Dalmau

 ( Cities And Towns In Raebareli District ) 

In 423 Hijri year, Dalmau was conquered by Salar Sahu, the father of the semi-legendary Islamic warrior Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud. He granted the estate of Dalmau to one Malik Abdullah. There are still martyrs' tombs in Dalmau said to date from the time of this conquest, serving as the final resting place of Ghalib, Maliks Ali and Wali, and other Islamic martyrs.

About two centuries later, Dalmau flourished under the reign of Iltutmish, third ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. Makhdum Badr ud-Din, a companion of the sultan, resided in Dalmau at that time. Dalmau continued to prosper under Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who founded a madrasa in Dalmau. Also during his reign, a local notable named Yusuf built an Eidgah in Dalmau; it was later replaced by a newer structure, but the foundation stone is still visible, inscribed with a pair of couplets bearing Yusuf's name as well as the date of construction, 759 AH.

In 1394, as the Delhi Sultanate's crumbling Tughlaq dynasty was caught up in a civil war, members the Bhar tribe rose to power in Dalmau. Soon after, when the subahdar of Jaunpur, Khwaja Malik Sarwar, declared independence, thus founding the Jaunpur Sultanate. He claimed rule over the province of Dalmau, alongside those of Kannauj, Sandila, Bahraich, and Bihar; however, his authority over Dalmau was only nominal, as the Bhars retained possession of it. This came to an end under the Jaunpur sultan Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, who sent an army to conquer Dalmau, supposedly because the Bhar ruler, Dal, sought to marry the daughter of a local sayyid known as Baba Haji. After defeating and killing Dal's brother Kakori at the nearby village of Sudamanpur on the day of Holi, Ibrahim Shah captured Dalmau and slaughtered the Bhar inhabitants. In memory of this massacre, local women of the Bharonia cast do not wear nose rings or glass bangles. Dal's tomb is 2 miles from Dalmau, and local Bhars offer milk there during the month of Sawan.

After Ibrahim Shah's conquest of Dalmau, many Muslim settlers came to live in Dalmau and other nearby towns, including Raebareli, Bhawan, Jalalpur Dehi, and Thulendi. Meanwhile, in 820 AH, Ibrahim Shah began an ambitious construction project in the area, building new forts at Bhawan, Raebareli, and Thulendi, as well as rebuilding the Bhar fort of Dalmau, which had been damaged during the previous conquest. The Dalmau fort has since largely fallen into ruin, although its thana and gatehouse still stand. It is believed to have been built on top of an even earlier Buddhist stupa. Ibrahim also constructed a masonry well and a garden by the bank of the river in Dalmau. His grandson Muhammad Shah is buried in a tomb within this garden, in a structure known as the Maqbara-e-Shah-e-Sharqi. Dalmau's fort appears to have been a royal one, due to the appointment of various officers typical of royal forts: a mutawalli or superintendent, a muhtasib or censor, a nasihi or legal advisor, a qasbati, who provided supplies for civil and military officials, a ghariali, who struck the hours on the gate, and a guldagha, who branded the horses and oxen of the cavalry. Some of these officials received hereditary lands in addition to their position: for example, the gharialis held the village of Nasirpur Kirtali on a rent-free tenure through the time of the British Raj.

Dalmau remained an important city long after the end of the Jaunpur Sultanate. The Delhi sultan Sikandar Lodi married the widow of Sheri, the governor of Dalmau, here in 1491, and the city appears frequently in the annals of the historian Firishta. During the reign of the Mughal Empire emperor Akbar, one Mirza Shukrullah served as the faujdar of Dalmau. He repaired the mosque of Makhdum Badr ud-Din, and his own stone mausoleum still stands. During the reign of Shah Jahan, Sherandaz Khan served as the faujdar of Dalmau. He founded a mahallah, named Sherandazpur after himself, in Dalmau. He also built an imambara and a mosque within the fort's precinct.

Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Oudh from 1754 to 1775, built a brick mansion and a garden 2 miles north of Dalmau; however, the house was destroyed during the British raj to make way for the road from Dalmau to Lalganj; only the southern wall still stands. Saadat Ali Khan II, the penultimate Nawab of Oudh, was born in this mansion. In 1146 AH, the Maratha commander Pandit Gopal Rao crossed the Ganges from the south and sacked Dalmau, and the city went into decline.

Dalmau was originally the seat of what would become Lalganj tehsil, losing this status in 1864. It was made a pargana by Akbar, in the sarkar of Manikpur and the subah of Allahabad. It remained a pargana through the time of the Raj. Before being constituted as a pargana, the territory of Dalmau had been divided into six districts: Haweli (Dalmau itself), Jalalpur, Birkha, Bhai, Satawan, and Pandaria. This division was made by Ibrahim Shah Sharqi.

At the turn of the 20th century, Dalmau was described as "a fair-sized town" with many historical monuments. It served as commercial centre, engaged in trade of grain, hides, , and with Kanpur, and it had three marketplaces. The oldest, the Purana bazar or the Charai Mandi, dated back to the time of the Jaunpur Sultanate and hosted markets on Thursdays and Sundays. The second was Tikaitganj, which was built by the minister Tikait Rai in 1203 AH; it hosted markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The third, Glynnganj, had been built in 1862 by W. Glynn, then the Deputy Commissioner. It hosted markets on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to the rotating market days, there were also permanent shops in both the Purana bazar and Tikaitganj. Dalmau also had a police station, post office, munsif court, dispensary, cattle pound, an upper primary school, a small inspection bungalow, and an opium godown with a tennis court. There was also a sarai with a mosque attached, built in 1006 AH by Haji Zahid.