Mirat

Mirat, or Meerut, lies in the upper Doab between the Ganges and Yamuna, near Delhi. In 1399 Timur's forces attacked and sacked the fortified town, killing inhabitants and enslaving captives. Under the Mughals the town later recovered a place in the administration of the fertile plain.

In Akbar's reign Meerut was listed as a pargana of Delhi and had a mint producing copper coins. Eighteenth-century conflict brought Sikh and Maratha forces into the district, and part of it came under Begum Samru of Sardhana. In 1803 the Maratha ruler Daulat Rao Scindia ceded the territory to the East India Company; Meerut became a district headquarters in 1818.