The problem of decentralized adaptive fuzzy control for a class of time-delayed interconnected nonlinear systems with unknown backlash-like hystersis is discussed. On the basis of the principle of variable structure control (VSC) and by using the fuzzy systems with linear adjustable parameters that are used to approximate plant unknown functions, a novel decentralized adaptive fuzzy control strategy with a supervisory controller is developed. A general method, which is modeled the backlash-like hysteresis, is proposed and removes the assumption that the boundedness of disturbance, and the slope of the backlash-like hystersis are known constants. Furthermore, the interconnection term is supposed to be pth-order polynomial in time-delayed states. In addition, the plant dynamic uncertainty and modeling errors are adaptively compensated by adjusting the parameters and gains on-line for each subsystems. By theoretical analysis, it is shown that the closed-loop fuzzy control systems are globally stable, with tracking error converging to zero. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.