In 1773, Captain Hiram Cox, a member of the British East India Company, was appointed as the Superintendent of Palonki (now known as Cox's Bazar). Cox was deployed to handle the conflict between the Arakan refugees and local Rakhains at Palonki. Captain Cox made tremendous progress in rehabilitation of the refugees but died before he completed his task. In honor of Captain Cox, Palonki was renamed Cox's Bazar, meaning "Cox's Market."
Cox's Bazar is a city, district headquarters, and fishing port in Bangladesh and is well known for its sandy beaches. Cox's Bazar history dates back centuries. The city derived its name from Captain Hiram Cox, an officer of British East India Company who rehabilitated refugees in the area before his death in 1799. Cox's Bazar is one of the most popular destinations in Bangladesh but has not yet become a major international tourist destination.
In the early ninth century, Cox's Bazar was under the rule of Arakan Kings but was overtaken by the Mughals in A.D. 1666. Shah Shuja, the Mughal Prince, was drawn to the beauty and attractive scenery of the land and commanded his forces to camp on the grounds. After the Mughal's conquest, the land was under the rule of the Tipras and was then taken by the Portuguese, followed by the British.
After the end of British rule, Cox's Bazar remained part of East Pakistan. Captain Advocate Fazlul Karim, the first Chairman (after independence from the British) of Cox's Bazar municipality established the Tamarisk Forest along the beach to draw tourism to the town and also to protect the beach from tide. He also donated many of his father in law's (Akbar Ahmed Chowdhury, son of Fazlul Karim Kwik of Manikpur) and his own lands for establishing a Public Library and Town Hall. In 1971, the wharf was used as a naval port by the Pakistan Navy's gunboats. This and the nearby airstrip of the Pakistan Air Force were the scene of intense shelling by the Indian Navy during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
In 1984 Cox's Bazar was made a District.
