Aurangabad, officially known as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district, Maharashtra and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the fifth-most populous urban area in Maharashtra after Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Nashik with a population of 1,175,116. The city is known as a major production center of cotton textile and artistic silk fabrics. Several prominent educational institutions, including Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, are located in the city. The city is also a popular tourism hub, with tourist destinations like the Ajanta and Ellora caves lying on its outskirts, both of which have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1983. Other tourist attractions include the Aurangabad Caves, Devagiri Fort, Grishneshwar Temple, Jama Mosque, Bibi Ka Maqbara, Himayat Bagh, Panchakki and Salim Ali Lake. Historically, there were 52 Gates in Aurangabad, some of them extant, because of which Aurangabad is nicknamed as the "City of Gates". In 2019, the Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) became the first greenfield industrial smart city of India under the country's flagship Smart Cities Mission.
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, which was followed by Bijapur and Berar in the same year. Bidar became independent in c. 1492, and Golconda in 1512.
DaulatabadFort originally DeogiriFort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadavas, for a brief time the capital of the Delhi Sultanate (1327–1334), and later a secondary capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1499–1636).
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 Kingdom 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 Kingdom. 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.
Makkah Masjid or Mecca Masjid, is a congregational mosque in Hyderabad, India. It is the largest mosque in the city, and one of the largest in the country, with a capacity of 10,000 people. The mosque was built during the 17th century, and is a state-protected monument. It serves as the primary mosque for the Old City of Hyderabad, and is located close to the historic landmarks of Charminar, Chowmahalla Palace and Laad Bazaar.
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.
Indo-Islamic architecture is the architecture of the Indian subcontinent produced by and for Islamic patrons and purposes. Despite an initial Arab presence in Sindh, the development of Indo-Islamic architecture began in earnest with the establishment of Delhi as the capital of the Ghurid dynasty in 1193. Succeeding the Ghurids was the Delhi Sultanate, a series of Central Asian dynasties that consolidated much of North, East, and Central India, and later by the Mughal Empire during the early 16th century. Both of these dynasties introduced Islamic architecture and art styles from West Asia into the Indian subcontinent.
The Jama Masjid of Bijapur is a congregational mosque in the Indian state of Karnataka. Initiated by Ali Adil Shah I of the Bijapur Sultanate in the 16th century, the mosque was never completed. It is the largest mosque in Bijapur, and has a capacity of 4000 worshippers.
The Sultanate of Ahmednagar was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi 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.
The Gates of Aurangabad distinguish it from several other medieval cities in India. Each of the 52 gates have a local history or had individuals linked with it.
Bidar Fort is located in old city area, Bidar, Karnataka, India. The fort, the city and the district are all affixed with the name Bidar. Sultan Ahmad Shah I of the Bahmanid dynasty shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar in 1427 and built his fort along with a number of Islamic monuments. There are over 30 monuments inside Bidar fort.
The Jama Masjid is a mosque built in 1612 AD, located near the Killa Arrak in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It is historically significant because it was constructed in 1612 AD, very soon after the foundation of Aurangabad by Malik Amber in 1610 AD. The mosque was later extended by Aurangzeb(R.H) in the year 1692 AD, it is one of the oldest mosques of Aurangabad which is still in good condition.
Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments is a book written in Persian by Dr Ali Asghar Hekmat E Shirazi and published in 1956 and 1958 and 2013. New edition contains the Persian texts of more than 200 epigraphical inscriptions found on historical monuments in India, many of which are currently listed as national heritage sites or registered as UNESCO world heritage, published in Persian; an English edition is also being printed.
The Deccan sultanates were five early modern kingdoms, namely Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, and Berar, which ruled the Deccan Plateau for part of the 15th, and the majority of the 16th–17th centuries. Their architecture was a regional variant of Indo-Islamic architecture, and 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.
Deccan painting or Deccani painting is the form of Indian miniature painting produced in the Deccan region of Central India, in the various Muslim capitals of the Deccan sultanates that emerged from the break-up of the Bahmani Sultanate by 1520. These were Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, and Berar. The main period was between the late 16th century and the mid-17th, with something of a revival in the mid-18th century, by then centred on Hyderabad.
Pushkar Sohoni is an architect, and an architectural and cultural historian. He is an associate professor in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He was Chair of the department from 2019 to 2024.
The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India is a book by the architectural and art historian Pushkar Sohoni, published in 2018 by I.B. Tauris. It is one of the most comprehensive works on the architecture and urban settlements of the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, who ruled in the sixteenth century.
The ShahiMosque, also known as the Alamgiri Mosque, is located in Aurangabad, a city in Maharashtra, India. It was built in 1693 by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for his private use. It is one of the few surviving structures of the Qila-e-Ark, a fortified palace complex built as Aurangzeb's residence in Aurangabad, and is situated in its eastern flank. The structure was referred to as the Alamgiri Mosque as late as the twentieth century, and it is commonly known as the Shahi Mosque in the modern era.
The Tomb of Malik Ambar is a mausoleum located in Khuldabad, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the burial place of Malik Ambar, a military leader who served as the prime minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Ambar built the tomb for himself, and was interred here upon his death in 1626. It is listed as a monument of national importance.
The Siege of Daulatabad (1633) was a conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, wherein the fort-city of Daulatabad was besieged by a Mughal force for several months and successfully captured. The Bijapur Sultanate also participated in the conflict against the Mughals, sending a large army to the aid of the fort's garrison. The conflict took place after several Mughal victories securing other minor forts in Ahmadnagar control, but was distinguished by the political significance of Daulatabad to the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. This event marked Mughal victory in the ongoing war between the Mughals and the Ahmadnagar Sultanate; it ended the Nizam Shahi dynasty and concluded the Sultanate, marking another step in the Mughal advance over the Deccan region. The victory did not fully quell resistance to Mughal authority in the Western Deccan; a year later, Maratha commander Shahji Bhonsle attempted a bid for power using a puppet ruler of the Nizam Shahi house.
