During the rule of Muhammad bin Tughlak, the amirs of the Deccan revolted, declared their independence and formed a new Deccan kingdom called Bahmani Sultanate or Bahmini kingdom.
THE ORIGIN OF BAHMANI SULTANATE OR BAHMANI KINGDOM
In the last years of the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, he faced many revolts. This created a suspicion in the mind of the sultan.
Many foreign revenue department officials in Daulatabad also came in the sultan’s suspicious person list. This failure to collect revenue was the reason for this mistrust.
As per the order of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the governor of Daulatabad was forced to send “amir of the hundred” or “Amir-i-sadahs” or “centurions” under escort to Broach. On their way, they received news of the sultan’s merciless killing of the amirs of Malwa province. Now, they had two options. Get killed or revolt and be independent. They were by no means in a position to surrender.
The amirs of the hundred revolted and returned to Daulatabad. They imprisoned the governor of Daulatabad without much difficulty and declared their freedom.
Now, their newly born Sultanate or kingdom needs an able chief to rule. They choose Ismail Mukh, a senior amir of Devagiri, as their new sultan. Thus, an Afghan-origin person became a sultan.
SULTAN’S REACTION
An imperial army under Muhammad came to the newly born Sultanate.
The imperial army suppressed and defeated the rebel amirs. Some of them, including Ismail Mukh’s brothers, escaped to Gulbarga under the leadership of Hasan Gangu or Zafar Khan.
Zafar Khan organized an army in three months with the help of Kapaya Nayaka of Warangal and marched to Bidar.
Luckily, Muhammad was busy with the rebellion in Gujarat. Zafar Khan utilized this situation of political instability and defeated the sultan’s imperial army. As Zafar Khan and his army advanced to Daulatabad, the imperial troops retired to Malwa.
At last, Ismail Shah, the new king, solved all the problems with the help of other amirs and became ruler again.
REASONS FOR THE REBELLION OF AMIRAN-I-SADA
“Amiran-i-sada” or “Amirs of the one hundred villages” are controllers who performed both military and civil duties. They did not belong to any organized fractions that existed during those days.
The main reason for their hate towards the sultan was his ruthless persecution methods and savage use of capital punishment.
But the sultan had a belief. Amiran-i-sada was the root cause of this rebellion against his rule.
To counter these amirs, Sultan Muhammad appointed Aziz Khammar as the governor of Malwa. He even granted absolute powers to crush the rebels. Aziz Khammar executed around eighty amirs at Dhar.
When the news of the execution reached the ears of Amirs from Daulatabad, they rebelled.
The amirs from Daulatabad plundered the royal treasury and seized all the merchandise in Dabhoi and Baroda.
Then they moved to Cambay and set Taghi a rebel offer from prison. Later, Taghi became their leader. The rebels killed Aziz, the new governor of Malwa.
HAZAN GANGU, THE NEW SULTAN OF BAHMANI SULTANATE
After the threat from the imperial government of Tughlaq, the amirs assembled at Daulatabad and proposed that Ismail Shah should abdicate his throne in favour of Hasan Gangu alias Zafar Khan.
In 1347, Ismail Shah abdicated readily in favour of his able commander and rebel leader, Zafar Khan. They proclaimed Zafar Khan as sultan, Abul Muzaffar Alauddin Bahman Shah.
Bahman Shah shifted his capital to Gulbarga, and it remained the capital till 1424.
He subdued the pro-Tughluq chief and captured Goa and Dobal. Now, the Bahmani kingdom has access to the principal ports on the Arabian Sea.
He extended his borders to Bhongir in Telangana. When a new kingdom emerged under Bahman Shah, he had two Hindu kingdoms as neighbours: Vijayanagara Empire and Warangal.
The historians divided its history into two phases: the Gulbarga phase and the Bidar phase.
WHY HASAN GANGU CHANGED HIS NAME TO MUZAFFAR ALAUDDIN BAHMAN SHAH?
Sultan Ismail Shah gave his ablest follower, Hasan Gangu, the title Zafar Khan.
Later, when Zafar Khan became the sultan, he took the title of Abul Muzaffar Alauddin Bahman Shah. With this title, he aimed for two benefits.
- He can mask his origin and his background. According to one story, he was a servant of Ganga Brahmin in Delhi. Another chronicle claims that he was a nephew of Hizabrudin Zafar Khan, the general of Alaudin Khailji.
- He can claim the lineage of hero Bahman, son of Isfandiyar, the mighty Iranian king.
Now, he has a halo of nobility and claims the lineage of a half-mythical hero of Persia or Iran.
SULTAN MUHAMMAD I of BAHMANI SULTANATE
He consolidated the Sultanate effectively. Muhammad I was the eldest son of Zafar Khan.
Muhammad I got control of Golgonda from the Raja of Warangal. In 1363, the Raja of Warangal ceded Golgonda and its dependencies to the Bahmani sultan.
Muhammad created a council of eight ministers. Sultan Muhammad I reorganized the bodyguard into four naubats or reliefs, each doing duty by turns for four days at a time. He also took steps to suppress Highway robbery.
He was responsible for completing the Great mosque of Gulbarga in 1367. Interestingly, it is the only mosque in India without an open courtyard.
He even secured recognition from the Caliph of Egypt.
He clashed with Vijayanagar for Raichur doab and maintained a strained relationship with Kapaya Nayaka of Warangal. Vinayak deo, son of Kapaya Nayaka, was defeated by Bahadur Khan and collected 100000 gold huns along with 26 elephants.
Later,Muhhamad I killed Vinayak Deo. So Kapaya Nayaka requested Fruz Tughlaq’s help. The sultan besieged Warangal and Golconda. The Nayaka escaped to the forest. Later, Bahmanis made a peace treaty and received Golgonda and a throne studded with turquoise.
After this incident, a series of violent clashes happened between the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire.
MUJAHID AND DAUD KHAN
Mujahid, the eldest son of Muhammad, became the next ruler. During his reign, the tensions with the Vijayanagara Empire continued. The siege of Adoni was later ended by a peace accord.
Mujahid blamed his uncle Daud Khan for his failure. This power struggle with Daud Khan ended in 1378 with Maujahid’s murder, and Daud Khan declared himself king.
Later, within a month, Muhammad II became the king. Daud Khan also faced the same fate as Mujahid.
MUHAMMAD II AND GHIYAS-UD-DIN
He was a man of peace, highly religious and devoted to poetry. He ensured relief measures during famines between 1387 and 1395 but was limited to Muslim subjects.
In 1397, Muhammad II died of fever. Ghiyas-Ud-Din, his eldest son, succeeded him. Within two months, he was removed from the throne and blinded by a Turkish slave, Tughalchin.
TAJU-UD-DIB FIRUZ SHAH
After a failed attempt, Fruz and his brother Ahmad defeated Tughalchi. Firuz became king under the title Taj-ud-din Firuz Shah.
According to records, his character degenerated as his reign advanced.
He was responsible for the construction of a new city on the banks of Bhima, which he named Firuzabad. During his reign, his brother Ahmad became the chief minister. They even employed Brahmins in important posts. Firuz also separated the Raichur Doab from the Gulbarga province due to the threat from the Vijayanagara Empire. Fulad Khan was the first military governor of Raichur Doab.
Firuz also defeated the king Narsingh of Kherla. He also sent a mission and presents to Timur, and in return, Timur issued a decree bestowing the Deccan.
Sultan Firuz Shah encouraged astronomical observations and built an observatory near Daulatabad. He faced defeat at the hands of Devaraya I of the Vijayanagara Empire. In his last years, he had a strained relationship with Gesu Daraz, the saint of Gulbarga. He abdicated his throne in favour of his brother Ahmad Shah Wali in 1422.
AHMAD SHAH WALI OF BAHMANI SULTANATE
Sultan Ahmad Shah I is also known as Wali or Saint due to his association with the famous saint of Gulbarga Gesu Daraz.
Ahmad Shah I’s campaign against Vijayanaga resulted in ruthless, indiscriminate slaughter and enslavement of civilians. He also invaded Warangal and annexed most of its territories. Ahmad Shah Wali changed the capital to Bidar.
During his time, the regular employment of Turks, Arabs, Mougals and Persians gave rise to rivalry between foreigners and deccannis.
REASONS FOR CAPITAL CHANGE FROM GULBARGA TO BIDAR
Two reasons were behind the decision to change capital from Gulbarga to Bidar.
- Gulbarga was in the effective strike range of the Vijayanagar Empire. But Bidar was far away from the border.
- The climate of Gulbarga was very hot. But Bidar was far better when compared with Gulbarga.
ALAUDIN SHAH II
The eldest son of Ahmad, Alaudin II, succeeded Ahmad the Saint. He conquered some parts of Konkan in 1437, and the Raja of Samgamesvara was forced to marry his daughter to the sultan.
His character degenerated with age, and he began to neglect the kingdom.
The Deccani group utilized the situation to destroy the foreign group. In 1446, an expedition was launched against Konkan under Malik-ut-Tujjar Khalaf Hassan. He was defeated by the Hindu kings and slaughtered a large number of foreigners, including Turks and Afghans. The sultan executed deccani leaders and reduced their families to poverty.
After his death, Humayun Shah became sultan.
HUMAYUN SHAH OF BAHMANI SULTANATE
He was very cruel and earned the title of Zalim, or tyrant. He considered his brother Hasan Khan a threat because some officers tried to make him sultan. Humayun Shah blinded and imprisoned Hasan Khan.
He favoured foreigners over deccanis. He made Khwaja Mahmud Gilani or Mahmud Gawanan Iranian, who arrived in Deccan during his father’s time as Prime Minister of the Sultanate.
After his death, two rulers came to the throne. First was Nizamuddin II, who was only eight when he ascended the throne. The next one was Shamsu’d din Muhammad. He was also only nine years old when we ascended to the throne. The power of the Bahmani Sultanate reached its peak during this period.
Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian traveller who visited the Bahmani kingdom from 1469 to 1474 under the Muslim name Khwaja Yusuf Khurasani, notes this in his observations.
MAHMUD GAWAN
Gawan was an Iranian merchant who came to Deccan, and later, he joined the services of the Bahmani Sultanate. Initially, he was “Malik-ul-Tujjar” or “Cheif of the merchants“, but later, due to his skills, he was made “Wazir” under the title Khwaju-i-Jahan.
Mahamud Gawan captured Goa and became their port. Goa was then the best seaport of the Vijayanagar empire. He took steps to prevent the Raja of Khelna and Sangamesvara from using their fleet off the west coast to harass Muslim merchants who supported the Bahmani Sultanate.
He divided the kingdom into eight “tarafs” or provinces under a tarafdar. To control the power of tarafdar, he gave them only one fort, and other forts in the provinces were kept under “Quiladar” or “Commander of the forts“. He also reduced the power and allowances of nobles.
Mahmud Gawan also strengthened trade relations with Persia and Iraq. He introduced gun power against the Vijayanagara Empire and taught the process of making gun power to his soldiers with the help of a chemist from Iran.
Gawan also patronized education and the arts. He built a madrasa of Mahamud Gawn of Bidar.
The reforms dissatisfied the Nobles. They bribed Gawan’s secretary and wrote a treasonable letter to Raja of Orissa. Later, they displayed it to the sultan. Gawan admitted that the seal was his but that the letter was fabricated without his knowledge. But the unconvinced sultan executed him in 1481. The subsequent enquiries revealed the facts.
After Gawan’s death, Hasan Nizamul Mulk Bahri, the deccani group leader, became Malik Naib and regulated the affairs of the Sultanate. The last ruler was Kalimullah. With his death in 1538, the Bahmani dynasty came to an end. Later, the kingdom was divided into five successor states. Berar, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golgonda and Bidar.
