Bahmani Kingdom: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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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 age. Mahmud Gawan is known for setting up the [[Mahmud Gawan Madrasa]], a center of religious as well as secular education,{{sfn|Yazdani, 1947|pp=91–98}} as well as achieving the Sultanate's greatest extent during the his rule.<ref name="8-17"/> He also increased the administrative divisions of the Sultanate from four to eight to ease the administrative burden from previous expansion of the state. Gawan was considered a great statesman, and a poet of repute.{{sfn|Yazdani, 1947|pp=10}}

Mahmud Gawan was caught in a struggle between a rivalry between two groups of nobles, the Dakhanis and the Afaqis. The [[Deccanis|Dakhanis]] made up the indigenous Muslim elite of the Bahmanid dynasty, being descendants of Sunni immigrants from Northern India, while the Afaqis were foreign newcomers from the Westwest such as Gawan, who were mostly Shi'is.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZAT1DwAAQBAJ&dq=firoz+afaqi&pg=PA168 |title= Islam in South Asia: Revised, Enlarged and Updated Second Edition |page= 168 |author= Jamal Malik |date= 2020 |publisher= Brill |isbn= 9789004422711 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hGHpVtQ8eKoC&q=deccanis%20gawan&pg=PA89 |title= Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent |author= Burjor Avari |year= 2013 |page= 89 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 9780415580618 }}</ref> The Dakhanis believed that the privileges, patronage and positions of power in the Sultanate should have been reserved solely for them.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MazdaWXQFuQC&dq=deccanis+looked+upon+empire&pg=RA1-PA137 |title= Indian History |page= 137 |date= 1988 |publisher= Allied Publishers |isbn= 9788184245684 }}</ref>

The divisions included sectarian religious divisions where the Afaqis were looked upon as heretics by the Sunnis as the former were Shi'as.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mHLB4m75pisC&dq=deccanis+looked+upon+empire&pg=PA219 |title= India's Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Subcontinent |author= Wilhelm von Pochhammer |date= 2005 |publisher= Allied |page= 219 |isbn= 9788177647150 }}</ref> [[Richard M. Eaton|Eaton]] cites a linguistic divide where the Dakhanis spoke Dakhni while the Afaqis favored the Persian language.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NUKGAAAAIAAJ&q=afaqis++merchants |title= Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World |page=75 |publisher= Variorum |date=1996 |author=Sanjay Subrahmanyam |isbn= 9780860785071 }}</ref> Mahmud Gawan had tried to reconcile with the two factions over his fifteen-year prime ministership, but had found it difficult to win their confidence; the party strife could not be stopped.<ref name="8-17"/> His Afaqis opponents, led by [[Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri]] and motivated by anger over Mahmud's reforms which had curtailed the nobility's power, fabricated a treasonous letter to [[Purushottama Deva]] of Orissa which they purported to be from him.{{sfn|Haig, 1925|pp=418–420}}<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&dq=mahmud+gawan+deccanis&pg=PA187 |title= Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part One |page= 187 |author= Satish Chandra |date= 2004 |publisher= Har-Anand Publications |isbn= 9788124110645 }}</ref> Mahmud Gawan was ordered executed by Muhammad Shah III, an act that the latter regretted until his death in 1482.{{sfn|Yazdani, 1947|pp=10}} Upon his death, Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri, the father of the founder of the [[Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I|Nizam Shahi dynasty]] became the regent of the Sultan as prime minister.{{sfn|Haig, 1925|pp=421–422}}<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5C4hBqKdkEsC&dq=nizam+ul+mulk+bahri+regent&pg=PA17 |title= The Kingdom of Ahmadnagar |page= 17 |author=Radhey Shyam |date= 1966 |publisher= Motilal Banarsidass |isbn= 9788120826519 }}</ref>