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Mahmoud Gawan, the able Grand Vizier of the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 5th of the Islamic month of Safar in 886 AH, Mahmoud Gawan, the able Grand Vizier of the Bahmani (Iranian origin) kingdom of the Deccan in south India, was unjustly executed at the age of 73 by Mohammad Shah II, after being falsely accused of treason by his rivals at the court.
Born in the Caspian Sea Province of Gilan in northern Iran, Mahmoud Gawan was a man of letters and a successful merchant plying the lucrative route from the Persian Gulf port of Gombroun (presently Bandar Abbas) to the Konkan coast of India with cargos of silken fabrics, pearls, Arabian horses, etc, for the Bahmani capital of Bidar – where Persian culture was prevalent and where earlier the elders of the Ne’matollahi Sufi order of Kerman (adhering to the path of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt) were settled.
On one such visit at the age of 42, he was given the title of “Malik-ut-Tujjar” (King of Traders) by Feroze Shah and offered a post at the court. He stayed in India, and in the reigns of the subsequent kings, he steady rose in the administrative hierarchy because of his efficient management, earning the titles “Wakeel us-Sultana” and “Khwaja-e Jahan” or Prime Minister – a post that he held for almost two decades, during which he carried out many reforms, strengthened the military, increased the revenues through proper utilization of the agricultural lands, and eradicated corruption.
As a great patron of arts and literature, he was in correspondence with the political elite and literati of the other parts of the Persianate World, ranging from Central Asia to the Ottoman Sultanate and the Subcontinent.
He authored several books such as “Riyaz al-Insha” and built a magnificent college famous as Madrasa Mahmud Gawan in Bidar, where scholars from Iran, Iraq, and Arabia used to teach. This aroused the jealousy of his rivals, who by bribing his servants obtained Gawan's seal, affixed it on a blank paper and forged a letter inviting the Rajah of Orissa to attack the Bahmani Kingdom.
The letter was shown to the king in a drunken state and he promptly summoned Gawan and executed him. His death brought about the decline of the kingdom, which in the next two decades splintered into five independent sultanates.
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