Total population | |
---|---|
11,747,400 (2011) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
India • Saudi Arabia • Pakistan • United Arab Emirates • United States of America • United Kingdom • Canada • Turkey | |
Languages | |
Deccani Urdu | |
Religion | |
Islam Majority Sunni Islam Minority Shia (incl. Isma'ilism and Twelver Shi'ism) | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Tamil Muslims • Andhra Muslims • Marathi Muslims • Hyderabadi Muslims • Muhajir people • Other Indian Muslim communities |
The Deccanis or Deccani people are an Indo-Aryan ethno-religious community of Deccani-speaking Muslims who inhabit or are from the Deccan region of South India. [2] The community traces its origins to the shifting of the Delhi Sultanate's capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in 1327 during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq. [3] Further ancestry can also be traced from immigrant Muslims referred to as Afaqis, [4] also known as Pardesis who came from Central Asia, Iraq and Iran and had settled in the Deccan region during the Bahmani Sultanate (1347). The migration of Muslim Hindavi-speaking people to the Deccan and intermarriage with the local Hindus who converted to Islam, [5] led to the creation of a new community of Hindustani-speaking Muslims, known as the Deccani, who would come to play an important role in the politics of the Deccan. [6] Their language, Deccani, emerged as a language of linguistic prestige and culture during the Bahmani Sultanate, further evolving in the Deccan Sultanates. [7]
Following the demise of the Bahmanis, the Deccan Sultanate period marked a golden age for Deccani culture, notably in the arts, language, and architecture. [8] The Deccani people form significant minorities in the Deccan, including the Maharashtran regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha, and the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka (except Tulu Nadu) and northern Tamil Nadu. They form a majority in the old cities of Hyderabad and Aurangabad. [9] [10] After the Partition of India and the annexation of Hyderabad, large diaspora communities formed outside the Deccan, especially in Pakistan, where they make up a significant portion of the Urdu speaking minority, the Muhajirs. [11]
The Deccani people are further divided into various groups that can broadly be lumped into three: the Hyderabadis (from Hyderabad State); Mysoris (from Mysore state, including Bangalore), and Madrasis (from Madras state, including Kurnool, Nellore, Guntur and Chennai). Deccani is the mother tongue of most Muslims in the states of Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and it is spoken by a section of Muslims in Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The word Deccani (Persian : دکنی from Prakrit dakkhin "south") was derived in the court of Bahmani rulers in 1487 AD during Sultan Mahmood Shah Bahmani II. [12]
The Bahmanid empire was founded by Hasan Gangu, or also known as Zafar Khan, a ruler of Afghan or Turk origin. following the Rebellion of Ismail Mukh. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Hasan Gangu revolted against the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with the revolt being led by another Afghan, named Ismail Mukh. [19] Ismail Mukh succeeded and then abdicated in favor of Zafar Khan, who founded the Bahmani Sultanate. [19] [20] Hasan Gangu was one of the inhabitants of Delhi who were forced to immigrate to Daulatabad in the during the Delhi Sultanate, with the purpose of building a large Muslim urban centre in the Deccan. [21]
The Bahmanids' aggressive confrontation with the two main Hindu kingdoms of the southern Deccan, Warangal and Vijayanagar, made them renowned among Muslims as warriors of the faith. [22] Ahmad Shah Bahmani I conquered Warangal kingdom in 1425, annexing it to the empire. The Vijayanagar empire, which had subdued the Madurai Sultanate after a conflict lasting four decades, found a natural enemy in the Bahmanids of the northern Deccan, over the control of the Godavari-basin, Tungabadhra Doab, and the Marathwada country, although they seldom required a pretext for declaring war. [23] Military conflicts between the Bahmanids and Vijayanagara were almost a regular feature and lasted as long as these kingdoms continued. These military conflicts resulted in widespread devastation of the contested areas by both sides, resulting in considerable loss of life and property. [24] Military slavery involved captured slaves from Vijayanagar and having them embrace a Deccani identity by converting them to Islam and integrating into the host society, so they could begin military careers within the Bahmanid empire. This was the origin of powerful political leaders such as Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri. [25] [26]
The five Deccan Sultanates of diverse origins continued to identify as successor states of the Bahmanid dynasty as the basis of legitimacy, and minted Bahmanid coins rather than issue their own coins. [27] The Nizam Shahs and Berar Shahs were founded by the heads of the Deccani Muslim party. [28] [29] The Adil Shahi Sultanate, which was founded by a Shia Georgian slave, also switched to a Deccani ethnic and political identity under Ibrahim Adil Shah I, who established Sunnism (the religion of the Deccani Muslims). [30] [31] He degraded the Afaqis (Persians) and dismissed them from their posts with a few exceptions, replacing them with nobles of the Deccani party. [32] [33] [34] [35] Uniting in a coalition under the leadership of Hussain Nizam Shah, the Nizam Shahi Sultan, the five Deccan Sultanates defeated the Hindu Vijayanagar empire in the Battle of Talikota, resulting in the Sack of Vijayanagara. Hussain Nizam Shah personally beheaded the Vijayanagar Emperor, Rama Raya. [36]
The first mention of the Pindaris referred to Muslim mercenaries generally settled in the districts of Bijapur, who had served as mercenaries for the armies of most of the Muslim Deccani kingdoms. They took part in the numerous wars against the Mughals of Delhi. The disintegration of the Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan led to the gradual disbandment of the Pindaris. These were at that stage taken in the service of the Marathas. The inclusion of the Pindaris eventually became an indispensable part and parcel of the Maratha army. As a class of freebooters in Maratha armies they acted as a "sort of roving cavalry...rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks for the armies of Russia." The Pindaris would also later be used by kings such as Tipu Sultan. [37]
Muslim military men with Deccani background were much sought after by the Marava and Kallar warrior chiefs of the south Indian hinterland. Their fortress towns soon acquired concentrations of migrant Deccanis and Urdu-speaking service people, mostly Sunnis. These incomers included seasoned fighters who had seen service with the Mughals and the Muslim states in northern India. [38] This was the source of the phenomenal rise of rulers such as Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.
Hyder Ali had initially served as an ordinary soldier for the Hindu Wadiyar Kingdom of Mysore and became a cavalry officer in 1749. Once he took control of the army, he took advantage of court politics, stormed into Srirangapatna, and proclaimed himself ruler. Having styled himself as sultan in 1761, Hyder Ali launched a preemptive war against the Marathas, westernizing the army of Mysore in the process and developing the first successful iron-cased rockets as an artillery weapon. With the withdrawal of Madhav Rao, he overran the borderlands between the kingdoms and seized land and immense booty, increasing his power. [39] Ultimately, this brought him into conflict with the British Empire, between whom a series of wars would begin. His son and successor Tipu Sultan would inherit both conflicts. He saw victory against the Marathas and allied with the French in order to fight the British and their allies. Eventually, after existing for 38 years, the Deccani Muslim Sultanat-e-Khudadad (transl. God-gifted kingdom) would be defeated by an alliance of the British, Hyderabad and the Marathas, and the Wadiyars were reinstated on the Mysori throne.
Deccani style painting originated in the 16th century in the Deccan region, containing an insightful native style with the blend of Persianate techniques and is similar to neighbouring Vijayanagara paintings. Due to Islamic influence, Deccani paintings are mostly of nature and inspired by local floral and fauna. Some Deccani paintings present the historical events of the region. [40] [41]
The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work on copper and silver that it came to be known as Bidri. [42] It was developed in the 14th century C.E. during the rule of the Bahmani Sultans. [42] The term "bidriware" originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the chief center of production. [43] Bidriware is a Geographical Indication (GI) awarded craft of India. [42]
The Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent or Indo-Muslim period is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.
The Deccan sultanates is a historiographical term referring to five late medieval to early modern Indian kingdoms on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range that were created from the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate and ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. The five sultanates owed their existence to the declaration of independence of Ahmadnagar in 1490, followed by Bijapur and Berar in the same year. Bidar became independent in c. 1492, and Golconda in 1518.
The Bahmani Kingdom or the Bahmani Sultanate was a late medieval kingdom that ruled the Deccan plateau in India. The first independent Muslim sultanate of the Deccan, the Bahmani Kingdom came to power in 1347 during the rebellion of Ismail Mukh against Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi. Ismail Mukh then abdicated in favour of Zafar Khan, who established the Bahmani Sultanate.
The Sultanate of Golconda was an early modern kingdom in southern India, ruled by the Persianate, Shia Islamic Qutb Shahi dynasty of Turkoman origin. After the collapse of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Qutb Shahi dynasty was established in 1512 by Quli Qutb Shah, as one of the five Deccan sultanates.
Indo-Persian culture refers to a cultural synthesis present on the Indian subcontinent. It is characterised by the absorption or integration of Persian aspects into the various cultures of modern-day republics of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The earliest introduction of Persian influence and culture to the subcontinent was by various Muslim Turko-Persian rulers, such as the 11th-century Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, rapidly pushed for the heavy Persianization of conquered territories in northwestern Indian subcontinent, where Islamic influence was also firmly established. This socio-cultural synthesis arose steadily through the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th to 16th centuries, and the Mughal Empire from then onwards until the 19th century. Various dynasties of Turkic, Iranian and local Indian origin patronized the Persian language and contributed to the development of a Persian culture in India. The Delhi Sultanate developed their own cultural and political identity which built upon Persian and Indic languages, literature and arts, which formed the basis of an Indo-Muslim civilization.
The Sultanate of Bijapur was an early modern kingdom in the western Deccan and South India, ruled by the Adil Shahi or Adilshahi dynasty. Bijapur had been a taraf (province) of the Bahmani Sultanate prior to its independence in 1490 and before the former's political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century. It was one of the Deccan sultanates, the collective name of the five successor states of the Bahmani Sultanate. At its peak, the Sultanate of Bijapur was one of the most powerful states in South Asia, second to the Mughal Empire, which conquered it in 1686 under Aurangzeb.
Yusuf Adil Shah (1450–1510), referred as Yusuf Adil Khan or Hidalcão by the Portuguese, was the founder of the Adil Shahi dynasty that ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur for nearly two centuries. As the founder of the Adil Shahi dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah is credited with developing the town of Bijapur and elevating it to significant status.
Malik Ambar was a military leader and statesman who served as the Peshwa of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate and its de facto ruler from 1600 until his death in 1626.
Sangram Durga is a land fort situated at Chakan, Pune, Maharashtra, India. The original area of the fort was 65 acres, currently it is only 5.5 acres.
The Sultanate of Bidar was an early modern Indian polity that ruled a territory in the central Deccan centred at Bidar. As one of the Deccan sultanates, the sultanate's initial territory corresponded to that of one of the five provinces of the Bahmani Sultanate, and under the rule of Qasim Barid I in 1492 assumed de facto control of state affairs of the Bahmani Sultanate. Leadership passed to his sons; Amir Barid I in 1504 and Ali Barid Shah I in 1542. Starting from the 1580s as a result of Ali's death, a wave of successions occurred in the rulership of the dynasty which ended in 1609 under the last sultan, Amir Barid III. He was eventually defeated in 1619 by Ibrahim Adil Shah II of the Sultanate of Bijapur, who annexed the territory of the Bidar Sultanate into his realm.
Ibrahim Adil Shah I was a Sultan and later Shah of the Indian kingdom of Bijapur. He succeeded his elder brother, Mallu Adil Shah, through the machinations of the Afaqi faction at the court. He was the first Adil Shahi ruler to assume the royal title of Shah.
Ala-ud-Din Hasan Bahman Shah whose original name was Zafar Khan or Hasan Gangu, was the founder of the Bahmani Sultanate.
The Sultanate of Ahmednagar or the Nizam Shahi Sultanate was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi or Bahri dynasty. It was established when Malik Ahmed, the Bahmani governor of Junnar, after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490, declared independence and established the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.
Mahmud Gawan (1411–1481) was a Persian statesman who served as the chief minister, or Peshwa of the Bahmani Sultanate from 1458 and de facto ruler as prime minister from 1466 until his death in 1481. Mahmud Gawan, from the village of Gawan in Persia, was well-versed in Islamic theology, Persian, and the sciences and was a poet and a prose writer of repute.
The history of Telangana, located on the high Deccan Plateau, includes its being ruled by the Satavahana Dynasty, the Kakatiya Dynasty (1083–1323), the Musunuri Nayaks (1326–1356), the Delhi Sultanate, the Bahmani Sultanate (1347–1512), Golconda Sultanate (1512–1687) and Asaf Jahi dynasty (1724–1950).
Deccani architecture, particularly the architecture of the Bahmani and Deccan Sultanates, is the architecture of the Deccan Plateau, and is a regional variant of Indo-Islamic architecture. It was influenced by the styles of the Delhi Sultanate and later Mughal architecture, but sometimes also influenced from Persia and Central Asia. Hindu temple architecture in the same areas had very different styles.
Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk was the founder of the Imad Shahi Dynasty and the Berar Sultanate. Originally a Hindu captive from Vijayanagara, Fathullah was brought up as a Deccani Muslim and rose to command the army of Berar under the Bahmani Sultanate. In 1490, he declared himself Sultan of Berar, which he ruled until his death in 1504. He was succeeded by his son Aladdin Imad Shah.
The rebellion of Ismail Mukh took place between 1346 and 1347 when Deccani Amirs placed Ismail Mukh, also known as Nasir-ud-din Ismail Shah, an Afghan noble, at the head of a rebellion centered at Daulatabad. The rebellion saw the decline and loss of the Delhi Sultanate's control over the Deccan, which had been a part of the Delhi Sultanate since the Khilji dynasty. Ismail Mukh abdicated in favor of Zafar Khan on 3 August 1347, which saw the establishment of the Bahmani Sultanate, which went on to exist until 1518.
Malik Hasan Bahri or Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri was a noble of the Bahmani Sultanate who served as the prime minister from 1481 until his murder in 1486. He was the father of Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I, founder of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, one of the secessionist kingdoms from the Bahmani Sultanate, and its ruling dynasty's primogenitor.
Zafar Khan alias Alauddin Hasan Gangu ('Ala al-Din Hasan Bahman Shah), an Afghan or a Turk soldier, revolted against Delhi and established the Muslim Kingdom of Bahmani on August 3 in the South (Madura) and ruled as Sultan Alauddin Bahman Shah.
The Bahmani sultanate of the Deccan Soon after Muhammad Tughluq left Daulatabad, the city was conquered by Zafar Khan, a Turkish or Afghan officer of unknown descent, had earlier participated in a mutiny of troops in Gujarat.
In the early fourteenth century, the Muslim Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan emerged following Alauddin's conquest of the south. Zafar Khan, an Afghan general and governor appointed by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, was victorious against the troops of the Delhi Sultanate, establishing the Bahmani kingdom with its capital at Ahsanabad (modern-day Gulbarga).
Some Authors write that he was descended from Bahman, one of the ancient kings of Persia. And I have seen a pedigree of him, fo derived (?), in the royal library of Ahmednagar: but am inclined to believe, such lineage was only framed upon his accession to royalty, by flatterers and poets, and that his origin is too obscure to be authentically traced. The apellation of Bahmani, he certainly took in compliment to Kango Brahmin, which is often pronounced Bhamen, and by tribe he was an Afghan.
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