168

The Fārūqī Rulers of Khāndesh

c. 784–1009/c. 1382–1601

The north-west Deccan

Mediaeval Islamic Khāndesh was essentially the region in the north-west of the Deccan south of the Narbadā river and straddling the middle and upper basin of the Tāptī; its neighbours on the north were Gujarhāt and Mālwa, and on the south the Bahmanids and their successors. It owed its name ‘Land of the Khāns’ to its Fārūqī rulers, who were not admitted to the rank of Sultan by their more powerful neighbours but were known by the lesser title of Khān and often referred to by the other powers as hākim or wālī. Before the first Muslim conquest, the region had been held by the Yādavas or the Chawhāns.

The founder of the Muslim line, Malik Rājā Aḥmad, had a background of service with the Bahmanids, but then transferred to the court of the Delhi Sultan Fīrūz Shāh III and was appointed by the latter governor over certain districts in the northern Deccan. In the confusion of the declining years of the Tughluqids, Malik Rājā followed the example of his neighbour in Mālwa, Dilāwar Khān (see above, no. 165), and asserted his independence. Since he claimed descent from the second caliph ‘Umar b. al-Khattāb, who had the by-name al-Fārūq ‘the Just‘ (see above, no. 1), his successors called themselves the Fārūqīs. His son Nāṣir Khān captured the fortress of Asīrgaŕh from its Hindu chief, and built close by it the town of Burhānpur, henceforth the capital of the rulers of Khāndesh. Under ‘Ādil Khān II, Khāndesh flourished exceedingly; he failed to throw off the suzerainty of the Sultans of Gujarāt, but he did extend his power eastwards against the Hindu Rājās of Gondwāna and Jhārkand, and his exploits earned him the title Shāh-i Jhārkand ‘King of the Forest’.

In the early years of the sixteenth century, Khāndesh was racked by succession disputes, which conduced to the intervention of outside powers, especially of the Gujarāt Sultans and the successors of the Bahmanids in Aḥmadnagar, the Niẓām Shāhis of Berār (see below, no. 171). With limited manpower and economic resources available to them, the Fārūqīs only survived while they could pursue an adroit diplomatic policy between their mightier neighbours. This often involved conciliating the Sultans of Gujarāt, and at one point Mīrān Muḥammad I was designated heir-presumptive to the throne in Gujarāt; he died, however, before this claim could be consolidated. The first clash of the Fārūqīs with the Mughals came in 962/1555, and ten years later the Fārūqīs became vassals of Akbar. After c. 993/c. 1585, direct Mughal pressure grew. Bahadur Shāh offended the Mughals, and his fortress of Asīrgaŕh was in 1009/1600 captured by Akbar and the surviving Fārūqīs carried off into exile. Khāndesh now became a province of the Mughal empire, for a time renamed Dāndesh after Akbar’s son Dāniyāl.

Justi, 477; Lane-Poole, 315; Zambaur, 295.

EI² ‘Fārūkids’ (P. Hardy), ‘Hind. IV. History’ (J. Burton-Page), ‘Khāndesh’ (idem).

T. W. Haig, ‘The Faruqi dynasty of Khāndesh’, The Indian Antiquary, 47 (1918), 113–24, 141–9, 178–86.

R. C. Majumdar et al. (eds), The History and Culture of the Indian People. VI. The Delhi Sultanate, ch. 10 B.

M. Habib and K. A. Nizami (eds), A Comprehensive History of India. V. The Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1206–1526), ch. 11.

H. K. Sherwani and P. M. Joshi (eds), History of Medieval Deccan, I, 491–516, with a genealogical table at p. 493.