Deccan sultanates
The Deccan sultanates is a historiographical term referring to five late medieval to early modern Indian kingdoms on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range that were created from the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate[1][2] and ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda.
[9]: 189 [19][20] As the head of the Sunni Deccani party, Nizam-ul-Mulk lead the wholescale massacre of the Shia foreigners, especially the Turks and Georgian population in Bidar, by the orders of the Bahmani Sultan.
[21][22] After the politically charged murder of Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri, and frustrated with the weakened Bahmani Sultan and the factionalised administration at Bidar, the outrated son, Ahmad Nizam Shah, the governor of Junnar,[3] defeated the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490, declared independence and established dynastic rule over Ahmadnagar.
Ismail, a cousin of Miran Hussain was raised to the throne, but the actual power was in the hands of Jamal Khan, the leader of the Deccani group in the court.
But Malik Ambar, and other Ahmadnagar officials, defied the Mughals and declared Murtaza Shah II as sultan in 1600 at a new capital, Paranda.
After the death of Malik Ambar, his son Fath Khan surrendered to the Mughals in 1633 and handed over the young Nizam Shahi ruler Hussain Shah, who was sent as a prisoner to the fort of Gwalior.
In a last stand, Shahaji, with the assistance of Bijapur, placed an infant scion of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, Murtaza, on the throne but acted as regent.
The Berar Sultanate was founded by Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, who was born a Kannadiga Hindu, but was captured as a boy by Bahmani forces, which were on an expedition against the Vijayanagara empire, and reared as a Muslim.
[31] Located in southwestern India, straddling the Western Ghats range of southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, the Bijapur Sultanate was ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty from 1490 to 1686.
Later in the 17th century, the Marathas revolted successfully under Shivaji's leadership, captured major parts of the sultanate, and its capital, Bijapur.
The dynasty's founder, Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, migrated to Delhi from Persia with some of his relatives and friends in the beginning of the 16th century.
The rulers of the Deccan sultanates made a number of cultural contributions in the fields of literature, art, architecture, and music.
A number of monuments built by the Deccan Sultanates are on a tentative list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Running Elephant is in an American private collection, the Royal Picnic is in the India Office Library in London, and the Young Prince Embraced by a Small Girl, most likely belonging to the Burhan Nizam Shah II period, is in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of South Asian Works in the San Diego Museum of Art.
[49] The earliest notable architecture of the Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar is the tomb of Ahmad Shah I Bahri (1509), at the centre of Bagh Rouza, a garden complex.
The Mecca Masjid, built in 1525 by Rumi Khan, a Turkish artillery officer of Burhan Nizam Shah I, is original in its design.
The Jami Masjid (1615) in Khirki (Aurangabad) and the Chini Mahal inside the Daulatabad fort were constructed during the late Nizam Shahi period (1600–1636).
[50][51] During the reign of Ahmad Shah I Bahri, his keeper of imperial records, Dalapati, wrote an encyclopedic work, the Nrisimha Prasada, where he mentioned his overlord as Nizamsaha.
[52] The ruined palace of Hauz Katora, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of Achalpur, is the only notable surviving Imad Shahi monument.
The Rangin Mahal in Bidar, built during the reign of Ali Barid Shah, is a complete and exquisitely decorated courtly structure.
[56] The Adil Shahi rulers contributed greatly to architecture, art, literature, and music, as Bijapur developed into a cosmopolitan city under their rule and attracted many scholars, artists, musicians, and Sufi saints from Rome, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Turkestan.
Amongst the major architectural works in the Bijapur Sultanate, one of the earliest is the unfinished Jami Masjid, which was begun by Ali Adil Shah I in 1576.
The greatest monument in Bijapur is the Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah, which was completed in 1656, and whose hemispherical dome measures 44 metres (144 ft) across.
[57] Persian artists of the Adil Shahi court have left a rare treasure of miniature paintings, some of which are well preserved in Europe's museums.
[46] In the 16th century, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah decided to shift the capital to Hyderabad, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) east of Golconda.
The construction of the Mecca Masjid, located immediately south of the Charminar, was started in 1617, during the reign of Muhammad Qutb Shah, but completed only in 1693.
[59] The Qutb Shahi rulers invited many Persian artists, such as Shaykh Abbasi and Muhammad Zaman, to their court, whose art made a profound impact on the miniature paintings of this period.
The most outstanding surviving Golconda painting probably is the Procession of Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah Riding an Elephant (c. 1650) in the Saltykov-Shtshedrine State Public Library in St.
The Qutb Shahi rulers were great patrons of literature and invited many scholars, poets, historians and Sufi saints from Iran to settle in their sultanate.
During the reign of Abdullah Qutb Shah, in 1634, the ancient Indian sex manual Koka Shastra was translated into Persian and named Lazzat-un-Nisa (Flavors of the Woman).
