Bilgram

Bilgram stands on a bluff that once formed the eastern bank of the Ganges. Tradition attributes its foundation to the Raikwar Raja Sri Ram, who is said to have called it Srinagar and built a fort, temple and tank. In the thirteenth century Sayyid families from Wasit in Iraq settled here and established estates whose descendants became influential landholders in Awadh.

In 1540 Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun at the Battle of Bilgram. Under Akbar the town became the centre of a pargana. Its Sayyid families supplied officials and commanders to later Mughal rulers, and counted the scholar Azad Bilgrami among their notable figures in the eighteenth century. His home town remained a place of learning as well as local landed power.