Islam in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi Muslims
বাংলাদেশী মুসলমান
Total population
	150.8 million ; (91.1% of the country's population)
Regions with significant populations
	Throughout Bangladesh
Religions
	Sunni Islam

Islam is the largest and the state religion of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.^[1]^[2] According to the 2022 census, Bangladesh had a population of about 150 million Muslims, or 91.04%^[3] of its total population of 165 million.^[4] The majority of Bangladeshis are Sunni, and follow the Hanafi school of fiqh.Bangladesh is a de facto Islamic country.^[5]

In the late 7th century, Arab Muslims established commercial as well as religious connection within the region before the conquest, mainly through the coastal regions as traders and primarily via the ports of Chittagong. In the early 13th century, Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji conquered Western and part of Northern Bengal,^[6] and established the first Muslim kingdom in Bengal. Islamic missionaries in India achieved their greatest success, in terms of number of converts, in Bengal.^[7] Sufi's like Shah Jalal are thought to have spread Islam in the north-eastern Bengal and Assam during the beginning of the 12th century. The Islamic Bengal Sultanate, was founded by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah after its independence from the Tughlaq dynasty. Bengal reached in her golden age during Bengal Sultanate's ruling period. Subsequently, Bengal was conquered by Babur, the founder of one of the gunpowder empires, but was also briefly occupied by the Suri Empire.

^ Bergman, David (28 Mar 2016). "Bangladesh court upholds Islam as religion of the state". Al Jazeera.
^ "Bangladesh dismisses case to drop Islam as state religion". Reuters. 28 March 2016.
^ "Census 2022: Number of Muslims increased in country". 27 July 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
^ "Census 2022: Bangladesh population now 165 million". 27 July 2022.
^ "Statistics Bangladesh 2006" (PDF). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^ Majumdar, R. C. (1973). History of Mediaeval Bengal. Calcutta: G. Bharadwaj & Co. pp. 1–2. OCLC 1031074. Tradition gives him credit for the conquest of Bengal but as a matter of fact he could not subjugate the greater part of Bengal ... All that Bakhtyār can justly take credit for is that by his conquest of Western and a part of Northern Bengal he laid the foundation of the Muslim State in Bengal. The historians of the 13th century never attributed the conquest of the whole of Bengal to Bakhtyār.
^ Arnold, Thomas Walker (1913) [First published 1896]. The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith (2nd ed.). London: Constable & Company. p. 227.

[aljazeera:1-1] Bergman, David (28 Mar 2016). "Bangladesh court upholds Islam as religion of the state". Al Jazeera.

[reuters:1-2] "Bangladesh dismisses case to drop Islam as state religion". Reuters. 28 March 2016.

[3] "Census 2022: Number of Muslims increased in country". 27 July 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.

[auto-4] "Census 2022: Bangladesh population now 165 million". 27 July 2022.

[bbs-5] "Statistics Bangladesh 2006" (PDF). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2008-10-01.

[6] Majumdar, R. C. (1973). History of Mediaeval Bengal. Calcutta: G. Bharadwaj & Co. pp. 1–2. OCLC 1031074. Tradition gives him credit for the conquest of Bengal but as a matter of fact he could not subjugate the greater part of Bengal ... All that Bakhtyār can justly take credit for is that by his conquest of Western and a part of Northern Bengal he laid the foundation of the Muslim State in Bengal. The historians of the 13th century never attributed the conquest of the whole of Bengal to Bakhtyār.

[7] Arnold, Thomas Walker (1913) [First published 1896]. The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith (2nd ed.). London: Constable & Company. p. 227.

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Total population
150.8 million (91.1% of the country's population)
Regions with significant populations
Throughout Bangladesh
Religions
Sunni Islam