The
Bahmani Sultanate, or Bahmanid Empire, was a
Muslim state of the
Deccan Plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by th ...
in
southern India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...
between 1347 and 1527 and was one of the great medieval kingdoms. It occupied the North Deccan region to the
river Krishna.
Beginning
According to an unverified
founding myth
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...
, Zafar Khan had earlier been a servant or slave of a
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...
ruler named
Gangu
Gangu County () is a county in the southeast of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Tianshui City and is the most populous county in Gansu. Its postal code is 741200, and in 1999 its population was 570, ...
(hence the name Hasan Gangu), who had educated Zafar in Hinduism and made him a general in his army.
[Bhattacharya, Sachchidananada. ''A Dictionary of Indian History'' (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972) p. 100][The Discovery of India, J.L.Nehru]
The new sultanate included parts of the modern states of
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
,
Maharashtra, and
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...
. It vied for control of the Deccan with the Hindu
Vijayanagara Empire
The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana and Mahar ...
to the south. The Bahmani capital was Ahsanabad (
Gulbarga) between 1347 and 1425, when it was moved to Muhammadabad (
Bidar
Bidar (/ biːd̪ər/) is a city in the north-eastern part of Karnataka state in India. It is the headquarters of Bidar district, which borders Maharashtra and Telangana. It is a rapidly urbanising city in the wider ''Bidar Metropolitan area ...
). The sultanate reached the peak of its power during the vizierate (1466–1481) of
Mahmud Gawan
Mahmud Gawan (1411 – 1481) was a Persian prime minister in the Bahmani Sultanate of Deccan. ''Khwaja Mahmud Gilani'', from the village of ''Gawan'' in Persia, was well-versed in Islamic theology, Persian language and Mathematics and was a poet ...
.
References
{{reflist
Bahmani Sultanate