170

The ‘Ādil Shāhis

895–1097/1490–1686

Bījapur

Bījapur was situated in the western part of the Bahmanid Sultanate, and is now near the northern boundary of Karnataka State. Like the founder of the ‘Imād Shāhīs, Daryā Khān (see below, no. 172), Yūsuf Khān was a commander and provincial governor for the Bahmanids, originally a slave in the service of Muḥammad III’s minister Maḥmüd Gāwān (see above, no. 167), who proclaimed his independence in 895/1489. He may well have been of Persian origin, though the story in historians partial to the ‘Ādil Shāhīs that he was of Ottoman royal blood is fanciful. He was certainly the first ruler to introduce Shī‘ism into South India, and this became the faith of three out of the five successor-states to the Bahmanids there.

The history of the ‘Ādil Shāhīs is one of almost continuous warfare with their Muslim neighbours and with the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar. The capital Bījapur nevertheless became a splendid centre for learning and the arts, adorned with fine buildings erected by the Shāhs, while the florescence there of Persian literature accelerated the process whereby much of Muslim South India became culturally Persianised. By the mid-seventeenth century, Bījapur was under pressure from the militant Marāt́hās, and from 1046/1636 its rulers had to acknowledge Mughal suzerainty; then inl097/1686 Awrangzīb captured Bījapur, brought the line of Shāhs to an end and incorporated their dominions into his own empire.

Justi, 470; Lane-Poole, 318, 321; Zambaur, 298–9.

EI² ‘Ādil-Shāhīs’ (P. Hardy), ‘Bīdiāpūr’ (A. S. Bazmee Ansari), ‘Hind. IV. History’ (J. Burton-Page).

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, 441–3.

R. C. Majumdar (ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People. VII. The Mughul Empire, ch. 14 III.