According to tradition, Bijnaur was founded by and named after Bijli Raja, a Pasi king who had a fort at Nathawan, a bit to the north.^{[citation needed]} Bijnaur is then said to have been captured by the legendary Muslim conqueror Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud, and the remains of old brick tombs on the west side of Bijnaur are said to mark the graves and shrine of sufism of some of his companions.^{[citation needed]} According to H. R. Nevill, however, it is unlikely that Salar Masud ever came here, and instead the Muslim conquest of Bijnaur only happened at the end of the 12th century CE.^{[citation needed]} The conqueror, he claimed, would have been Qazi e islam and shah shahab the ancestor of the Lucknow shah and the Pirzadahs of Bijnaur.^{[citation needed]} The Pirzadahs then ruled Bijnaur for several generations before losing control due to family conflicts.^{[citation needed]} In the east side of bijnour historical shrine of Takiya Hazrat Syed mastali shah madari ra. People says this shrine is 800 years old. shrine of Hazrat Syed kashif Ali shah and 5 others. Pirgharana generation is found in bijnour, The pir faqirs generations people known as Syed shah. He is from Sadat Syed. The last gaddinasheen of pirgharana was Sufi Syed Shaukat Ali shah madari ra. The shrine of sufi Shaukat Ali shah is also located in bijnour near by Shrine of his ustad and Grandfather Hazrat Syed Azmat ali shah.^{[citation needed]}

At the turn of the 20th century, Bijnaur was described as a town picturesquely located among trees, with good farmland surrounded by wide usar plains.^[3] Its houses were mostly of mud, except for the brick houses of the Sheikh zamindars, and there was a bazaar held twice weekly along with a cattle market.^[3] There was also an upper primary school with a regular attendance of about 60 students.^[3] Bijnaur had formerly been a centre of trade, but it had declined substantially in the late 19th century, after the British annexation of Oudh State in 1856.^[3] The local manufacture of cotton cloth had also dwindled, although it remained a significant local industry at the turn of the century.^[3] Its population in 1901 was 3,593, including a Muslim population of 1,326.^[3]