rail terminus for the
Bengal Provincial Railway and the
Eastern Bengal Railway, connecting
Calcutta with the important
Goalanda ghats, from where ships travelled to
Colonial Assam and
British Burma. Prominent
zamindar families included the
Amirabad Estate, Faridpur and
Padamdi Nawab Estate. British Faridpur was the birthplace of several nationalist leaders of the subcontinent, including
Ambica Charan Mazumdar,
Humayun Kabir,
Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
Syed Qumrul Islam Saleh Uddin,
Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and
KM Obaidur Rahman. The Doyen and sole pioneer of Progressive culture, literature and theatre of Bangladesh and teacher of
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Faculty of Law in Dhaka University,
Natyaguru Nurul Momen, was born in Buraich of Alfadanga, now in Faridpur. The American engineer
Fazlur Rahman Khan was born in this region. Faridpur saw intense fighting during the
Bangladesh War in 1971. It was one of original 18 subdivisions of Bangladesh at the time of independence. In 1984, the pro-
decentralization reforms of President
Hussain Muhammad Ershad divided the old subdivision into five districts. In 2015, the Government of Bangladesh announced plans to establish
Faridpur Division. ==Politics and local government==