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A Khurasani gift to the Deccan: The story of malik Mahmud Gawan: The Gawan Madrassah: Part III of 3 parts

In the previous part of this article, the life history of Mahmud Gawan was explored from his arrival in India in 1453 till his execution in 1482. This final part shall describe the Madrasa, the first of its kind, that he established at Bidar, the capital of the Bahmani Kingdom. Mahmud Gawan had arrived from Khurasan at a mature age. He had benefited from the educational facilities of northern Persia and was aware of its illuminating effect on the people of that area. During his life, despite the destruction caused by Mongols and Amir Timur, the tradition of education persisted in Khurasan. He found the land of Deccan absolutely barren in scholarship. Having risen to the highest offices in the Bahmani Kingdom, he resolved to remedy the situation. He established a Madrasah in 1472 in Bidar for modern education of general people. To get a perspective of era, note that Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, the year Gawan came to India; Emperor Babur was born in 1483, a year after
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A Khurasani gift to the Deccan: The story of malik Mahmud Gawan: Part II

The Part-1 of this article gave the historical and geographical background of Bahmani State, as a prelude to narrating the tale a pioneer of reforms and education not only in Deccan but in the whole of sub-continent. The story being told today is of a 15th century trader from Gilan, who made his adaptive home in the Bahmani Sultanate of the Deccan. He rose to serve as one of the most powerful and enlightened Prime Ministers in the entire sub continent. He did pioneering work in land reforms, public administration and military reorganization, and established a large, well staffed modern school in Bidar -in modern Karnataka- the capital of Bahmani State. This medieval jewel was Khawaja Mahmud Gawan who came to India from Iran. His life story has been recorded in Tarikh-e-Farishta. Mahmud himself compiled his 150 letters, written to friends and world leaders, as Riyadu'l Insha. Haroon Khan Sherwani has compiled his life from various sources and published as 'Mahmud Gawan: The
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A Khurasani gift to the Deccan - The story of Malik Mahmud Gawan: Part I

In the foreword to 'Life of Mir Jumla' by Jagdesh N Sarkar, the famed historian Sir Jadunath Sakar writes that 'Mahmud Gawan, Malik Ambar and Mir Jumla were the three gifts of Persia to India.' Belonging to vastly variant backgrounds, these three arrived in the medieval Deccan under differing circumstances. However, they all had been educated in the centres of Islamic Golden Age and had imbibed the illuminating Khurasani spirit. All three followed highly glittering careers in the new land and, in return, enriched their adopted society through vibrant contributions. I wrote the story of Malik Ambar titled "How an Abyssinian Slave came to rule the Deccan" that appeared in the 20th April 2018 issue of this weekly. The story of Mir Muhammad Said Ardistani commonly known as Mir Jumla, a general and governor of Emperor Aurangzeb, will be told at a later date. This current story is about Malik Mahmud Gawan, who was the earliest of these three to arrive in Deccan i
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How an Abyssinian slave came to rule the Deccan

Before the trans-Atlantic slave trade began in the sixteenth century from West Africa to Americas, there was a centuries-old thriving trade of slaves from East Africa to India. I will describe the true dimensions of this trade in a latter write up. This article traces the life story of Malik Ambar, an Ethiopian origin slave, who rose to become the virtual ruler of the State of Ahmadnagar in Deccan. Similar to the struggle of Khushal Khan Khattak of Nowshera and Dullah Bhatti of Pindi Bhattian, he too defied the mighty Mughal forces till his natural death in 1633. For this article, I have relied on 'A Social History of the Deccan- 1300-1761' by Richard M Eaton, on 'Tuzk-e-Jahangiri' and on 'Malik Ambar' by JN Chowdhuri. Malik Ambar was born as Chapu in 1548 in the Kambata region of southern Ethiopia. Kambata and the area around the Rift Valley were active hunting grounds for the Arab and the Portuguese slave traders. Chapu also became victim of this trade. Acco
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Lady of the Lotus: The tragic love tale of Roopmati-Bazbahadur

She is called the Lady of the Lotus and, like countless tragic love tales of the world, is celebrated in the love poems of the region. This love affair lives in the folk lore of Malwa -in Madhya Pradesh, India- through many of the books written on the subject, the miniature paintings depicting the lovers, the ruins of small town of Mandu and many of the films made on her tragic ending. One reason for my attraction to the story is that the hauntingly forlorn, Bharat Vyas written song 'Aa lot ke aa ja meray meet' -'come back! return to me, my love', sung separately by Mukesh and Lata for the film 'Roopmati', has been a personnel favourite. This sixteenth century story is about Roopmati and her prematurely aborted love affair with Baz Bahadur, enacted in the green enchanting landscape of town of Mandu, located on the Malwa plateau along the northern banks of River Narmada, the traditional dividing line between north India and Deccan. The love story was first rec
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Beyond Padmavati: An ill fated Rajput princess

A Bollywood film by the name of 'Padmavati' is due to be released shortly in India. It has become a controversial film because it is based on uncertain, dubious and conflicting accounts of a Rajput princess and Sultan Alauddin Khilji at the turn of the 13th and 14th century. However, I will narrate here one true story about another Rajput princess in the reign of this same Sultan. This story of princess Deval Devi is authentic, as it has been recorded in nearly uniform manner by multiple contemporary trustworthy sources. First a little background to the tale. For about a hundred years from Iltutmish, the first Muslim ruler in North India in early 13th century, till Alauddin Khilji at the turn of the next century, the Delhi Sultanate encompassed Punjab, Sindh and Delhi. The Sultanate remained occupied in their successful effort of repulsing the Mongol invasions in to India. The boundaries of the Sultanate during this time coincided with that of Rajput principalities that resis
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The fabulous Golconda diamonds - II

Babur spent his entire life in pursuit of acquiring a kingdom to rule. It is unlikely that he had come in contact with any significant diamond in his life till he won the throne of Delhi. He sent his son Humayun with a force to take Agra where the widows of Raja of Gwalior, who had lost his life fighting against Babur for Ibrahim Lodhi at the Battle of Panipat, came to ask for peace and protection. The widows presented Humayun with a diamond that became the most celebrated jewel in the whole world. It was the Koh-i-Noor. Mughals quickly came to appreciate the value of these glittering stones and their opulence came to be linked with diamonds. When Aurangzeb liquidated Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur in 1686 and Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in 1687, he came in to possession of a large number of big diamonds for these royal houses. He took Nur-Ul-Ain Diamond, Great Mughal Diamond, Kara Diamond, Darya-e-Nur, The Hope Diamond, the Wittelsbach Diamond and The Regent Diamond making him the r
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