At that time, most of the area remained covered with forests and marshlands, through which the Paondhoi, Dhamola, and Ganda Nala rivers flowed.

Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi (1325–1351), undertook a campaign in the northern doab to crush the rebellion of the Shivalik kings in 1340, when according to local tradition he learned of the presence of a sufi saint on the banks of the Paondhoi River.

[3] The simple but well-preserved tomb of this saint is situated in the oldest quarter of Saharanpur city, between the Mali Gate/Bazar Dinanath and Halwai Hatta.

In the 16th century, Babur, a Timurid descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan from Fergana Valley (modern-day Uzbekistan), invaded across the Khyber Pass and founded the Mughal Empire, covering India, along with modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh[4] The Mughals were descended from Persianised Central Asian Turks (with significant Mongol admixture).

Akbar bestowed the feudal jagir of Saharanpur to the ,Raja Sah Ranveer Singh, an Aggarwal Jain who laid the foundations of the present-day city on the site of an army cantonment.

Mughal emperors Akbar and later Shah Jahan (1592–1666) bestowed the administrative pargana of Sarwat on Muslim Sayyid families.

In 1633, one of them founded a city and named it and the surrounding region Muzaffarnagar, in honour of his father, Sayyid Muzaffar Ali Khan.

He made Gaunsgarh his capital and tried to strengthen his position against Maratha Empire attacks by entering an alliance with the Hindu Gurjar chieftain Manohar Singh.

The death of Ghulam Qadir put an end to the Rohilla administration in Saharanpur and it became the northernmost district of the Maratha Empire.

[7] When India rebelled in 1857 against the foreign Company's occupation, now referred to as the First War of Indian Independence, the Saharanpur and the present-day Muzaffarnagar Districts were part of that uprising.

The centre of freedom fighters' operations was Shamli, a small town in the Muzaffarnagar region which was liberated for some time.

Death and destruction was particularly directed against the Muslims of the region, whom the British considered as the main instigators of the rebellion (even though Hindu Gurjars were the ones who had led the revolt ).

[8] When social reconstruction started, the cultural and political history of Muslims began to revolve around Deoband and Aligarh.

Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, both proponents of the reformer Shah Waliullah's ideology for social and political rejuvenation, established a school in Deoband in 1867.

Its founders' mission was twofold: to raise and spread a team of scholars able to awaken the religious and social consciousness of Muslims through peaceful methods and to make efforts, through them, to educate Muslims in their faith and culture; and to bring about a feeling of nationalism and national unity by promoting the concept of Hindu-Muslim unity and a united India.

Muslim scholars in the city of Saharanpur were active supporters of this ideology and went on to establish the Mazahir Uloom theological seminary six months later.

[15] There are significant numbers of Urdu and Punjabi speakers, while Haryanvi is also spoken, as the district shares a border with Haryana.

[23] There is only one sewage treatment plant located in Saharanpur,[24] while most of the waste water is discharged into the Hindon river, further polluting it.

[30] Saharanpur, known as the "Wood Carving City," is a cultural and artistic hub in India noted for its hand-carved wooden artifacts.

[31][32][33] Situated about 40 km south of Saharanpur is an archaeological site yielding evidence of late Harappan settlement dating back to 2000 BC.