The Sultanate of Bijapur[n 1] was an early modern kingdom in the western Deccan and South India, ruled by the Adil Shahi (or Adilshahi) dynasty.

After emigrating to the Bahmani Sultanate, Yusuf Adil Shah rose in position and was appointed governor of the province of Bijapur.

The sultanate expanded southward, its first major conquest the Raichur Doab after defeating the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota in 1565.

[15][11] Yusuf took advantage of Bahmani decline to establish himself as an independent sultan at Bijapur in 1490, pursuing the same goal Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I had that year.

[11][16] He proclaimed Shia Islam as the official religion of his territorial holdings in 1503,[16][17] following the lead of Shah Ismail of the Safavid dynasty.

[29] Ismail invaded the territory of Amir Barid I of Bidar in 1529, besieging his capital; Aladdin Imad Shah of Berar unsuccessfully tried to mediate the conflict.

Installed by a prominent Bijapuri noble, Asad Khan, he is noted for incompetence; Vijayanagara invaded the sultanate and seize the Raichur Doab from the Adil Shahis.

[34] He established Sunni Islam as the state religion[33] and made anti-Westerner changes,[d] abolishing the use of Persian in some administrative tasks (although it remained the sultanate's official language)[37] and replacing many Westerners with Deccanis.

[40] Burhan Nizam Shah besieged the Bijapuri city of Solapur four times,[41] but did not retain it until a third invasion which occupied territory on the southern border.

Ahmednagar was besieged by Ali, and Hussain was forced to abandon his siege of Kaliyani; the only beneficiary of the conflict was Vijayanagara, who gained territory from invading Golconda.

[59] Ali also began a campaign to capture the Karnatak;[60] according to Richard M. Eaton, his "armies destroyed two to three hundred Hindu temples" which were replaced with Shia buildings.

[62] He forged diplomatic relations with the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids during his reign, which Eaton says brought the sultanate into the dar al-islam.

[67] Ibrahim's rule was characterised by prosperity and patronage;[68][69] Sufism thrived, with its adherents and others flocking to Bijapur[70][71] because of his talent as a musician and poet.

[75] Despite their past quarrels, the Adil Shahis formed an alliance in 1597 with Ahmednagar and Golconda to deter further Mughal advances in the Deccan.

[79] Ibrahim II founded the city of Nauraspur in 1599, three kilometers west of Bijapur,[80] as a planned center of learning and art; never completed,[66] it was destroyed in 1624 by Malik Ambar's forces.

[83][60] Bidar was in neither sphere of influence and Malik Ambar, de facto ruler of Ahmednagar, invaded Bijapur; after reaching the capital relatively unopposed, he withdrew.

[88] The treaty began a period of relative peace with the Mughals, allowing for more southern conquests;[89][90] Bijapur reached its territorial peak, with its borders stretching from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal.

[98] Despite further Maratha advances in the north, Ali continued his southern campaigns in the Karnatak and Carnatic and captured Thanjavur and other cities from the Nayakas from 1659 to 1663.

He undid almost all the southern Bijapuri conquests over the following years, annexing the territory[102] and renewing efforts to conquer the remaining Muslim Deccan states after Shivaji's death in 1680.

It was characterised by large domes and dargahs (Sufi shrines), complex turrets,[107] geometric and Arabic (or Persian) calligraphic designs,[106][108] and decorated friezes of tholobates.

His most notable commissioned work was the eponymous Ibrahim Rauza, completed in 1626, with a mosque built in honour of his wife and a mausoleum for his family.

It is supported by large, arched recesses and a massive dome,[116] the largest in the Islamic world[117] when it was nearly completed at Muhammad's death in 1656.

Miniature painting was virtually nonexistent in the sultanate before the reign of Ali I, but became widespread under his rule and flourished under Ibrahim II and his successors.

[120] In contrast to North Indian contemporary painting, it seldom depicted events and scenes of war but focused on atmospheric, picturesque fantasies and dreams, avoiding logic in general.

[106] The Adil Shahi sultans promoted the development of writing in the Deccani language, and Bijapur was a center of its early literary evolution.

[125][126] Nusrati, a noted Deccani poet, wrote the later romantic poem Gulshan-i 'Ishq and a narrative of the sultan's conquests under the patronage of Ali Adil Shah II.