Sandwip (Bengali: সন্দ্বীপ, romanized: Sôndwīp, pronounced [ʃondip]) is an island located along the southeastern coast of Bangladesh in the Chittagong District.

It is close to the mouth of the Meghna River in the Bay of Bengal and is separated from the Chittagong coast by Sandwip Channel.

The island is bounded by Companiganj on the north; the Bay of Bengal on the south; Sitakunda, Mirsharai, and Sandwip Channel on the east; and the Noakhali Sadar, Hatiya and Meghna estuaries; on the west.

He wrote: We found it a place inhabited, and, to my judgment, the fertilest island in all the world; the which is divided into two parts by a channel which passeth between it.

According to Pierre Du Jarric, Kedar Rai managed to reclaim the governance of Sandwip from Godinho with the help of another group of Portuguese pirates.

In November 1602, the Jesuits fled to Sandwip following the imprisonment and execution of their head priest, Fernandes, in Chittagong (which was under Arakanese rule).

Carvalho fled to Jessore for safety, but the city's ruler, Pratapaditya—an ally of the Arakanese—had him executed and sent his severed head back to Arakan.

[4] Sebastian Gonzales Tibao/Tibeau, a salt-dealer who had come to Bengal in 1605, had escaped Arakanese punishment in Dianga with some other Portuguese captives and began a life of piracy consisting of robbing the Arakan port and keeping the stolen goods with their native allies in Bakla, or as some sources say, Bhatkal.

In March 1609, Fateh Khan dispatched a fleet to suppress these pirates who had been located in nearby South Shahbazpur.

Tibao negotiated a deal with the King of Bakla or Bhatkal, receiving support in the form of ships and 200 horses for the takeover in exchange for half of the island's future revenue.

Wishing to take advantage of this development and avenge the 1609 Dianga captives, Tibao destroyed the forts of Arakan but was defeated by Razagyi at the capital and returned to Sandwip.

The condition behind the deal was for the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa to assist Tibao in a battle against Arakan, which was now ruled by Razagyi's son, Min Khamaung.

Many Portuguese pirates were also transported to Chittagong as sailors and gunners as Khamaung feared the growing power of the Muslims.

[16][19][20] In the 1620s, cleric Samuel Purchas described the inhabitants of Sandwip as majority Mohammedans and mentioned the presence of a 300-year old mosque in the island.

In November 1665, Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal, appointed General Abul Hasan to lead the conquest of Sandwip with the support of the Dutch military.

Ibn-i-Husain with this reinforcement moved up to Noakhali, in front of Sandwip, and halted there with Muhammad Beg in order to blockade the passage of the Arrakanese fleet.

As a means of compensation, Shaista Khan granted Dilawar's younger sons a jagir of 10-12 villages on the banks of the Dhaleshwari River in Patharghata-Mithapukur near Dhaka.

In order to facilitate the collection of revenue, a man named Muhammad Qasim was appointed as the Ahaddar (secretary) of Sandwip.

Khan's headquarters was located west of the Musapur Dighi (lake) and continues to be known as Sadari Bhita although the building is no longer standing.

[29][30] By the time the island came under British rule, it had a mixed population of Bengalis, both Muslim and Hindu, many of whom had arrived from Dhaka, as well as Buddhist Arakanese.

Keshab Ghosh, a President of the Indian National Congress, led the Violation of Law movement in Sandwip in 1930.

During the 1970 Pakistani general election campaign, Mohammad Shah Bangali of Sandwip was the folk singer mascot for the Awami League.

[32] The area was heavily affected during the 1970 Bhola cyclone and as a response, the Government of Pakistan sent three gunboats and a hospital ship carrying medical personnel and supplies.

[33] The Government of Singapore sent a military medical mission to the country, which was then deployed to Sandwip where they treated nearly 27,000 people and carried out a smallpox vaccination effort.

On 10 May, many civilians were murdered including Jahedur Rahman, a lawyer in Sandwip town, who was killed on Kargil Bridge.

[32] A Bangladesh Navy fleet headquarters at the Sandwip Channel with ship berthing facilities is being constructed as part of the Forces Goal 2030.

The many crops grown include rice, jute, potato, betel leaf and betel nut, chilli, sugarcane, radish, tomato, eggplants, cauliflower, okra, cabbage, mustard, corn, ginger, various legumes and green beans, sweet potato, carrot, coriander, mint, and more.

There is also fruit, including citrus, watermelon, mango, jackfruit, banana, cherimoya, sapote, coconuts, papaya, guava, kul (breadfruit) and date palms.

[38] As a result of the 1991 cyclone, the Bangladesh Remote Union Council began to take more enhanced measures to protect residents of the island through wider distribution of storm warning signals, as well as relief and rehabilitation programs led by NGOs such as the Association for Social Advancement to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.