Qadian was established in 1530 by Mirza Hadi Baig, a religious scholar dedicated to Islam and the first Qazi in the area.

Mirza Hadi Baig was from a royal household of Mirza of the Mughal Empire. He migrated from Samarkand and settled in Punjab, where he was granted a vast tract of land comprising 80 villages by the emperor Babur. Because of his religious beliefs, he named the centre of the 80 villages Islam Pur Qazi and governed from there.

Over time, the name of the town changed to Qazi Maji, then Qadi, and eventually, it became known as 'Qadian'.

Qadian and the surrounding areas later fell to the Ramgharia Sikhs, who offered the ruling Qazis, two villages which they refused. In 1834, during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the region consisting of Qadian and five adjoining villages was given to Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, father of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) in return for military support in Kashmir, Mahadi, the Kulu valley, Peshawar and Hazara.

It was in Qadian that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born (c. 1835). He lived all his life in Qadian and it was this small town that he carried out the revolutionising work of reformation of Islam - a task divinelly assigned to him.

Qadian is now recognised as one of the international headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.