Dilal Khan
last independent ruler of Sandwip, Bangladesh
Dilwar Khan (Bengali: দেলোয়ার খাঁ, romanized: Delwar Khan), popularly known as Raja Dilal (Bengali: দিলাল রাজা, romanized: Dilal Raja), was the last independent ruler of Sandwip, an island in present-day Bangladesh. His reputation as a strong and charitable ruler has made him considered to be the Robin Hood of Southeast Bengal, robbing the rich and rewarding the poor. His legacy remains popular today, and is engraved in local folklore and strange legends in Sandwip. He has been considered the most influential Bengali Muslim ruler of the 17th century.
Early life
There are a number of legends regarding his early life. Some traditions mention that when Dilwar was a baby, he and his mother were shipwrecked and ended up in the beaches of Sandwip, an island famed for Portuguese piracy. These legends mention that a cobra protected him from sunlight during this incident, which suggested that he was destined for a great role.
Other sources like historians Syed Murtaza Ali and Muhammad Abdul Kader claim that his motherland was in Dhaka, which somewhat explains how he found employment in the Mughal naval services there. Also, famous historian Sir Jadunath Sarker referred him as "a run-away captain of the Mughal navy" who had established himself as a king
Rule
As piracy was prevalent in the island for many decades, many people ruled over it before the Kingdom of Mrauk U took over after defeating the Portuguese pirate Sebastian Gonzales Tibao. Dilwar was employed by the Mughal Army as a naval commander in Dhaka, during the reign of Mughal emperor Jahangir and governorship of Subahdar Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jang.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dilal Khan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.