In 1342, Shams-ud-din Iliyas Shah captured power from Ala-ud-din Ali Shah in pANDuA. Nothing much is known of his ancestry, though he might have been from Sijistan in eastern Persia. By 1346, he had conquered sAtagÃo. He attacked Nepal, looted and destroyed many temples there (including the idol of pashupatinAtha in 1350). He also looted Orissa upto the cilkA lake, occupied trihuta and possibly upto hAjipura, and conquered campAraNa, gorakSapura, kAshI and parts of kAmarUpa. By 1352, he had also conquered sonAragÃo. All this lead him to conflict with the Delhi Sultanate (firûz shâh tughluq 1351–1388, ghiyasuddin tughluq shâh 1388–89, abû bakr tughluq shâh 1389–94, nasiruddin mah.mûd shâh 1394–98? 95?; parallelly muha.ammad shâh 1389–1394, sikandar shâh 1394), and he lost a lot of western territory. Firoz Shah Tughluq came and occupied Lakhnauti, but could not defeat Iliyas Shah who was at ekDAlA, which he renamed Azadpur. When Firoz Shah returned to Delhi, Iliyas Shah reconquered all of Bengal, and his supremacy in now united Bengal was unchallenged. He may have moved his capital to gauD.a, though it was pANDuA for most of the later period. In his time, many prominent muslims like Akhi Sirajuddin, Ala al-Haq, and Raja Biyabani lived in Bengal.
He was succeeded by his son son Sikandar Shah (reigned 1358–1390). Firoz Shah Tughluq again tried to conquer Bengal, but after a fight lasting almost three years, gave up with a frienship treaty which made Bengal independent except in name. Sikandar Shah is known for building a number of mosques e.g. the AdinA masjid in pANDuA in 1369, and the mosque at the tomb of mullA Ata. Tradition in Tripura claims that a Turkish King of Bengal removed rAjA-fa and put ratna-fA mANikya (1364–67) on the throne.
Sikandar Shah was killed by Ghiyas-ud-din Azam Shah (reigned 1390–1410 or 1396?), his son, who revolted from sonArgÃo, in a fight at goYAlapAD.A. He was known as a just, artistic, and scholarly ruler. In fact, he is known to have sent a half-written gazal to Hafiz in Shiraz in Iran, who completed it; Ghiyas-ud-din alsowrote a number of poems. Stories of his justness are folklore in Bengal. He also constructed two madrassas in Mecca and Medina; the one in Mecca had was for all four sects: Hanafi (his school), Shafeyi, Maleki, and Hanbali. He also constructed an inn in Mecca, and a canal in Arafah in Mecca. He had diplomatic relations with the kingdom of jaunpur (founded by khwaja jahan or malik sarwar 1393–99, mubarak shah 1399–1402), to whom he changed allegience in 1393, and chinese emperor Yung-Lo (his representatives went in 1405, 1408 and 1409). However, he was militarily very weak, though he managed to take advantage of a fight between kAmatA and ahom to temporarily occupy parts of kAmarUpa-kAmatA. He may also have been defeated by shivasiMha of mithilA=trihUta, who had declared independence from jaunpur after removing his father devasiMha from governorship.
Around the turn of the century, it is likely that Ghiyas-ud-din removed non-muslims from all high posts in his government. Possibly as a result, Raja Ganesha, a former high official, managed to get his assasinated. He was followed by his son Sultan-us-salatin Saif-ud-din Hamza Shah (1410–12 or 1396–1405?) who was assasinated by his slave Shihab-ud-din Bayazid Shah (1412–1414 or 1405–1415?), (he is known to have sent a giraffe to the chinese emperor), though by then the real power was with Raja Ganesha, who may alsohave assasinated him. He was followed by his son Ala-ud-din Firoz Shah (1414?–15), but he was soon deposed by Raja Ganesha.
The Delhi sultanate, in the mean time, after a short stint under Amir Temur Gurgan of transoxania (1369–1405, conquered delhi in 1398, chief minister mulla Iqbal ruling delhi died in 1405; nus.rat shâh 1395–99?), comes back to nasiruddin mahmud shah (second time: 1405? 1401?–1413? 12?), but then the throne went to Dawlat Khân Lôdî (1412?-14?), but defeated by Khid.r Khân (1414–1421), governor of multan under Amir Temur in 1414, who now rules as the first Sayyid ruler of Delhi, though he calls himself as Rayat-e-Ala, a viceroy of Shah Rukh (1405–1445) who followed Amir Temur.
Up to history of Muslim Period of Bengal