The history of the Sylhet division was principally tribal until its conquest by the great Sufi mystic, the Muslim Shah Jalal-ud-din from Konya (Turkey), in the early 14th century. Upon arriving from Delhi, the warlike saint defeated the ruling Hindu raja, Gour Govinda, creating Shah Jalal's legendary stature among Muslims.

Ibn Battuta, a noted Moroccan traveller from Tangier, visited Sylhet to see the Sufi - and also picked up a slave for only Rs 7 while he was there. At about the same time as the Shah's arrival in Sylhet, Marco Polo spoke of the Sylhet region as a recruiting centre for eunuchs for the Kingdom of Kamrup.

In the 17th century, during the reign of Emperor Jahangir, the Mughal empire overran the region. The Mughals, who apparently considered the area of little importance, gave way in the 18th century to the British East India Company, which developed it as part of its Assam tea-growing region. Though Sylhet was a centre for Muslim pilgrimage during the era of the Tuglaq dynasty, the town itself was most influenced by the British occupation. They gave it a unique style of architecture: tall windows shaded by large, curved awnings, and roofs topped by several enclosed glass cubicles to provide light and ventilation.

Leading up to Partition in 1947 Sylhet division was part of Assam Province, which gave that region a Muslim majority. Fearing that the whole of what is now north-eastern India would become part of Pakistan, Hindu politicians connived to jettison Sylhet, which then joined East Bengal.

In the 1950s and 1960s the area was targeted by British officials looking for workers in the UK's post-war boom, and they and their descendants now form the core of Britain's 500,000-strong Bangladeshi community.