Founding of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347) in the Deccan

The Bahmani Sultanate was founded in 1347, when a Deccan officer named Hasan, also called Zafar Khan, was crowned as Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah after a revolt against Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq of Delhi. The new kingdom, with its capital at Gulbarga, became the first independent Muslim state of the Deccan plateau. For almost two centuries it shaped the politics, warfare and culture of southern India.

Background: Delhi’s hold on the Deccan

The sultans of Delhi had raided the Deccan from the 1290s and annexed much of it in the early 14th century. Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325-1351) went further: around 1327 he ordered a large part of Delhi’s elite to move to Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, to make it a second capital (see the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad).

The policy left a large community of Muslim soldiers, officials and settlers in the Deccan, far from Delhi. Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign was also marked by costly experiments, heavy taxation and repeated rebellions across the empire.

In the 1340s the sultan grew suspicious of the amiran-i sada, the “centurion” commanders who governed small districts in Gujarat and the Deccan. His orders to arrest and replace them drove them into open revolt.

The revolt of 1345-1347

In 1345 the Deccan amirs seized Daulatabad and proclaimed one of their number, the Afghan officer Ismail Mukh, as sultan under the name Nasir-ud-Din Ismail Shah. Muhammad bin Tughluq marched south and besieged the fortress, but news of a serious rebellion in Gujarat forced him to leave.

Hasan, a capable commander among the rebels, led the fight against the forces the sultan left behind. After defeating the imperial troops, the amirs agreed that the elderly Ismail Mukh should step aside in his favour.

On 3 August 1347 Hasan was crowned as Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah. He chose Gulbarga, in today’s Karnataka, as his capital and renamed it Ahsanabad. Delhi never recovered the region: Muhammad bin Tughluq died in Sindh in 1351 while still fighting rebels.

Key people

Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah (r. 1347-1358) was a soldier of uncertain origins, probably of Afghan or Turkic background. He claimed descent from Bahman, a legendary king of ancient Iran, which gave the dynasty its name. A later story by the historian Firishta, that he had once served a Brahmin named Gangu, is widely regarded as a legend.

Ismail Mukh was the first rebel sultan, who gave up his title to Hasan. Muhammad Shah I (r. 1358-1375), Bahman Shah’s son, organised the kingdom’s administration and fought long wars against Vijayanagara and the Telugu Musunuri Nayaks of Warangal.

Building the new state

Bahman Shah spent much of his eleven-year reign bringing the Deccan under his control. He fought local chiefs and former Tughluq officers who refused to accept him, and he extended his authority from Daulatabad in the north-west towards the Krishna river in the south.

He divided the kingdom into four large provinces, called tarafs, each with its capital at a major fortress: Gulbarga, Daulatabad, Berar and Bidar. The governors of these provinces held great military power, a system that worked well under strong sultans but later encouraged the provinces to break away.

The court adopted the Persian language and Persian forms of government inherited from Delhi. Coins were struck in the new sultan’s name, and the Friday sermon was read for him rather than for the sultan in Delhi, the two traditional signs of independent Muslim sovereignty.

Consequences

The new sultanate soon became the main rival of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara, founded in 1336 just to the south. The two states fought repeatedly over the fertile Raichur Doab between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, a contest that lasted into the 16th century.

The Bahmani court attracted soldiers, scholars and merchants from Iran, Iraq and Central Asia, who often clashed with longer-settled Deccani Muslims. This tension between “Westerners” and “Deccanis” became a lasting feature of Deccan politics.

Around 1429 Sultan Ahmad Shah I moved the capital to Bidar. In the later 15th century the minister Mahmud Gawan strengthened the state, but his execution in 1481 weakened it. Provincial governors then broke away, and by the 1520s five successor states had emerged: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar.

Legacy

The Bahmani sultans left an important architectural heritage. The Great Mosque in Gulbarga Fort, dated by inscription to 1367, is unusual in India for having its entire prayer hall covered with domes and vaults. The royal tombs at Gulbarga and Bidar and the madrasa of Mahmud Gawan at Bidar are other major monuments.

The Bahmani state also laid the foundations of a distinctive Deccani culture that mixed Persian, Turkic and local Indian elements, and that flourished in the later Deccan sultanates.

Timeline

• c. 1327: Muhammad bin Tughluq makes Daulatabad a second capital.
• 1345: The Deccan amirs revolt and proclaim Ismail Mukh sultan at Daulatabad.
• 3 August 1347: Hasan is crowned as Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah; Gulbarga becomes the capital.
• 1351: Death of Muhammad bin Tughluq in Sindh.
• 1358: Death of Bahman Shah; his son Muhammad Shah I succeeds.
• 1367: The Great Mosque in Gulbarga Fort is completed.
• c. 1429: The capital moves to Bidar.
• 1481: Execution of the minister Mahmud Gawan.

Why it matters

The founding of the Bahmani Sultanate ended Delhi’s attempt to rule the Deccan directly and created a powerful regional kingdom. Its long rivalry with Vijayanagara and its successor sultanates defined the history of southern India until the Mughal conquests of the 17th century.