Legends of the immense wealth of the Deccan inspired the Muslim rulers of Delhi to conquer the territory in a long series of campaigns. Alauddin, the ambitious nephew of Jalaluddin Feroz Khalji, the reigning sultan, led a successful expedition against the famous Yadav fortress of Devagiri—the hill of the gods—in 1296, taking Ramachandra, the ruler, by surprise. He forced Ramachandra to surrender not only the fort, but also vast quantities of gold, silver and jewels.1 Devagiri was occupied in 1313, bringing the Muslim armies into the very heart of the Deccan. With this booty Alauddin bought over the army, decoyed his old uncle to death, and ascended the Delhi throne himself. The strategic hill fort of Ellichpur, in Berar, was also ceded to the Delhi power.
In the following years Malik Kafur, an African, was called upon to complete the subjugation and exploitation of the Deccan and the far South. As a young slave he was snatched away from an Arab merchant, who had purchased him in Baghdad for a thousand dinars—hence his title 'Hazardinari'—
by Nusrat Khan, one of Alauddin's generals, in the year 1299. Malik Kafur, an attractive man, then caught the fancy of the Sultan.2 According to the medieval chronicler, Ziauddin Barani, a deep emotional bond developed between them and gave Malik Kafur a great hold over the Sultan who, on his part, honoured him with the title of Malik Naib or Deputy of the Kingdom. Amir Khusro in his Tank-i-Alai, our authority of the period, though inspired by religious zeal, has left behind for posterity a vivid account of Malik Kafur's forays to plunder the Deccan when the Khalji power was in its most aggressive and expansive phase.3
Malik Kafur's first expedition was to Devagiri to subjugate the now vassal king, Ramadeva Yadav, who, taking advantage of the unsettled conditions in the north and the Sultan's unsuccessful attempt to seize the strategic fort of Warangal in neighbouring Tilangana, had adopted a defiant attitude and stopped remitting his annual tribute to the Sultan. Malik Kafur arrived there in March 1307 and victory was easy as he faced little resistance, the son of the Raja having fled at once. The general ordered the soldiers to retain the booty they had captured, but the horses, elephants and treasures were reserved for the Sultan. Ramadeva was taken prisoner and carried away to Delhi where Alauddin, it is recorded, treated him generously. And, after being detained for six months in the capital, he was released with full honours, a 'red umbrella' was bestowed upon him and his throne restored, on the solemn assurance that he would not again swerve from his allegiance. As a further mark of confidence Alauddin conferred on him the honorific title of Raya-Rayan and presented him with a sum of two lakh tankhas for his return journey. He was also permitted to retain the province of Navasari in South Gujarat. The trust of the Sultan was not misplaced. Ramadeva remained a faithful vassal and reliable ally, helping the Sultan in the expeditions to Warangal and other southern kingdoms.
Two years later, on 31 October 1309, we find Malik Kafur once again leading the Khalji forces to
the Deccan and maintaining discipline through most inhospitable terrain—hills, ravines and forests, rivers crossed by fords, torrents and water courses— "now up, now down". And, the Narmada, Amir Khusro writes, was such "that you might say it was remnant of the universal deluge". Miraculously the army managed to arrive on the borders of Devagiri where Malik Kafur, acting under the orders of the Sultan, protected the country from being plundered by his forces. Barani adds, that Ramadeva also placed a contingent of soldiers at his disposal4 when the army proceeded into Warangal territory, where Malik Kafur invested the fort and garrison at Sirpur, a stronghold guarding the northern frontiers of the kingdom. The fort was finally captured but not without a fierce battle and heroic resistance, the local inhabitants putting up a fight till all hope was gone. For, when, as a result of the fire-arrows shot by Malik Kafur's army the houses in the fort began to burn, everyone threw himself, upon the flames. While the fire was yet blazing, an attack was made on the fort, "and those that escaped the flames, became the victims of the sword". Annad Nid, the brother of the commander of the fort, who surrendered and offered complete obeisance, was allowed to remain in charge of it.
Malik Kafur continued his triumphal march towards Warangal, which he reached in January 1310.
An advance detachment of a thousand men had already been sent on an intelligence gathering mission.
Occupying a strategic position on the heights of the Hanamkonda hill which overlooked Warangal, he surveyed the terrain below. Khusro describes the impending battle scene vividly. "The wall of Arangal (Warangal) was made of mud", he writes, "but so strong that a spear of steel could not pierce it; and if a ball from a western catapult were to strike against it, it would rebound like a nut which children play with". Between it and the stone wall of the fort was a moat and behind those strong defences Prataprudra, ruler of Warangal, had collected his army. On the other side, near the outer wall Malik Kafur was camped; "the tents around the fort were pitched together so closely that the head of a needle could not get between them". To doubly secure the camp a wooden palisade was constructed all around. As night fell detachments of troops were spread so that the fort could be invested in every direction and the soldiers protected from "the naphtha and fire" of those inside the fort.
A surprise night attack was successfully repulsed because of these meticulous preparations.
Subsequently, and after much labour, breaches were made in the mud wall, concealed ladders and redoubts erected to scale the wall and throw missiles on the defenders. Thus, it was eventually captured and with the survivors being further pushed into the inner fort, Prataprudra was faced with problem of supplies. Still some of his soldiers held out valiantly, harassing the Khalji camp and its communication lines with Delhi. In the end, however, the besieged Prataprudra could hold out no longer and was compelled to sue for peace. Severe terms were imposed on him by Malik Kafur, who, according to Khusro, threatened a general massacre if it should be found that the Raja had reserved anything for himself. An agreement was then made that he should send an annual tribute in cash and elephants to Delhi. Malik Kafur left Warangal in March 1310 with all his booty, and "a thousand camels groaned under the weight of treasures" which, it is said, included the famous Kohinoor diamond. He reached Delhi in a blaze of glory and received a hero's welcome. "You would have said", writes Khusro, "that the people considered that day a second Id, when the returning pilgrims, after traversing many deserts, had arrived at the sacred dwelling of the king".
Malik Kafur now set out on new conquests farther to the south, reducing in the end to vassalage all the three rulers— Ramachandra Yadav, Prataprudra of Warangal, and Bailala III of Hoysala. Tributes
from these princes and the wealth of the south taken during Khalji expeditions further helped to stabilise Alauddin's position. Malik Kafur undertook another expedition in 1313 to Devagiri to subdue the new ruler Singhama, who refused to pay the annual tribute, and it was after this final annexation that Alauddin issued coins from Devagiri mint in his name5 to show that the Yadav capital and its environs were now part of the Khalji dominions.
Malik Kafur is said to have administered the newly conquered areas with sympathy and efficiency.
Devagiri was no longer treated as hostile territory but part of the Khalji empire. He stayed in Devagiri as governor for about two years but some time in 1315 he was recalled to Delhi when Alauddin fell ill. The Sultan died on 6 January 1316, after which the Khalji court witnessed palace intrigues and many disturbances in the ensuing struggle for power in which Malik Kafur was himself actively involved. His efforts to strengthen his position by rallying the Khalji garrison in the Yadav capital to his side however proved ineffective. He was murdered and Qutbudddin Mubarak Shah Khalji ascended his father's throne in April 1316. Coinciding with these events, the authority of the Khalji dynasty was once again challenged in Devagiri but the revolt was eventually crushed by the new Sultan's general and the fort renamed Qutbabad. The successive rebellions nonetheless indicate that the might of Delhi was not accepted meekly. And, in spite of the fact that Malik Kafur in one of his expeditions had brought his armies to the ports of Dabhol and Chaul on the Arabian Sea, many petty chieftains of the Konkan coast as well as of the plains maintained a semi-independent state. It was not until the fifteenth century that the Konkan chieftains were finally subdued.6
Deccan Subjection by Muhammad bin Tughluq
The Deccan's subjection to northern Muslim rule in the real sense, was actually delayed till the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq, who decided on an ingenious policy which would give Delhi a greater hold on the tenuous authority the Khaljis had established in Gujarat, Malwa and the Deccan by ordering a large scale emigration of the elite, the Ulema, the Mashaik, courtiers, commanders of the army and civilians of rank7 to the south with the intention of planting a strong colony of northerners there. Devagiri, given the new name of Daulatabad—the abode of prosperity—was the site selected for the second capital,8 the move being completed by 1329. From this time onwards there was a continuous influx of northerners into the Deccan, who in course of time, would be gradually cut off from the land of their birth or adoption under the Khaljis.
The Rise of the Bahmanis
In the meanwhile resentment of Muhammad bin Tughluq's high-handed policies caused serious disaffection throughout his vast empire and the group of Amirs9, based at Daulatabad, refused to go to the Sultan's assistance at Broach in Gujarat in 1346. Instead, they elected from among themselves Ismail Mukh as the first independent sultan of the Deccan. Muhammad confronted the rebels in person and captured Daulatabad in his effort to crush the revolt in 1347. But, caught in a sort of cross-ruff situation between Gujarat and the Deccan, he failed to overcome the southern armies under the command of the local strongman, Zafar Khan, later to be known as Alauddin Hasan Gangu. The Sultan's general, Imadul Mulk Sartez, who had been ordered to chase Zafar Khan, was caught while fleeing and killed and the Delhi armies routed. That the Africans were already finding their way to the Deccan is borne out by Isami's account of the above conflict in which he states: "Camels of Bakhtar, horses of Tartars, slave girls (Kaneez) and Habashi slaves in thousands and maunds of gold and
silver, hundreds of tents ... came into the hands of Zafar Khan".10 Ismail abdicated in favour of Zafar Khan, who then ascended the Deccan throne as Alauddin Hasan Bahmani Shah (1347-1358), the founder of the Bahmani dynasty, which ruled the Deccan for nearly one hundred and eighty years.
Alauddin was an able, just and benevolent ruler, who consolidated the Deccan into a powerful state, with the territory extending from the river Bhima to the vicinity of Adoni and to Goa on the Arabian Sea while in the north expeditions were carried out as far as Mandu. In reality though it appears these conquests did not entail any effective occupation as the frontiers kept fluctuating throughout the Bahmani period. Alauddin now divided the kingdom into four large at raf s or provinces. Gulbarga became the headquarters of the Bahmani's northern province and its governor (Prime Minister Saifuddin Ghori) was considered to hold one of the highest ranks in the Bahmani state; Daulatabad remained the most powerful stronghold of the north-west province under the charge of the king's nephew, Muhammad; the other two provinces consisted of Berar, with Mahur, and Tilangana, with Indur and Kaulas.
Now that the South was cut off from the North, the whole system of political hegemony began to rely on infusion of fresh blood, mostly of newcomers from the coasts around the Persian Gulf or further north from the territory south of the Caspian Sea, being mainly Syeds from Najaf, Karbala and Medina and Persians from Sistan, Khurasan or Gilan.11
It was during the reign of Tajuddin Firoz (1397-1422), one of the most learned monarchs, that we hear of the Deccan foreigners, when his fleet had gone from Bahmani ports to bring commodities from all lands as well as men 'excelled in knowledge', especially Persians and Turkish—statesmen, soldiers and craftsmen. The introduction of a strong foreign element called Gharibu'd-diyar or Afaqis (meaning cosmopolitan) to the structure of the Bahmani state, who sought to gain political advantage over the Dakhni colonists from the north settled in the Deccan, was to be a source of continuous strife.
With the coming of Persians, in particular, the Shia sect became strengthened, causing religious as well as political tensions and favouritism. Thousands of captured African slaves (Ghulams) or warriors (Janhju), as already mentioned, had also by now become a political force. They could rise to the rank of nobility and hold high office in the Bahmani kingdom and its successor states. They were at times also a factor to be reckoned with in the politics of these states. Their attachment to the Sunni faith, and the contemptuous attitude adopted towards them by other afaqis threw them into the arms of the Dakhnis. The Habshis never seem to have been considered as foreigners throughout the history of the Deccan. To the Africans were added the Muwallads, a name applied to the offspring of African fathers and Indian mothers. Thus in this disastrous polarization, the Afaqi Party consisted largely of Turks, Arabs, Mughals and Persians, and the Dakhni Party of the 'old comers', Africans and Muwallads. Instances of temporary or permanent defection would not be unknown in the emerging party politics of the state, but, by and large, the homogeneity of both parties would not be seriously impaired.12 As events will show the party spirit in fact was more often stronger than patriotism, though on rare occasions, and in the face of serious external threat, examples would not be lacking of their rising above narrow considerations.
NOTES
1 P.M. Joshi, "Alauddin Khalji's first campaign against Devagiri", in. H.K. Sherwani (ed), Dr. Yazdani Commemoration Volume (Hyderabad, 1966), p. 209.
2 M.S. Commisariat, A History of Gujarat, (London, 1938), vol. I, pp. 1-4.
3 See H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson, History of India as Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, vol. Ill, (London, 1871), pp. 77-85
4 Elliot and Dowson, ibid, p. 201.
5 HMD, op cit., p. 50.
6 Ibid. p. 51.
7 Syed Moinul Haq, "The Deccan policy of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq", Journal of the Indian History Congress (Madras, 1944), pp. 269-77.
8 The full story of the move to Devagiri has been overdramatised by historians like Ziauddin Barani, who is our primary authority on the Tughluq kings, and Ibn Battuta who visited Delhi five years later. They depicted it as a great calamity which resulted in the total destruction of the flourishing city of Delhi. The more sober facts appear to be (a) that Daulatabad was to be a second capital after Delhi, not the new capital, and (b) not the entire population of Delhi, but only the court and the religious, social and commercial elite, were transferred there. The city emerged as a permanent centre of Muslim power and thereafter remained a proud Muslim possession under the Tughluqs, Bahmanis, Mughals and the Nizams of Hyderabad, and, this region was more profoundly influenced by Islam than any other part of the .Deccan.
9 Amirs or nobles were not purely military officers, but also revenue officials, responsible for the collection of taxes in groups of about a hundred villages each, who were entitled to a commission of 5 per cent of their contributions.
10 Isami, op. cit. p. 521.
11 H.K. Sherwani, Mahmud Gawan, the Great Bahmani Wazir (Allahabad, 1942X p. 63.
12 It may be noted here that Qasim Barid, the Kotwal of Bidar, though of Turkish origin succeeded in imposing his influence on Sultan Shihabu'ddin Mahmad (1482-1518), and annexing all authority to himself, but was opposed by all the powerful elements of the state.