After the partition of Bangle in 1911, it was a great demand from the major Muslim society that a new university should be established in east Bengal. In 1912, when Lord Hardinge came to Dhaka a team under Nowab Syed Nowab Ali Chowdhury, Sher-E-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque and Nowab Sir Solimullah went to Lord and proposed for establishing a university. According to their proposal, Lord Hardinge made a committee of 13 members under the leadership of Barrister Robert Nathan. Then under the Dacca University Act, 1920 of the Indian Legislative Council Dhaka University was established in 1921.

Dhaka University started the journey on July 1^st, 1921 with 3 faculties included 12 departments. Arabic and Islamic Studies was one of those 12 departments. Then in 1980 it was broken down into two individual departments. Islamic Studies department is one of those two. It is situated on the first floor of Arts Building.

From the beginning, this department is trying to teach and spread the philosophy of Islam among the students by its academic activities and arranging national international seminars, symposiums of different important issues. In the field of education and research, this department has a great contribution. To continue this process there is a research center named Dr. Sirajul Haque Research Centre. Multi-linguistic Dr. Sirajul Haque was a bright student of this department. The Dhaka University Journal of Islamic Studies and Sirajul Haque Research Centre regularly publish their research works.

There is Seminar Library named Dr. Muhammad Ishaq Seminar Library. Dr. Muhammad Ishaq was a bright student of this department who received his Ph.D. degree as a 2^nd Muslim student of Dhaka University. Both students and teachers use this library for reading and research work. There is also a computer lab. It helps to develop the skill in the field of Information and Communication Technology.

This department has two multimedia projector classrooms with high-quality sound system and air condition. There are 200 students in the undergraduate program and 100 students in post graduate program. This department also gives M Phil and Ph.D. degree for the bright student. In this department there are 23 brilliant scholars as the teacher among them 7 are professors, 5 are the associate professor, 3 are the assistant professor and 6 are the lecturer. This department has the inclusive syllabus which includes all parts of knowledge like Sociology, anthropology, Political Science, History, Computer Science etc. Apart from education this department also deals with different types of extracurricular activities like debate, sports, annual study tour etc.