Moulvibazar (মৌলভীবাজার) also spelled Maulvibazar, Moulavibazar, and Maulavibazar, (former South Sylhet) is the southeastern district of Sylhet Division in northeastern Bangladesh, named after the town of Moulvibazar. It is bordered by the Indian states of Tripura and Assam to the south and east, respectively; and by the Bangladeshi districts of Habiganj to the west and Sylhet to the north.
The name of the district, Moulvibazar is named after its headquarter, Moulvibazar. The word is derived from two words, moulvi and bazar, meaning 'Market of the Moulvi'. 'Moulvi' is an Islamic honorific title and 'bazar' is the Bengali word for market or township. Moulvibazar is named after Moulvi Syed Qudratullah, a local judge and a descendant of Shah Mustafa, an Islamic preacher active during the advent of Islam in the region. It is believed that the name was coined in the 1771 when Syed Qudratullah established a small bazaar on his zamindari land and local people named it as Moulvibazar. This market was established at riverside of the present Poschim Bazar (West Market), which gradually expanded over the time.
