Ahmadnagar

City in Maharashtra state, India, 195 km/120 mi east of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), on the left bank of the River Sina; population (1991) 222,000. It is a centre of a cotton trade, and copper and brassware are manufactured.

It was founded in 1490 by Ahmed Nizam Shah, a convert to Islam whose dynasty ruled the region until 1636. The city's Islamic history shows strong Persian influences, both in the design of the Husaini mosque and the presence of Perian Shiite muslims in its court. It was captured from the Marathas by General Wellesley in 1803 and finally ceded to the British in 1817 by the Treaty of Poona.