Chittagong

Under the Bengal sultans, who won the port from the Tripura kings in 1340, Chittagong became the kingdom's main gate to the sea, shipping pearls, silk, muslin and rice and building ships for the trade of the Bay. Ibn Battuta landed here in 1345, and Zheng He's treasure fleet later anchored in its harbour on missions to the Bengal court.

The port was too rich to be left in peace. In 1528 the sultan let the Portuguese settle here, the first European foothold in Bengal, and when Sher Shah Suri overthrew the sultanate ten years later the kings of Arakan took Chittagong back. For more than a century it was a haven for Portuguese adventurers and Arakanese pirates who raided the rivers of the delta, until in 1666 the Mughal governor Shaista Khan drove them out, renamed the city Islamabad and granted land to settlers who cleared its hinterland.