Early Muslim dominions Local kings who converted to
Islam existed in places such as the
Western Coastal Plains as early as the 7th century. Islamic rule in India prior to the advent of the
Mamluk dynasty (Delhi) included those of
Arab Caliphate,
Ghaznavids and
Ghurids.
Delhi Sultanate in 1330-1335 during
Tughlaq era The Delhi Sultanate was the first of the two major Islamic empires which was based in mainland India between 1206 and 1526. It emerged after the disintegration of the
Ghurid empire in 1206. During the last quarter of the 12th century,
Muhammad of Ghor invaded the
Indo-Gangetic plain, conquering in succession
Ghazni,
Multan,
Lahore, and
Delhi.
Qutb-ud-din Aybak, one of his generals proclaimed himself
Sultan of Delhi. In
Bengal and
Bihar, the reign of general
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji was established.
Shamsuddīn Iltutmish (1211–1236), established the Delhi Sultanate on a firm basis, which enabled future sultans to push in every direction. Within the next 100 years, the Delhi Sultanate extended its way east to
Bengal and south to the
Deccan. The sultanate was in constant flux as five dynasties rose and fell: the
Mamluk dynasty (1206–90),
Khalji dynasty (1290–1320),
Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1413),
Sayyid dynasty (1414–51), and
Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). Power in Delhi was often gained by violence—nineteen of the thirty-five sultans were assassinated—and was legitimized by reward for tribal loyalty. Factional rivalries and court intrigues were as numerous as they were treacherous; territories controlled by the sultan expanded and shrank depending on his personality and fortunes. The Delhi sultanate peaked under
Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1335. However, it came under gradual decline afterwards, with kingdoms like the
Bengal Sultanate,
Madurai Sultanate,
Khandesh Sultanate and
Bahmani Sultanate all asserting independence. Timur's invasion in 1398 only accelerated the process, and the
Gujarat Sultanate and
Jaunpur Sultanate broke away. Some of these kingdoms, such as Jaunpur, were again brought back under the Delhi Sultanate's control, although the rest remained independent from central rule until the conquests of the
Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Both the
Qur'an and
sharia (Islamic law) provided the basis for enforcing Islamic administration over the independent
Hindu rulers. According to
Angus Maddison, between the years 1000 and 1500, India's
GDP, of which the sultanates represented a significant part, grew by nearly 80%, to $60.5 billion; however, this growth was lower than India's GDP growth during the prior 1,000 years. Additionally, Maddison estimates that India's population grew by nearly 50% during the same period. The Delhi Sultanate period coincided with a greater use of mechanical technology in the Indian subcontinent. While India previously already had sophisticated agriculture, food crops, textiles, medicine, minerals, and metals, it was not as sophisticated as the
Islamic world or
China in terms of mechanical technology. Sultan 'Ala ud-Din made an attempt to reassess, systematize, and unify land revenues and urban taxes and to institute a highly centralized system of administration over his realm, but his efforts were abortive. Although agriculture in
North India improved as a result of new canal construction and irrigation methods, including what came to be known as the
Persian wheel, prolonged political instability and parasitic methods of tax collection brutalized the peasantry. Yet trade and a market economy, encouraged by the free-spending habits of the aristocracy, acquired new impetus both in India and overseas. Experts in metalwork, stonework and textile manufacture responded to the new patronage with enthusiasm. In this period
Persian language and many Persian cultural aspects became dominant in the centers of power, as the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate had been thoroughly Persianized since the era of the Ghaznavids. , built by
Shah Jahan.
Mughal Empire The
Mughal empire was the second & last major Islamic empire to assert dominance over most of the
Indian subcontinent between 1526 and 1857. The empire was founded by the Turco-Mongol leader
Babur in 1526, when he defeated
Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the
Delhi Sultanate at the
First Battle of Panipat.
Babur,
Humayun,
Akbar,
Jahangir,
Shah Jahan, and
Aurangzeb are known as the six great
Mughal Emperors. Apart from the brief interruption of 16 Years by the Afghan
Sur Empire between 1540 and 1556, the Mughals continued to rule in one form or other till 1857. India was producing 24.5% of the world's manufacturing output up until 1750. Mughal economy has been described as a form of
proto-industrialization, like that of 18th-century Western Europe prior to the
Industrial Revolution. After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the empire declined and reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1757 to 1760. The decline of the Mughals in the 18th century provided opportunity for the
Nawabs of Oudh and Bengal as well as
Nizam of Hyderabad to become independent. The empire was formally dissolved by the
British Raj after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Western and central India Sultan Alauddin Khalji (r.1296–1316) carried out extensive conquests in the western India. He invaded the kingdoms of
Gujarat (raided in 1299 and annexed in 1304),
Jaisalmer (1299),
Ranthambore (1301),
Chittor (1303),
Malwa (1305),
Siwana (1308), and
Jalore (1311). These victories ended several
Rajput and other Hindu dynasties, including the
Paramaras, the
Vaghelas, the
Chahamanas of Ranastambhapura and
Jalore, the Rawal branch of the
Guhilas, and possibly the
Yajvapalas; and permanently establishing Muslim rule in the regions of central and western India. After his death, independent Islamic kingdoms emerged there.
Gujarat Sultanate The
Gujarat Sultanate was founded by
Sultan Zafar Khan Muzaffar, whose ancestors were
Tāṅks from southern
Punjab. Earlier, he was the governor of Gujarat appointed by the Tughlaq Sultans of Delhi. However, in the aftermath of the destruction of Delhi by Emir Timur, he declared independence in 1407. The next sultan, his grandson
Ahmad Shah I moved the capital to
Ahmedabad in 1411. His successor
Muhammad Shah II subdued most Rajput chieftains. The prosperity of the sultanate reached its zenith during the rule of
Mahmud Begada. He also subdued most Gujarati Rajput chieftains and built a navy off the coast of
Diu. In 1509, the
Portuguese empire wrested Diu from the Sultanate in the
battle of Diu (1509). The
Moghul emperor
Humayun attacked Gujarat in 1535 and briefly occupied it, during which
Bombay, Bassein & Damaon would become a Portuguese colony, thereafter
Bahadur Shah was killed by the Portuguese while making a deal in 1537. The end of the sultanate came in 1573, when
Akbar annexed Sultanate of Guzerat into his empire. The kingdom was primarily based in the present-day state of
Gujarat, India. ,
Malwa,
Bengal,
Kashmir and
Delhi as well as
Deccan sultanates can be seen in the south.
Malwa Sultanate The
Malwa Sultanate was another Muslim kingdom in the
Malwa region, covering the present day
Indian states of
Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern
Rajasthan from 1392 to 1562. It was founded by
Dilawar Khan, who following
Timur's invasion and the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate, in 1401/2, made Malwa an independent realm. In 1561, the Sultanate was conquered by the
Mughal empire from its last ruler,
Baz Bahadur.
Other Western states Sindh was ruled by a series of Muslim dynasties including
Habbaris,
Soomras,
Sammas,
Arghuns and
Tarkhans, after the disintegration of Arab caliphate. Following decline of Mughal empire,
Kalhora and
Talpur Nawabs ruled Sindh.
Kingdom of Mewat was also a prominent Muslim Rajput kingdom in
Rajasthan.
Gonds of Deogarh was also a Gond/tribal Islamic kingdom located in
Nagpur,
Maharashtra.
North India Bengal Sultanate In 1339, the Bengal region became independent from the
Delhi Sultanate and consisted of numerous Islamic city-states. The
Bengal Sultanate was formed in 1352 after
Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, ruler of
Satgaon, defeated
Alauddin Ali Shah of Lakhnauti and
Ikhtiyaruddin Ghazi Shah of
Sonargaon; ultimately unifying Bengal into one single independent Sultanate. At its greatest extent, the Bengal Sultanate's realm and protectorates stretched from
Jaunpur in the west,
Tripura and
Arakan in the east,
Kamrup and
Kamata in the north and
Puri in the south. Although a
Sunni Muslim monarchy ruled by
Turco-Persians,
Bengalis,
Habshis and
Pashtuns, they still employed many non-Muslims in the administration and promoted a form of religious pluralism. It was known as one of the major trading nations of the medieval world, attracting immigrants and traders from different parts of the world. Bengali ships and merchants traded across the region, including in Malacca, China, Africa, Europe and the Maldives through maritime links and overland trade routes. Contemporary European and Chinese visitors described Bengal as the "richest country to trade with" due to the abundance of goods in Bengal. In 1500, the royal capital of
Gaur was the fifth-most populous city in the world with 200,000 residents. , once the largest mosque in the
Indian subcontinent, in
Pandua, the first capital of the
Bengal Sultanate. Persian was used as a diplomatic and commercial language. Arabic was the liturgical language of the clergy, and the
Bengali language became a court language. The patronage of the sultans raised Bengali from the language of the masses. Sultan
Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah sponsored the construction of
madrasas in
Makkah and
Madinah. The schools became known as the
Ghiyasia Banjalia Madrasas.
Taqi al-Din al-Fasi, a contemporary Arab scholar, was a teacher at the madrasa in Makkah. The madrasa in Madinah was built at a place called Husn al-Atiq near the
Prophet's Mosque. Several other Bengali Sultans also sponsored madrasas in the
Hejaz. The
Karrani dynasty was the last ruling dynasty of the sultanate. The Mughals became determined to bring an end to the independent kingdom. Mughal rule formally began with the
Battle of Rajmahal in 1576, when the last Sultan
Daud Khan Karrani was defeated by the forces of Emperor
Akbar, and the establishment of the
Bengal Subah. The eastern deltaic
Bhati region remained outside of Mughal control until being absorbed in the early 17th century. The delta was controlled by a confederation of aristocrats of the Sultanate, who became known as the
Baro-Bhuiyans. The Mughal government eventually suppressed the remnants of the Sultanate and brought all of Bengal under full Mughal control.
Jaunpur Sultanate The
Jaunpur Sultanate was founded in 1394 by Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar, a eunuch slave and former
wazir of Sultan
Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah IV Tughluq, amidst the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate's
Tughlaq dynasty. It was centred in
Jaunpur, and the Sultanate extended authority over
Awadh and a large part of the
Ganges-
Yamuna Doab between 1394 and 1479. It reached its greatest height under the rule of Sultan Ibrahim Shah, who also vastly contributed to the development of Islamic education in the Sultanate. In 1479, Sultan Hussain Khan was defeated by the forces of
Bahlul Lodi, Sultan of the
Lodi dynasty of the
Delhi Sultanate, which abruptly brought an end to independent Jaunpur and its reabsorption into the Delhi Sultanate.
Nawabs of Bengal Nawab was a title given by the Mughals to the governors of different provinces. During disintegration of the empire in the 18th century, many Nawabs became de facto independent. in 1751 (in red). Muslim kingdoms of
Awadh,
Hyderabad Deccan,
Carnatic and
Mysore can also be seen. In the early 18th-century, the
Nawabs of Bengal and Murshidabad were the
de facto independent ruler of the three regions of
Bengal,
Bihar, and
Orissa which constitute the modern-day sovereign country of
Bangladesh and the
Indian states of
West Bengal,
Bihar and
Orissa. The Nawabs of Bengal oversaw a period of
proto-industrialization. The region was a major production center for cotton muslin cloth, silk cloth, shipbuilding, gunpowder, saltpetre, and metalworks. The British company eventually challenged the authority of the Nawabs. In the aftermath of the
siege of Calcutta in 1756, in which the Nawab's forces overran the main British base, the East India Company dispatched a fleet led by
Robert Clive who defeated the last independent Nawab
Siraj-ud-Daulah at the
Battle of Plassey in 1757.
Mir Jafar was installed as the puppet Nawab. His successor
Mir Qasim attempted in vain to dislodge the British. The defeat of Nawab Mir Qasim of Bengal, Nawab
Shuja-ud-Daula of
Oudh, and Mughal Emperor
Shah Alam II at the
Battle of Buxar in 1764 paved the way for British expansion across India.
Nawabs of Awadh Nawab of Awadh ruled major parts of present-day
Uttar Pradesh. The Nawabs of Awadh, along with many other
Nawabs, were regarded as members of the nobility of the greater Mughal Empire. They joined
Ahmad Shah Durrani during the
Third Battle of Panipat (1761) and restored
Shah Alam II ( and 1788–1806) to the imperial throne. The Nawab of Awadh also fought the
Battle of Buxar (1764) preserving the interests of the Moghul.
Oudh State eventually declared itself independent from the rule of the "Great Moghul" in 1818. Oudh joined other Indian states in an upheaval against British rule in 1858 during one of the last series of actions in the
Indian rebellion of 1857. In the course of this uprising detachments of the British Indian Army from the
Bombay Presidency overcame the disunited collection of Indian states in a single rapid campaign. Determined rebels continued to wage sporadic guerrilla clashes until the spring of 1859. This rebellion is also historically known as the
Oudh campaign.
Other Northern states In northern India, the Multan-based
Langah Sultanate and the
Kashmir Sultanate were established during the 14th century. Nobles in the court of the Delhi Sultanate founded other Islamic dynasties elsewhere in India including
Khandesh Sultanate. The
Kingdom of Rohilkhand was also a major power in northern India in the 18th century.
South India Till the early 14th century, south India was ruled by Hindu dynasties. During the reign of
Sultan Alauddin Khalji (r.1296–1316), his slave-general Malik Kafur led multiple campaigns to the south of the
Vindhyas, obtaining a considerable amount of wealth from
Devagiri (1308),
Warangal (1310) and
Dwarasamudra (1311). These victories forced the
Yadava king
Ramachandra, the
Kakatiya king
Prataparudra, and the
Hoysala king
Ballala III to become Alauddin's
tributaries. In 1321,
Muhammad bin Tughluq was sent by his father to the
Deccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against the
Kakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfully
laid siege upon the Kakatiya capital in
Warangal. This victory over King
Prataparudra ended the
Kakatiya dynasty. Although the control of Delhi sultanate was weakened after 1335 in the south, its successor Muslim states continued to rule Deccan plateau for next several centuries.
Bahmani Sultanate The Muhammad bin Tughlaq's failure to hold securely the Deccan and South India resulted in the rise of competing for Southern dynasties: the
Muslim Bahmani Sultanate (1347–1518) and the
Hindu Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646).
Zafar Khan, a former provincial governor under the Tughluqs, revolted against Delhi Sultans and proclaimed himself sultan, taking the title
Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah in 1347. It was the first Muslim empire located in the
Deccan region. Bahmani empire was known for its perpetual wars with its rival
Vijayanagara, which would outlast the Sultanate. The Bahmani 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. The Bahmani Sultanate adopted the patterns established by the Delhi overlords in tax collection and administration, but its downfall was caused in large measure by the competition and hatred between Deccani (domiciled Muslim immigrants and local converts) and paradesi (foreigners or officials in temporary service). The Bahmani Sultanate initiated a process of cultural synthesis visible in
Hyderabad where cultural flowering is still expressed in vigorous schools of Deccani architecture and painting. The later rulers are buried in an elaborate tomb complex, known as the
Bahmani Tombs. The exterior of one of the tombs is decorated with coloured tiles. Arabic, Persian and Urdu inscriptions are inscribed inside the tombs.
Deccan sultanates The Bahmani Sultanate lasted for almost two centuries, until it fragmented into five smaller states, known as the
Deccan sultanates (
Bijapur,
Golconda,
Ahmednagar,
Berar, and
Bidar) in 1527. Although the five sultanates were all ruled by Muslims, their founders were of diverse, and often originally non-Muslim origins: the Ahmadnagar Sultanate was of Hindu-Brahmin origins; the Berar sultanate by a
Kannadiga Hindu convert; the Bidar Sultanate was founded by a Georgian slave; the Bijapur Sultanate was founded by a
Georgian slave purchased by
Mahmud Gawan and the Golconda Sultanate was of
Turkmen origin. (1565), in which Deccan sultanates defeated the
Vijayanagara Empire. ''Ta'rif-i Husain Shahi'' (Chronicle of Husain Shah). The rulers of the Deccan sultanates made a number of cultural contributions in the fields of literature, art, architecture, and music. An important contribution was the development of the
Dakhani language, which, having started development under the
Bahamani rulers, developed into an independent spoken and literary language during this period by continuously borrowing from Arabic-Persian, Marathi, Kannada, and Telugu. Dakhani later became known as Dakhani Urdu to distinguish it from North Indian
Urdu. Deccani miniature painting—which flourished in the courts of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golconda—is another major cultural contribution of the Deccan sultanates. When the rulers of the five
Deccan sultanates combined their forces and attacked the
Vijayanagara empire in 1565, the empire crumbled at the
Battle of Talikot.
Nizams of Hyderabad Nizam, a shortened version of Nizam-ul-Mulk, meaning
Administrator of the Realm, was the title of the native sovereigns of
Hyderabad state,
India, since 1719, belonging to the
Asaf Jahi dynasty. The dynasty was founded by
Mir Qamar-ud-Din Siddiqi, a
viceroy of the
Deccan under the
Mughal emperors from 1713 to 1721 who intermittently ruled under the title "Asaf Jah" in 1924. After
Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the Mughal Empire crumbled, and the viceroy in Hyderabad, the young Asaf Jah, declared..himself independent.The dynasty ruled for 7 generations, with the last Nizam –
Mir Osman Ali Khan showing an enormous contributions on the field of education,
construction of major public buildings across the kingdom, setting up of
Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway(NSGR),
donations to Universities, temples and donating of land from his personal estate to Vinobha Bhave's
Bhoodan movement.
Mysore Kingdom Hyder Ali and
Tipu Sultan held power and were de facto rulers of the
proto-industrialised Mysore Sultanate during the latter part of the 18th century. They made alliances with
France and fought the
Anglo-Mysore Wars predominantly against the British.
Carnatic Sultanate The
Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in
South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the
Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. The Nawabs of Carnatic eventually ceded tax rights to the British in 1801 following
Carnatic wars, and the kingdom was abolished.
Other Southern states Other southern states include the
Arakkal Kingdom (of modern-day Kerala) who were a subordinate of their masters the
Kolathiris and the short-lived
Madurai Sultanate which was centered in and around Madurai and existed for barely 40 years. ==See also==