Pilibhit

Pilibhit lies on the plain of Rohilkhand near the forested foothills of the Himalayas. Streams cross the low ground, while the country to the north leads towards Nepal. The town was also known as Hafizabad after the Rohilla leader Hafiz Rahmat Khan, before taking its name from a nearby village.

In 1734 Ali Mohammed Khan built four gates around the local administrative buildings, named for Bareilly, Hussain, Jahanabad and the southern approach. He also built a congregational mosque. Pilibhit later offered refuge to a king of Doti driven from Nepal by Gorkhali forces in 1789; Faizullah Khan of Rampur arranged his safe shelter. The town thus stood close to both the Rohilla centres of the plain and the hill kingdoms beyond it.