Aligarh Fort (''Aligarh Qila'') is located in the patwari nagla city of

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. It is also called "Aligarh Qila". Most part of it is damaged and only ruins remain. The

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

is situated near the

Grand Trunk Road Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It r ...

and consists of a regular polygon surrounded by a very broad and deep ditch.

History

The fort was built during the time of

Ibrahim Khan Lodi Ibrahim Khan Lodi (; 1480 – 21 April 1526) was the last Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, who became Sultan in 1517 after the death of his father Sikandar Khan. He was the last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, reigning for nine years until 1526, when ...

by Muhammad, son of Umar the governor of Kol (Aligarh city is subset of this greater set) in 1524–25. Sabit Khan, who was the governor of this region during the time of Farrukh Siyar and Muhammad Shah, rebuilt the fort.History of Aligarh
/ref> It became a fortress of great importance under Madhavrao I Scindia in 1759; it was the depot where he drilled and organized his battalions in European fashion with the aid of French soldier Benoît de Boigne. During the

Battle of Ally Ghur The siege of Aligarh also known as the Battle of Aligarh was fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) at Aligarh, India. Aligarh Fort, one of the strongest fort ...

in 1803, it was captured from the

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

s under the leadership of a French officer

Perron Perron may refer to: People * Count Perron (; ), Sardinian ambassador and secretary of state * Ernest Perron (1908–1961), a Swiss man who became politically powerful in Iran * Pierre Cuillier-Perron (1753–1834), a French military adventure ...

by Lord Gerard Lake's British army. After that it was strengthened and improved. In the rebellion of 1857 the troops stationed at Aligarh mutinied, but abstained from murdering their officers, who, with the other residents and ladies and children, succeeded in reaching Hathras. The fort is built on a small rise north of the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

at Barouli Road. It has steep ravines, over 30 feet high, on every side, and bastions in every angle on the walls. Currently, Aligarh fort is under the care of

as a protected site of Archeological Survey of India. The university uses part of the internal area fort as location for its department of Botany. The fort has been the seat of many governors and other rulers of this land, including Sabit Khan,

Maharaja Surajmal Maharaja Suraj Mal (13 February 1707 – 25 December 1763), simply known as Suraj Mal, was a ruler of Bharatpur State in the present-day state of Rajasthan. Under him, Bharatpur State, a tributary of the House of Scindia, covered the present ...

in 1753 and mentioned

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jiwajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He was viewed as a potential future prime ministerial candidat ...

in 1759. The fort was expanded three times in 1753 by lieutenant Banasaur, commanding officer of contemporary ruler

, to include a basement, an explosives warehouse and an air cooled kitchen. Aligarh fort, as it stands today, is the work of the French engineers under the control of de Boigne and Perron. Presently, the fort houses a small primary school within its premises. On its front side the new building of the Dawakhana Tibya college, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh is situated. On its back side there is the Street Number 1 of the Fort Enclave (a posh colony of the university teachers). The back side ( south) of the fort is now identified by the office ( Arafaat, Street Number-1 Fort Enclave) of the National Society for Educational Empowerment of the Masses ( NASEEM) an NGO working particularly for Have-not sections of the locality. To protect the remains of this historic fort its out-boundaries were constructed s per the 100 m rule of the (ASI)by the Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh during the tenure of Mr. Mahmoodurrahman the vice chancellor of the varsity.

References

{{Aligarh division topics Botanical gardens in India Forts in Uttar Pradesh Aligarh Muslim University Conflicts in 1803 Ally Ghur 1803 Architecture of the Lodi dynasty Buildings and structures in Aligarh

History

See also

References