History of the Bahmani Sultanate
The Bahmani Sultanate, or Bahmanid Empire, was a Muslim state of the Deccan Plateau in southern India between 1347 and 1527 and was one of the great medieval kingdoms. It occupied the North Deccan region to the river Krishna. According to historians, a rebel chieftain of Daulatabad (an area around Ellora) was under Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
Beginning
The new sultanate included parts of the modern states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. It vied for control of the Deccan with the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire to the south. The Bahmani capital was Ahsanabad (Gulbarga) between 1347 and 1425, when it was moved to Muhammadabad (Bidar). The sultanate reached the peak of its power during the vizierate (1466–1481) of Mahmud Gawan.
According to an unverified founding myth, Zafar Khan had earlier been a servant or slave of a Brahmin ruler named Gangu (hence the name Hasan Gangu), who had educated Zafar in Hinduism and made him a general in his army.[1][2][3]
References
- Bhattacharya, Sachchidananada. A Dictionary of Indian History (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972) p. 100
- Cathal J. Nolan (2006). The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global ..., Volym 1. pp. 437.
- The Discovery of India, J.L.Nehru