Shahabad, Hardoi

According to a tradition recorded by Joseph Tiefenthaler in the 1700s, Shahabad occupied the site of a former village called Angadpur, after its founder Angad, the nephew of Rama.[6] Modern Shahabad was founded in 1677 by one Nawab Diler Khan, a Pathan officer in the Mughal army, who had been sent to quell an uprising in Shahjahanpur.[6] He overthrew the Pande Parwars of Angni Khera (which, according to H.R. Nevill, is probably the correct form of Tiefenthaler's "Angadpur") and was in turn granted their territory as a jagir, upon which he then founded Shahabad.[6]

Diler Khan populated the new city of Shahabad with fellow Pathan kinsmen and soldiers, and many of the neighbourhoods of the city today bear the names of his followers.[6] He built a brick palace at the centre of town, called the Bari Deorhi, which Tiefenthaler described upon his visit in 1770 as being "strengthened by towers like a fortress, with a vestibule and a covered colonnade."[6] The palace no longer exists, although the two grand gateways are still standing.[6] Diler Khan also built the city's Jama Masjid as well as his own mausoleum.[6] Both of them are built out of dressed kankar blocks.[6] The mausoleum's upper story contains bands of florid decoration in red stone, a style common to architecture of that period which can also be seen in the complex surrounding the Taj Mahal in Agra.[6] He also built a grand pond near the mausoleum, known as Narbada.[6]

Shahabad declined rapidly during the late 1700s, as Mughal power waned and was replaced in this region by the Nawabs of Awadh.[6] Already by 1799, William Tennant described it as being in ruins.[6] In 1824, Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, traveled to Shahabad and described it as a "considerable town or almost city with the remains of fortifications and many large houses."[7]

The descendants of Nawab Diler Khan Daudzai also moved to a nearby area which under the zamindari and named this place as Wazirabad which is now known as village HARRAI, comes under Tehsil Shahbad, District Hardoi.

Shahabad is located at 27.65°N 79.95°E / 27.65; 79.95.[8] It has an average elevation of 143 metres (469 feet).

As of 2011 Indian Census, Shahabad had a total population of 80,226, of which 42,635 were males and 37,591 were females. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 11,102. The total number of literates in Shahabad was 44,078, which constituted 54.9% of the population with male literacy of 60.6% and female literacy of 48.5%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Shahabad was 63.8%, of which male literacy rate was 70.3% and female literacy rate was 56.3%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 6,558 and 9 respectively. Shahabad had 13958 households in 2011.[3]

Shahabad CD block has the following 170 villages:[5]

• Official website

• Fatehpur Gayand