Political History of Medieval Karnataka - Bijapur Sultanate

Bijapur Sultanate

The Bijapur Sultanate (or Adilshahi Kingdom) emerged towards the end of the 15th century with the weakening of the Bahmani Sultanate . The main sources of information about this kingdom comes from contemporaneous inscriptions and writings in Persian and Kannada, travelogues of European visitors to the Deccan and inscriptions of neighbouring kingdoms. In 1489, Yusuf Adilkhan, a Turkic general in the Bahmani army, broke away to found the kingdom from modern Bijapur . Throughout his rule, the Sultanate was at war with the Vijayanagara Empire over the strategic Raichur doab, with the Portuguese over Goa, with the Barid Shahis of Bidar and later with the erstwhile feudatories of the Vijayanagara Empire who had gained independence after 1565. The Italian writer Varathema wrote about the founder Adilkhan and Bijapur, "A powerful and prosperous king", "the city was encircled by many fortifications and contained beautiful and majestic buildings".

Inter-Sultanate marriages normalised relations and Ali I (1557–1580) joined a confederacy of Sultanates who eventually inflicted a crushing defeat on the Vijayanagara Empire in 1565. The most notable ruler of the dynasty was Ibrahim II (1580–1626) who ascended the throne as a nine year old with Chandbibi, the king's aunt acting as the regent. Later when Ibrahim II was defeated by the first of the Moghul incursions into the Deccan, he gave his daughter in marriage to Daniyal, a son of Emperor Akbar, but managed to collect tributes from the former feudatories of the Vijayanagara Empire. According to a historian, the rule of Ibrahim II was the high point of the Bijapur Sultanate. A tolerant king inclined to the fine arts, the earliest book on music in Urdu language called Kitab-e-Nauras is ascribed to him. The opening song in the book is an invocation of the Hindu Goddess Saraswati. During the rule of his son Muhammad, Shahji Bhosle from Ahmadnagar joined the Bijapur army and along with commander Ranadullah Khan conducted many successful campaigns in the southern Deccan collecting tribute from local rulers there. The final end of the diminished Vijayanagara Empire ruling from Vellore came during these campaigns.

However, the rise of Maratha Shivaji and constant invasions by the Mughals from the north took its toll on the kingdom, eventually bringing it to an end in the later part of 17th century. The contributions of the Bijapur Sultanate in the Indo-Saracenic idiom to the architectural landscape of Karnataka is noteworthy. Their most famous monuments are the mausoleums called Ibrahim Rauza and the Gol Gumbaz apart from many other palaces and mosques. The elegance, finish and beauty of Mehtar Mahal is claimed by a historian to be equal to anything in Cairo. Their Kali Masjid at Lakshmeshwar is a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim styles. The Ibrahim Rauza built by Ibrahim II is a combination of a mausoleum and a mosque and is called the "Taj Mahal of the Deccan". The Gol Gumbaz built by Muhammad is the largest dome in India and the second largest pre-modern dome in the world after the Byzantine Hagia Sophia with an impressive "whispering gallery". Some historians consider this one of the architectural marvels of the world. Persian language was given state patronage while the use of the local languages, Kannada and Marathi was popularised in local affairs.