Map - Farrukhabad district (Farrukhābād)

Farrukhabad district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in Northern India. The town of Fatehgarh is the district headquarters. The district is part of Kanpur Division.

Farrukhabad is situated between Lat. 26° 46' N & 27° 43' N and Long. 79° 7' E & 80° 2' E. The district is bounded by Badaun and Shahjahanpur on the north, Hardoi District on the east, Kannauj District on the south, and Etah and Mainpuri districts on the west. The Ganga River and Ramganga River are located to the east and the Kali River to the south.

The district formerly included present day Kannauj District. It was divided into two separate districts on 18 September 1997. Farrukhabad district consists of three tahsils: Farrukhabad, Kaimganj and Amritpur. Amritpur tahsil was created from Rajepur Block after the district was split in 1997. The district has seven blocks: Kaimganj, Nawabganj, Shamsabad, Rajepur, Barhpur, Mohamadabad and Kamalganj.

The district is called Farrukhabad and its headquarters is located at Fatehgarh. Fatehgarh derives its name from an old fort on the bank of the river Ganges. The fort presently falls in the Fatehgarh cantonment area and serves as the headquarter of the Rajput Regiment stationed at Fatehgarh Cantonment. The two cities are separated by a distance of 5 km and in the present times, with increase in population, have merged into a single urban expanse. The district with a total area of 228,830 hectares consists of three tahsils, seven development block, 512 gram panchayats, 1020 villages, 14 police stations, 2 nagar palikas (Municipal Committees) and four nagar panchayats (Town Area committee) and one Cantonment Board.

Farrukhabad is a historical city with a rich culture defined by the traditions of Ganga-Jamuni tahzeeb which amalgamates aspects of Hindu and Muslim cultural practices, rituals, folk and linguistic traditions. The place was founded by Nawab Mohammad Khan Bangash (c. 1665–1743) in 1714 who named it after the reigning Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar. Ever since it has been a flourishing centre of commerce and industry. Under the British colonial state, Farrukhabad was a nodal centre of the riverine trade through the Ganges river system from North and North-West India towards the East.

The Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhabad were Pathan mercenaries and service men who came to Hindustan in the late 17th century and settled in Mau-Rashidabad in the Doab region of North India. After two decades of service amongst the warring rajas of Bundelkhand, Muhammad Khan Bangash himself entered the Mughal imperial service in 1712 in support of Farrukhsiyar, one of the princely contenders for the Mughal throne who led the coup which displaced the reigning emperor Jahandar Shah (r. 1712–13). With Farrukhsiyar's victory, Muhammad Khan was raised to the rank of a commander of 4,000, given assignments on revenue in Bundelkhand to support his troops, and styled Nawab. Like other emergent state-builders, Muhammad Khan proceeded rapidly to found his new city, Farrukhabad, as the centre for his household and those of his 22 sons. He also settled in Farrukhabad his chelas (followers), the 'sons of the state' whom he recruited in great numbers from almost every social source—fellow Pathans, local rajas, Rajputs, Brahmins, Bamtela Thakurs. By the end of Muhammad Khan's life, the number of his chelas seems to have crossed 4,000. These favoured young men, whose loyalty seemed more predictable than that of troublesome and ambitious brother Pathans, were entrusted with great responsibilities: in the military, as soldiers, bodyguards and paymasters; in the household and even as revenue collectors and deputy governors of provinces. With this formidable apparatus, Muhammad Khan Bangash entered on his career as a powerful player in the political upheavals in Delhi following Farrukhsiyar's deposition in 1719.

The Bangash period of Farrukhabad's history is synonymous with the growth of Farrukhabad as an important centre of commerce and fiscal exchange. The Bangash Nawabs encouraged merchants and bankers to come and settle in Farrukhabad. For the promotion of commercial activities, the Bangash Nawabs constructed many bazaars and mahallas (quarters), each devoted to a separate group of artisans or merchants. Along the main route and supply lines numerous ganjes and qasbas were erected to attract trade and credit to Farrukhabad. Very important in this respect was the establishment of the Farrukhabad mint which, apart from being an emblem of sovereignty, stimulated bullion imports and attracted numerous bankers. The superior quality of Farrukhabad currency, both gold and silver, was very well known in the eighteenth century as it became the most trustworthy and hardest currency of northern India. An anecdote relates that Ahmad Shah Durrani preferred coins made at the Farrukhabad mint. Soon enough, because of its growing reputation as a centre of commerce and finance, Farrukhabad began to attract new immigrants from Afghanistan. The Bangash Nawab sent large sums of money to Kabul and adjoining areas via Lahore in order to invite his countrymen to come to Farrukhabad. Many khanqahs were built and large sums of cash were distributed in order to entice the ulema, sufis and other intellectuals to settle in Farrukhabad. According to a British intelligence gatherer named Pere Wendel, the reputation of Farrukhabad as a home for holy men during the Bangash period was such that the city became popularly known as "Faquirabad".

The story of Farrukhabad's economic and political decline under the British colonial state has to begin with the closure of the famed Farrukhabad mint in 1824. The British policy of centralization of Indian economy led to its decision to shut down the mint at Farrukhabad and halt the bullion trade in Farrukhabad. This dealt a heavy blow to the thriving grain trade of the region and precipitated a monetary crisis in the urban and rural areas of the region. The abolition of the mint ruined the native mercantile community and created an acute shortage of money particularly among the poor peasant households. By contrast, Kanpur seems to have benefited from the decline of Farrukhabad and emerged as a major commercial centre during this period of depression lasting till the end of the 1840s.