Dalmau

Dalmau is a historic town and tehsil headquarters in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Situated on the banks of the Ganga, between Raebareli and Fatehpur, the town has several historical monuments including the old fort, several dargahs, and the Haji Zahid mosque. Dalmau is also home to the Ebrahim Sharki palace belonging to the Nawab Shuza-ud-daula. Visitors can also see the Baithak of Alha Udal and enjoy a stroll along the Dalmau Pump canal. Dalmau also enjoys a unique place in the literary world because it was here that the famous Hindi poet Suryakant Tripathi "Nirala" wrote his poems while sitting on the fort and overlooking the scene below.

Dalmau was also centre of sufism in fourteen century because Maulana Daud a Chishti saint who was attached to Dalmau royal court was living here and he wrote first awadhi masnawi world famous book Chandayan.

Dalmau is perched on a steep bluff whose height protects the town from flooding. The ground is uneven and broken up by many ravines. It is located at 26°04′N 81°02′E / 26.07°N 81.03°E / 26.07; 81.03 and has an average elevation of 115 metres (377 feet).

According to one tradition, Dalmau is named after its founder, Dal Deo, an [Bhar] brother of Bal Deo. of Kannauj and a contemporary of the 5th-century Sassanid emperor Bahram Gor. This tradition asserts that the Bhar tribe later conquered Dalmau after the death of Partab Chand of Kannauj in 530 CE. However, this tradition appears to be mixed up, and the Rathore story appears to have been "imported" in order to give Dalmau a more prestigious origin. More likely, Dal and Bal were themselves Bhars, and Dalmau had always been a Bhar town during its early days.

In 423 AH, 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.