The earliest reference that has been traced ti Thane is, that in 636 when it was rich enough to tempt Usman bin Asi Sakifi, Governor of Baharain and Oman, to send a plundering expedition from Persian Gulf.About 30 years later (660) it was again sacked by the Arabs. In the beginning of the tenth century (913) Masudi mentions it, under the names of Tahne and Tabeh, as one of the chief towns. About a century later, Al Biruni (970-1039) speaks of Thane as the capital of the Konkan.

At the close of the thirteenth century the fortunes of Thane seen\m to have benn at their best. It was a great kingdom, both in size and wealth, inhabited by idolaters with an independent rular. About the same time Ab-ul-Fida (1273-1331) speaks of Thane as the best city of the province of Al Lar, celbrated for producing tanasi, a kind of cloth and manna or bamboo-sugar tabashir. In 1310 Rashid-ud-din speaks of Konkan and Tana, (1342) writes Kukin-Tana and in the Portulano Mediceo of the middle of the 14th century it is Cocintana, and in the Catalan map (1375) Cucnana.
Thane seems to have become part of Gujarat. Early in the 15th century (1429) a Bahamini general took Thane and Mahim, but Ahemad I (1411-1443) of Gujarat sent a strong land and sea force, and recovered both places.

In 1529, terrified by the defeat of the Cambay fleet and the burning of the Bassein coast, " the lord of the grate city of Thana" became tributary to the Portuguese. The city was thrice pillaged, twice by the Portuguese and once by the Gujaratis. In 1538 Thane and its suburbs, with gardens and pleasure house, measured about four mills round . It had sixty temples and mosques and sixty ponds, some of them two-thirds as big as the Rocio of Lisbon, and built of well wrought stone, with many steps, as it in a theatres.

Under the Portuguese, Thane entered on a fresh term of prosperity. Before 1540 the successful Franciscan Antino do Poto had built a cathedral, A Igreja da Se, under the invocation of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao, and " out of the stones of twelve temples round a great lake", had raised the church of St. Anthony. In 1552, the Jesuit Father Melchior Gonsalves built a church to the The Mother of God, A madre de Deus, and about the same time an orphanage and a collage were founded. In 1574 the Augustinians built a church and convent of Our Lady of Grace, Nossa Senhora do Rozario; and, in 1609, a church of St. John, Sam, Joao.

In 1675 the town was built of low tiled houses; good silk and cotton stuffs were made and there were seven churches and collages, th chief being that of the Paulistines of Jesuits. Twenty years later (1695), Thane is described as in an open, excellent country protected by five small forts garrisoned and furnished with cannon. The country round Thane was highly tilled and adorned every two-three miles with rich mansions. On a rising ground, three miles from Thane, was the seat of Jao Melo with terraced walks and gardens ending at the water site in a banqueting hall. A mile further was Greboundel or Ghodbundar, the property of Martin Alphanso, said to be richest landlord on this side of Goa. There was (1728) no fort at Thane, only near a creek three small towers with three or four men in each. The importance and the weakness of Thane were brought to the notice of the Portuguese government, and the building of a fort was sanctioned and begun. The work was in progress, when in April 1737, a Maratha force entered Salsette. The governor of Salsette, who was then at Thane, retired to Karanja. But the Fort, though unfinished, was bravely defended. Two assaults were repulsed when the defenders capitulated as the Marathas seized and threatened to slaughter their families. Next year Colonel Pedro de Mellow, with about 500 European and 4,000 Indo-Portuguese, stormed and destroyed the batteries of Asheri, and made a great effort for the recovery of Thane. But the Bombay governor apprised the Marathas of the intended expedition, and Malharrav Holkar arrived in time to repulse the attack on the fort which was led by Don Antonio Frois, the Portuguese governor of Bassein and Selsette, who fell in the attempt. In 1739, with the loss of Bassein, Portuguese power came to an end.
In 1771 the English, urged by the news that a fleet had left Portugal to recover Salsette and Bassein, determined to gain possession of Thane. An envoy was sent to Poona to negotiate the cession but his proposals were rejected. On the 12th December 1774, under General Robert Gordon, 600 European and 1,200 native a breach was made on the 24th. On the 17th an attempt to fill the ditch was repulsed with the loss of 100 Europeans. But on the evening of the 28th the fort was carried by assault, and the greater part of the garrison were put to the sword. During the siege Commodore Watson, who was in command of the naval force, was mortally wounded by particles of sand driven into his body by a cannon shot, which stuck the ground close to him. Mr. Forbes, who visited the town so soon after that it was still desolate from the siege, describes the fort as a pentagon with regular bastions, curtains, and towers, mounting more than a hundred canon.

In 1825 it was chiefly inhabited by Roman Catholic Christians, either converted Hindus or Portuguese who had become as black as the natives and assumed all their habits. The town neat and flourishing, famous for its breed of hogs and for the Christian's skill in curing bacon. In 1828 Hamilton mentions it as a straggling place, but not very large, with several Portuguese churches and many Christian inhabits. In 1826 and again in 1862 its population was returned at 9,000.

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