171

The Niẓām Shāhīs

895–1046/1490–1636

Aḥmadnagar

Aḥmadnagar is on the Deccan plateau to the east of Bombay in what is now Maharashtra State. It was founded as the capital of the Bahmanid successor state by Aḥmad Niẓām, son of the vizier to Maḥmūd Bahman Shāh, and named after himself. Aḥmad asserted his independence at Aḥmadnagar during the years of the dynasty’s decline. His son Burhān adopted Shī‘ism, thus aligning his principality with those of the ‘Ādil Shāhīs and Quṭb Shāhīs, and the ruling family was henceforth intermittently Shī‘ī. During the sixteenth century, the Niẓām Shāhīs were involved in fighting with their Muslim rivals and with Vijayanagar, but from the end of that century decline set in, there was a rapid turnover of rulers, and the Mughals captured Aḥmadnagar in 1009/1600. The last Niẓām Shāhis ruled under the ascendancy of the Ḥabashī or black African slave commander Malik‘Ambar, under whose able direction the Niẓām Shāhī fortunes revived. But after his death in 1035/1626, Mughal pressure became intense, andin 1046/1636 the Emperor Shāh Jahān and Muḥammad ‘Ādil Shāhī, alarmed at the Marāt́hā threat, divided the Niẓām Shāhī territories between themselves.

Justi, 471; Lane-Poole, 318, 329; Zambaur, 298–9.

EI² ‘Hind. IV. History’ (J. Burton-Page), ‘Niẓām Shāhīs’ (Marie H. Martin).

Radhey Shyam, The Kingdom of Aḥmadnagar, Varanasi 1966.

H. K. Sherwani and P. M. Joshi (eds), History of Medieval Deccan (1295–1724), I, 223–77, with a genealogical table at p. 225, II, 439–41.

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