Bahmani Sultanate

Mahmud Gawan Madrasa was built by Mahmud Gawan, the Wazir of the Bahmani Sultanate as the centre of religious as well as secular education.[8]

The empire was established by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah after revolting against the Delhi Sultanate of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.[9] Nazir Uddin Ismail Shah who had revolted against the Delhi Sultanate stepped down on that day in favour of Bahman Shah, a native of Delhi.[10] His revolt was successful, and he established an independent state on the Deccan within the Delhi Sultanate's southern provinces.

Alauddin was succeeded by his son Mohammed Shah I. Bidar was made capital of the sultanate in 1429.[11]The eldest sons of Humayun Shah, Nizam-Ud-Din Ahmad III and Muhammad Shah III Lashkari ascended the throne successively, while they were young boys. The vizier Mahmud Gawan ruled as regent during this period, until Muhammad Shah reached of age. Mahmud Gawan is known for setting up the Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, a center of religious as well as secular education.[8] Gawan was considered a great statesman, and a poet of repute. However, Gawan was executed by Muhammad Shah III, an act that the latter regretted until his death in 1482.[12]

Modern scholars have based their accounts of the Bahmani dynasty mainly upon the medieval chronicles of Firishta, Syed Ali Tabatabai, etc. Other contemporary works were Sivatatva Chintamani and Guru Charitra. Athanasius Nikitin traveled this kingdom. He contrasts the huge "wealth of the nobility with the wretchedness of the peasantry and the frugality of the Hindus".[16]

Rulers of the dynasty believed that they descended from Bahman, the mythological figure of Greater Iranian legend and lore. The Bahamani Sultans were patrons of the Persian language, culture and literature, and some members of the dynasty became well-versed in that language and composed its literature in that language.[6]

Bahamani Tombs in Bidar district

The first sultan, Alauddin Bahman Shah is noted to have captured 1,000 singing and dancing girls from Hindu temples after he battled the northern Carnatic chieftains. The later Bahmanis also enslaved civilian women and children in wars; many of them were converted to Islam in captivity.[17][18] The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work on copper and silver that it came to be known as Bidri.[19]

Great Mosque in Gulbarga Fort

• 
  Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah of the Bahmani Sultanate's Firman.
• 
  Ahmad Shah I Wali.
• 
  Tomb of Ahmad Shah I Wali.

• Military of Vijayanagara

• Avari, Burjor (2013), Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A history of Muslim power and presence in the Indian subcontinent, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-58061-8
• Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004), A History of India (Fourth ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9780415329194
• Yazdani, Ghulam (1947). Bidar, Its History and Monuments.
• Haig, Sir Thomas Wolseley (1925). The Cambridge History of India (Volume III). Cambridge University Press.
• Meri, Josef W. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 1–1088. ISBN 9781135455965.
• Ansari, N. H. (1988). "Bahmanid dynasty". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 5. pp. 494–499.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bahmani Sultanate

• Overton, Keelan (2016). "Bahmanī dynasty". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Library of Congress – A Country Study: India