169

The Barīd Shāhīs

c. 892–1028/c. 1487–1619

Bīdar

(892/1487

Qāsim I Barīd, chief minister of the Bahmanid Sultan)

910/1504

Amīr Band I b. Qāsim, nominal vassal of the last Bahmanids

950/1543

‘Alī b. Amīr Barīd, proclaimed his independence as Malik al-Mulūk

⊘987/1579

Ibrāhīm b.‘Alī

⊘ ?997/1589

Qāsim II

? 1000/1592

Mīrzā ‘Alī b. Qāsim II

⊘? 1018/1609

Amīr Barīd II

? 1018–28/1609–19

Mīrzā Wālī Amīr Barīd III

1028/1619

Annexation by the ‘Ādil Shahīs

Bīdar lay in the central Deccan, to the north-west of Hyderabad City, and is now just within the north-eastern tip of Karnataka State. Qāsim Barīd was originally a Turkish slave in the service of the Bahmanids, but towards the end of the fifteenth century rose to become one of the dominating influences in the decaying Sultanate. His family continued to recognise the last titular rulers of the Bahmanids, until‘Alī Barīd finally proclaimed himself an independent prince. Bīdar had a strategically important situation, and the Bahmanids had adorned it with fine buildings, a process continued by the Barīd Shāhīs. The fortunes of these last – who remained, unlike some others of their fellow-princes of the Deccan, resolutely Sunnī in faith – declined after ‘Alī’s death, and the ‘Ādil Shāhīs of Bījapur (see below, no. 170) seized Bīdar in 1028/1619 and ended the Band Shāhīs; thirty-seven years later, Bīdar fell to the Mughal Awrangzīb.

Lane-Poole, 318, 321; Zambaur, 298.

EI2 ‘Barīd Shāhīs’ (H. K. Sherwani), ‘Bīdar’ (H. K. Sherwani and J. Burton-Page); ‘Hind. IV. History’ (Burton-Page).

Gulam Yazdani, Bidar: Its History and Monuments, Oxford 1947, ch. 1.

H. K. Sherwani and P. M. Joshi (eds), History of Medieval Deccan (1295–1724), 1,289–394, with a genealogical table at p. 290, II, 446–7.

R. C. Majumdar (ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People. VII. The Mughul Empire (1526–1707 A.D.), Bombay 1974, ch. 14 V.

If you find an error or have any questions, please email us at admin@erenow.org. Thank you!