Sarai Kale Khan

The area was named ' ki sarai', a sarai, or rest house for travelers or caravans and royal route from Mughal imperial courts and Chandni Chowk to their retreat at Mehrauli some 32 km away. The sarai itself named after a Sufi saint, Kale Khan of 14th–15th century, whose resting place along with that of another Sufi saint of Delhi, resting place of travelers is today situated inside the Delhi Airport complex.[1] Though a Lodi era structure Kale Khan ka Gumad is also situated at Kotla Mubarakpur Complex in South Delhi, the tomb is dated to 1481 AD as per an inscription on the Mihrab inside the tomb, this Kale Khan was a courtier in the Lodi period during the reign of Bahlol Lodi [2]

Nawab Faizullah Beg, son of Nawab Qasim Jan, a courtier in reign of Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II (r. 1728–1806), was a courtier in Bahadur Shah Zafar's reign, and built a complex later known as Ahata Kaley Sahab, so named a saint named Kaley Khan, who lived here for a while, after whom area was later named. The complex was later acquired by Bunyadi Begum, poet Mirza Ghalib's sister-in-law, and housed the poet after he was released from debtors' prison.[3][4]

The name Sarai derives from the time of the rule of the Afghan Sher Shah Suri, under whom a paved road network was built, with roadside inns called "Serais" every twelve miles. An integral part of history in this neighborhood is the formation of barbarian mobs which ravaged through south and east Delhi rioting and looting in the 1990s, Under the leadership of Poonam "mota" Basista, the unrest between the communities of nizamuddin east and west started after a cow from the west district entered east across Jathedar Harbans Singh Bhogal road and headbutted a bystander charging into him, the cows name was Parvati and was owned by a person living in the west, unrest grew as to whom the cow belonged to so after searching for the owner for hours the mob grew tired, fried it and ate the cow next to a paan shop, paan owner was mad he said "hey man why you eat bhas near my shop", hungry mob replied "pet me kuch pada nahi yaar". After news spread of a mob eating a cow in nizamuddin east local tempers began to flare especially the owner of the cow whom gathered a mob of angry men in Maruti 500s and drove to across to Sarai kale khan, the mob harassed locals and burned down shops, paan wala ran away. Soon sporadic fighting between the 2 communities begin and mob attacks were normal. Until a calm day on march 29th 1999 when a mob of 3000 people raided a bhas compound in Jangpura Pocket C and stole 5 lakh rupees and 15 bhas's, the leader of the subsequent raid was lead by a random women named Raihanna who not only stole the cows but ate them and caused concern and controversy throughout the village. A police investigation was launched into the unrest and incidents how ever was dropped due to a lack of tangible evidence, an FIR was filed on Raihanna, she was officially charged on September 11, 2001 for disorderly conduct, the case remains in court.

Sarai Kale Khan Inter-State Bus Terminus is a major bus terminus complex in Delhi, India catering to bus services to Haryana and Rajasthan states.

• "Inn lost in march of time". Hindustan Times. 25 August 2013.

• Sarai Kale Khan at wikimapia
• What’s in a name? (History behind the name) at The Hindu