Sirhind

Sirhind stands on the great road between Delhi and Lahore, a gateway between the imperial heartland and eastern Punjab. Under the Mughals it became a provincial capital and a centre of administration in eastern Punjab. Travellers described its prosperity, and gardens, tombs, inns and wells served a city renowned for its scholars, poets and saints.

The town's position made it a prize in the struggles of earlier rulers. Jasrat Khokhar unsuccessfully besieged Sirhind in 1421, then captured it in 1431 with the aid of the governor of Lahore. In the Mughal period it was home to Ahmad Sirhindi, the influential Hanafi scholar and prominent Naqshbandi Sufi who lived from 1564 to 1624. His shrine became one of the enduring religious monuments of the city.