Bahmani Sultanate

The Bahmani Sultanate was founded by Zafar Khan, who was of either Afghan or Turk origin.^{[10][11][12][13]} Encyclopedia Iranica states him to be a Khorasani adventurer, who claimed descent from Bahrām Gōr.^[14] According to the medieval historian Ferishta, his obscurity makes it difficult to track his origin, but he is nonetheless stated as of Afghan birth.^[15] Ferishta further writes, Zafar Khan had earlier been a servant of a Brahmin astrologer at Delhi named Gangu, giving him the name Hasan Gangu,^[16][17] and says that he was from North India.^[18] Historians have not found any corroboration for the legend,^[19][20] but Barani, who was the court chronicler of Sultan Firuz Shah, as well as some other scholars have also called him Hasan Gangu.^[21] Another theory of origin for Zafar Khan is that he was of Brahmin origin,^[22] and that Bahman (his given name following the establishment of the Sultanate) is a corrupted personalized form of Brahman,^[23] with Hasan Gangu being a Hindu Brahman who became Muslim.^[24][22] However this view has been discredited by S.A.Q Husaini, who considers the idea of a Brahmin origin or Zafar Khan originally being a Hindu convert to Islam from Punjab untenable.^[25]

Ziauddin Barani, the court chronicler of Sultan Firuz Shah, states that Hasan Gangu, the Bahmani Sultanate's founder, was "born in very humble circumstances" and that "For the first thirty years of his life he was nothing more than a field laborer."^[26] He was made a commander of a hundred horsemen by the Delhi Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughluq, who was pleased with his honesty. This sudden rise in the military and socio-economic ladder was common in this era of Muslim India.^[27] Zafar Khan or Hasan Gangu was among the inhabitants of Delhi who were forced to migrate to the Deccan, to build a large Muslim settlement in the region of Daulatabad.^[28] Zafar Khan was a man of ambition and looked forward to the adventure. He had long hoped to employ his body of horsemen in the Deccan region as the Deccan was seen as the place of bounty in Muslim imagination at the time. He was rewarded with an Iqta for taking part in the conquest of Kampili.^[29]

Rise

South Asia
1400 CE

DELHI

SULTANATE

(TUGHLAQS)

TIMURID
EMPIRE

SHAH MIR
SULTANATE

PHAGMODRUPAS

SAMMAS

MARYUL

GUGE

KUMAON

KANGRA

KALMAT

GUJARAT
GOVERNORATE

BAHMANI
SULTANATE

KHANDESH
SULTANATE

TOMARAS

TWIPRA

EASTERN
GANGAS

KAMATAS

SUGAUNAS

MALLA

NAGVANSIS

AHOM

CHUTIA

BENGAL
SULTANATE

VIJAYANAGARA
EMPIRE

REDDI

MALWA
SULTANATE

JAISALMER

MEWAR

MARWAR

KARAULI

AMBER

SIROHI

AMARKOT

VAGAD

MEWAT

JAUNPUR
SULTANATE

GONDWANA

◁ ▷

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The Bahmani Sultanate and main South Asian polities in 1400 CE^[30]

Before the establishment of his kingdom, Hasan Gangu / Zafar Khan was Governor of Deccan and a commander on behalf of the Tughlaqs. On 3 August 1347, during the rebellion by the Amirs of the Deccan, Ismail Mukh, the leader of the rebellion (whom the rebel amirs of the Deccan placed on the throne of Daulatabad in 1345), abdicated in favor of Zafar Khan, resulting in the establishment of the Bahmani Kingdom. The Sultan of Delhi had besieged the rebels at the citadel of Daulatabad. As another rebellion had begun in Gujarat, the Sultan left and installed Shaikh Burhan-ud-din Bilgrami and Malik Jauhar and other nobles in charge of the siege. Meanwhile, as these nobles were unable to stop the Deccani amirs from pursuing the imperial army, Hasan Gangu, a native of Delhi, then being pursued by the governor of Berar, Imad-ul-Mulk, who was the leader to whom the Deccani Amirs had re-assembled against, attacked and slew Imad-ul-Mulk and marched on towards Daulatabad. Here Hasan Gangu and the Deccani amirs put to flight the imperial forces which had been left to besiege. The rebels at Daulatabad had the sense to see Hasan Gangu as the man of the hour, and the proposal to crown Hasan Gangu, entitled Zafar Khan, was accepted without a dissentient voice on 3 August 1347.^{[31][32][33][34][35]} His revolt was successful, and he established an independent state on the Deccan within the Delhi Sultanate's southern provinces with its headquarters at Hasanabad (Gulbarga), where all his coins were minted.^[31][36]

With the support of the influential Indian Chishti Sufi Shaikhs, he was crowned "Alauddin Bahman Shah Sultan – Founder of the Bahmani Dynasty".^[37] They bestowed upon him a robe allegedly worn by the prophet Muhammad. The extension of the Sufi's notion of spiritual sovereignty lent legitimacy to the planting of the Sultanate's political authority, where the land, people, and produce of the Deccan were merited state protection, no longer available for plunder with impunity. These Sufis legitimized the transplantation of Indo-Muslim rulership from one region in South Asia to another, converting the land of the Bahmanids into being recognized as Dar ul-Islam, while it was previously considered Dar ul-Harb.^[38]

Turkish or Indo-Turkish troops, explorers, saints, and scholars moved from Delhi and North India to the Deccan with the establishment of the Bahmanid sultanate. How many of these were Shi'ites is unclear. Nonetheless, there is enough evidence to demonstrate that a number of nobility at the Bahmani court identified as Shi'ites or had significant Shi'ite inclinations.^[a][4]

Succeeding rulers (1358–1422)

Alauddin was succeeded by his son Mohammed Shah I.^[40] His conflicts with the Vijayanagar empire were singularly savage wars, as according to the historian Ferishta, "the population of the Carnatic was so reduced that it did not recover for several ages."^[41] The Bahmanids' aggressive confrontation with the two main Hindu kingdoms of the southern Deccan, Warangal and Vijayanagara in the first Bahmani-Vijayanagar War, made them renowned among Muslims as warriors of the faith.^[42]

The Vijayanagara empire and the Bahmanids fought over the control of the Godavari-basin, Tungabadhra Doab, and the Marathwada country, although they seldom required a pretext for declaring war,^[43] as military conflicts were almost a regular feature and lasted as long as these kingdoms continued.^[44] Military slavery involved captured slaves from Vijayanagara whom were then converted to Islam and integrated into the host society, so they could begin military careers within the Bahmanid empire.^[45][46]

Ghiyasuddin succeeded his father Muhammad II at the age of seventeen in April 1397, but was blinded and imprisoned by a Turkic slave called Taghalchin,^[47][48] who had held a grudge on the Sultan for the latter's refusal to appoint him as a governor. He had lured the Sultan into putting himself in the former's power, using the beauty of his daughter, who was accomplished in music and arts, and had introduced her to the Sultan at a feast.^[49][50] He was succeeded by Shamsuddin, who was a puppet king under Taghalchin. Firuz and Ahmed, the sons of the fourth sultan Daud, marched to Gulbarga to avenge Ghiyasuddin. Firuz declared himself the sultan, and defeated Taghalchin's forces. Taghalchin was killed and Shamsuddin was blinded.^[51]

Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah became the sultan in November 1397.^[52] Firuz Shah fought against the Vijayanagara Empire on many occasions and the rivalry between the two dynasties continued unabated throughout his reign, with victories in 1398 and in 1406, but a defeat in 1419. One of his victories resulted in his marriage to the daughter of Deva Raya, the Vijayanagara Emperor.

Firuz Shah expanded the nobility by enabling Hindus and granting them high office.^[53] In his reign, Sufis such as Gesudaraz, a Chishti saint who had immigrated from Dehli to Daulatabad, were prominent in court and daily life.^[54] He was the first author to write in the Dakhni dialect of Urdu.^[55] The Dakhni language became widespread, practised by various milieus from the court to the Sufis. It was established as a lingua franca of the Muslims of the Deccan, as not only the aspect of a dominant urban elite, but an expression of the regional religious identity.^[56]

Later rulers (1422–1482)

Firuz Shah was succeeded by his younger brother Ahmad Shah I Wali. Following the establishment of Bidar as capital of the sultanate in 1429,^[57] Ahmad Shah I converted to Shi'ism.^[4] Ahmad Shah's reign was marked by relentless military campaigns and expansionism. He imposed destruction and slaughter on Vijayanagara and finally captured the remnants of Warangal.^[58]

Alauddin Ahmad II succeeded his father to the throne in 1436.^[59] He ordered the construction of the Chand Minar, a minaret in Daulatabad. For the first half-century after the establishment of the Bahmanids, the original North Indian colonists and their sons had administered the empire quite independent of either the non-Muslim Hindus, or the Muslim foreign immigrants.

However, the later Bahmani Sultans, mainly starting from his father Ahmad Shah Wali I, began to recruit foreigners from overseas, whether because of depletion among the ranks of the original settlers, or the feelings of dependency upon the Persian courtly model, or both.^[60] This resulted in factional strife that first became acute in the reign of his son Alauddin Ahmad Shah II.^[61] In 1446, the powerful Dakhani nobles persuaded the Sultan that the Persians were responsible for the failure of the Konkan invasion.^[62]

The Sultan, drunk, condoned a large-scale massacre of Persian Shi'a Sayyids by the Sunni Dakhani nobles and their Sunni Abyssinian slaves.^[63] A few survivors escaped the massacre dressed in women's clothing and convinced the Sultan of their innocence.^[64] Ashamed of his own folly, the Sultan punished the Dakhani leaders who were responsible for the massacre, putting them to death or throwing them in prison, and reduced their families to beggary.^[65] The accounts of the violent events likely included exaggerations as it came from the pen of the chroniclers who were themselves mainly foreigners and products of Safavid Persia.^[66]

The eldest sons of Humayun Shah, Nizam-Ud-Din Ahmad III and Muhammad Shah III Lashkari ascended the throne successively, while they were young boys. The vizier Mahmud Gawan ruled as regent during this period, until Muhammad Shah reached age. Mahmud Gawan is known for setting up the Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, a center of religious as well as secular education,^[67] as well as achieving the Sultanate's greatest extent during the his rule.^[68] Gawan was considered a great statesman, and a poet of repute.

Mahmud Gawan was caught in a struggle between a rivalry between two groups of nobles, the Dakhanis and the Afaqis. The Dakhanis made the indigenous Muslim elite of the Bahmanid dynasty, being descendants of Sunni immigrants from Northern India, while the Afaqis were foreign newcomers from the West such as Gawan, who were mostly Shi'is.^[69][70] The Dakhanis believed that the privileges, patronage and positions of power in the Sultanate should have been reserved solely for them.^[71]

The divisions included sectarian religious divisions where the Afaqis were looked upon as heretics by the Sunnis as the former were Shi'as.^[72] Eaton cites a linguistic divide where the Dakhanis spoke Dakhni while the Afaqis favored the Persian language.^[73] Although Mahmud Gawan was a foreigner, he attempted to reconcile the factions and strengthen the Sultanate by allotting offices to the Dakhanis.

Nonetheless, Mahmud Gawan found it difficult to win their confidence; the party strife could not be stopped and his opponents eventually managed to poison the ears of the Sultan.^[74] Mahmud Gawan was executed by Muhammad Shah III, an act that the latter regretted until he died in 1482.^[75] Upon his death, Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri, the father of the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty became the regent of the king.^[76] Nizam-ul-Mulk, as leader of the Dakhani party, led a cold-blooded massacre of Iranian Georgians and Turkmens in the capital of Bidar.^[77][78]

Decline

Muhammad Shah III Lashkari was succeeded by his son Mahmood Shah Bahmani II, the last Bahmani ruler to have real power.^[79] In 1501, Mahmood Shah Bahmani united his amirs and wazirs in an agreement to wage annual Jihad against Vijayanagara. The expeditions were financially ruinous.^[80]

The last Bahmani Sultans were puppet monarchs under their Barid Shahi Prime Ministers, who were de facto rulers. After 1518 the sultanate broke up into five states: Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar, Qutb Shahi of Golconda (Hyderabad), Barid Shahi of Bidar, Imad Shahi of Berar, and Adil Shahi of Bijapur. They are collectively known as the Deccan Sultanates.^[8]

Modern scholars like Sherwani and Eaton have based their accounts of the Bahmani dynasty mainly upon the medieval chronicles of Firishta and Syed Ali Tabatabai.^[81][82] Other contemporary works were the Sivatattva Chintamani, a Kannada language encyclopedia on the beliefs and rites of the Veerashaiva faith, and Guru Charitra. Afanasy Nikitin, a Russian merchant and traveler, traveled through the Bahmani Sultanate in his journeys. He contrasts the huge "wealth of the nobility with the wretchedness of the peasantry and the frugality of the Hindus".^[83]

The Bahmani dynasty patronized Indo-Muslim and Persian culture from Northern India and the Middle East.^[84] However, the society of the Bahmnanis was dominated prominently by Iranians, Afghans, and Turks.^[85] They also had considerable and social influence such as with the celebration of Nowruz by Bahmani rulers.^[85] This also comes as Mohammed Shah I ascended the throne on Nowruz.^[86] According to Khafi Khan and Ferishta, musicians flocked to the court from Lahore, Delhi, Persia and Khorasan.^[87]

The Bahmani Sultans were patrons of the Persian language, culture and literature, and some members of the dynasty became well-versed in the language and composed its literature in the language.^[88]

The first sultan, Alauddin Bahman Shah, is noted to have captured 1,000 singing and dancing girls from Hindu temples after he battled the northern Carnatic chieftains. The later Bahmanis also enslaved civilian women and children in wars; many of them were converted to Islam in captivity.^[89][90]

Bidriware

Bidriware is a metal handicraft from the city of Bidar in Karnataka. It was developed in the 14th century during the rule of the Bahmani Sultans.^[91] The term "bidriware" originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the chief center of production.^[92] The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work on copper and silver that it came to be known as Bidri.^[91] The metal used is white brass that is blackened and inlaid with silver.^[92] As a native art form, Bidriware obtained a geographical Indications (GI) registry on 3 January 2006.^[93]

Turquoise Throne

The Turquoise Throne was a jeweled royal throne mentioned by Firishta. It was the seat of the sultans of the Bahmani Sultanate since Mohammed Shah I (r. 1358–1375). It was a gift of Musunuri Kapaya Nayaka, then king of the Telangana region.^[94] It was mentioned by Firishta that on 23 March 1363,^[b] this throne replaced an earlier silver throne that the first Bahmani sultan Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah used.

The Bahmani Sultanate was the first state to invent and utilize gunpowder artillery and firearms within the Indian Subcontinent, in 1347. Their firearms were the most advanced of their time, surpassing even those of the Yuan Dynasty and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The first recorded use of firearms in South Asia was at the Battle of Adoni in 1368. In the Deccan, the Bahmani Sultanate led by Mohammed Shah I used a train of artillery against the Vijayanagara Empire who was led by Emperor Harihara II.^[96]

Paranda Fort was possibly constructed by Mahmud Gawan. The fort represents an example of military architecture and engineering and served as a military base for the Bahmani Sultanate and the Deccan Sultanates.

The Bahmani Sultans constructed many architectural works, although many have since been destroyed.^[97] The Gulbarga Fort, Haft Gumbaz, and Jama Masjid in Gulbarga, and the Bidar Fort and Madrasa Mahmud Gawan^[67] in Bidar are some of the major architectural contributions.

The later rulers are buried in a necropolis known as the Bahmani Tombs. The exterior of one of the tombs is decorated with coloured tiles. Arabic, Persian and Urdu inscriptions are inscribed inside the tombs.^[98][99]

The Bahmani Sultans built many mosques, tombs, and madrasas in Bidar and Gulbarga. They also built many forts at Daulatabad, Golconda and Raichur. The architecture was highly influenced by Persian architecture. They invited architects from Persia, Turkey and Arabia. Some of the structures built by the Bahmanis were the Jami Masjid at Gulbarga, Chand Minar and the Mahmud Gawan Madrasa at Bidar.^[97]

The Persianate Indo-Islamic style of architecture developed during this period was later adopted by the Deccan Sultanates as well.

• Deccan Sultanates
• Vijayanagara Empire
• Battle of Talikota
• Battle of Raichur

Notes

Citations

Sources

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• Haig, Sir Thomas Wolseley (1925). The Cambridge History of India (Volume III). Cambridge University Press.
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• Meri, Josef W. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 1–1088. ISBN 9781135455965.
• Prasad, Ishwari (1933). History Of Mediaeval India. Allahabad: The Indian Press Ltd.
• Sherwani, Haroon Khan (1946). The Bahmanis of the Deccan – An Objective Study. Krishnavas International Printers, Hyderabad Deccan.
• Yazdani, Ghulam (1947). Bidar, Its History and Monuments.
• Richard M. Eaton (17 November 2005). A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives, Part 1, Volume 8. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521254847.
• Richard Maxwell Eaton (1978). The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700 : Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400868155.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Bahmani Sultanate.

• Overton, Keelan (2016). "Bahmanī dynasty". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Library of Congress – A Country Study: India