rulers in an inscription at Dewal (in Pilibhit district) dated to 992 CE. The Bachhils probably ruled over the northern and western parts of Lakhimpur Kheri district, and they had strongholds at Barkhar, near Muhamdi; Kamp, on the Sarda; Nigohi, in modern Shahjahanpur district; and Garh Gajana near Dewal. The Ahbans are the only other early Rajput known to have been here at an early date; they came to the region at the time of the first Muslim conquests and ruled from Pataunja in today's Sitapur district. As for the Muslims, they appear to have arrived in this district at a later date than elsewhere. There are no local traditions of the Muslim folk hero Ghazi Sayyid Salar Masud here, in contrast to neighboring Bahraich district, and Muslim rule was only established very gradually and was never very strongly felt. Lakhimpur Kheri was then something of a backwater, very heavily forested and barely mentioned in contemporary sources. One tradition attributes the fort of Khairigarh to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, but it is more commonly said to have been built in 1379 under Firoz Shah Tughlaq instead. Khairigarh was one of several forts constructed along the northern frontier, on the north bank of the Sarju, in order to protect the lowlands against incursions from Doti and Nepal. However, these forts were supposedly abandoned shortly after completion and remained so for centuries. Mughal era At some point, the city of Khairabad (in today's Sitapur district) became a seat of Muslim government, but exactly when is not clear. During the reign of Akbar, Khairabad formed a sarkar of Awadh Subah, and most of the present-day district belonged to this sarkar. 8 of its 22 mahals, or parganas, lay partly or entirely in the area covered by the present district. The first of these was Barwar-Anjana, a vast mahal that was mostly covered by forest. It included the later parganas of Muhamdi, Magdapur, Atwa Piparia, Pasgawan (which has the namesake village of Barwar), and Aurangabad, as well as Ahmadnagar and Pindarwa in modern Hardoi district. Barwar-Anjana remained a single territorial unit until the time of Ibadullah Khan, who ruled as Raja of Muhamdi in the early 1700s. In the Ain-i-Akbari, this mahal is described as being ruled by Brahmins and Rajputs (although which clan is not specified), mustering an infantry force of 1,000 and a cavalry force of 50, and providing a revenue of 4,325,