The Naib Nazim was responsible for governing territories in eastern Bengal, including revenue collection, army and navy affairs, and administering justice.

Dhaka's status as a leading financial and commercial center of Mughal India lent significant influence to the office of the Naib Nazim.

The next time Dhaka's political prominence was revived was during the short lived British province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.

The office was created between 1716 and 1717, when prime minister Murshid Quli Khan transferred the capital of Bengal from Dhaka to Murshidabad.

As the authority of the Mughal imperial court declined, Khan replaced the position of Subedar with a hereditary Nawab.

The Naib Nazim's duties were to administer justice, supervise trade professions, identify and punish seditious persons, collect and deposit revenue punctually at the treasury and maintain military bases, forts and the navy.

Later, Naib Nazims held the office nominally, as a symbol of the Mughal aristocracy under company rule in India.

[2] All Mughal positions were permanently abolished in India after the Mutiny of 1857, which led to the establishment of the British Indian Empire as a crown colony.

The Naib Nazims initially resided in Islam Khan's fort (now located in the premises of the Dhaka Central Jail).

After the British took control of the fort, the Naib Nazims moved to the Bara Katra (Great Caravenserai Palace).

They wore the finest muslin and silk dresses, smoked hookahs, played polo, went on hunting trips, and maintained harems.