The Bahmani Kingdom in Dakkan

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 24th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani in 748 AH, Zafar Khan (Hasan Gangu), was unanimously elected as king with the title Ala od-Din Shah Bahmani, following his victory over rivals, who two years earlier had joined together to declare the Deccan (south India) independent from the tyrannical rule of Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq of Hindustan (northern subcontinent) by placing Naseer od-Din Ismail as the Shah at Daulatabad.
Ala od-Din Shah Bahmani, who claimed descent from the legendry Iranian king, Bahman son of Isfandiyar, shifted his capital further south to Gulbarga, and expanded his kingdom in all directions during his 11-year rule. The dynasty he founded ruled for over 170 years (first from Gulbarga and then from Bidar), promoting Islam and Persian language, culture and architecture in southern India, by virtue of its direct sea-route contact with Iran, from where poets, scholars, artists, statesmen, traders and soldiers of fortune flocked to the Bahmani court.
The Bahmani Sultans respected Sufi saints and greatly revered Shah Ne’matollah Wali of Kerman and his devotion to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Bahmani Empire – that stretched from the western to the eastern coasts of Peninsular India – split into five independent Persianate kingdoms that ensured the independence of the Deccan from Hindustan for another 170 more years until the conquest by Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor.
Of these five, the three powerful dynasties (Nizamshahis of Ahmadnagar, Adelshahis of Bijapur and Qutbshahis of Golkandah-Haiderabad) followed the Shi’ite Muslim creed and regarded the Safavid rulers of Iran as their emperor, rather than the Mughal Emperors.