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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Qutb Shahis

Sultans of Golconda (1518–1687) who ruled Telangana and, from the 1520s, the coast between the Krishna and the Godavari. Later they ruled the northern coast and the Guntur country, and in the 17th century much of the Karnatak to the south. The founder, Sultan Quli, had governed Telingana for the Bahmanis. Ibrahim joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565, and Muhammad Quli founded Hyderabad about 1589–91. From 1636 the kings paid tribute to the Mughals, and in 1687 Aurangzeb took Golconda by treachery after an eight months' siege. Persian nobles held the high offices, but Telugu soldiers held the forts and Brahmin accountants kept the revenue. Under the last king two Brahmin brothers, Madanna and Akkanna, ran the state.

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Each bar is a ruling power in its region; time runs left to right. Dashed = approximate dates. Select a bar for details.

1450150015501600165017001750Nayakas, Reddis & Bahmanis (1323–1518 CE)Nayakas, Reddis & BahmanisVijayanagara & the Qutb Shahis (1336–1687 CE)Mughals, Asaf Jahis & the British (1687–1948 CE)Mughals, Asaf Jahis & the BritishTelanganaBahmani SultanateVijayanagara EmpireMughal EmpireAdil Shahis of BijapurQutb Shahis of GolcondaShitab Khan (Sitapati) of WarangalCoastal AndhraVijayanagara EmpireMughal EmpireQutb Shahis of GolcondaGajapatis of OrissaAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadRayalaseemaVijayanagara EmpireMarathasNawabs of KurnoolAdil Shahis of BijapurQutb Shahis of GolcondaNawabs of CuddapahMughal EmpireBanganapalle StateAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadMarathasMysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan1450150015501600165017001750
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Nayakas, Reddis & Bahmanis 1323–1518 CE

Telangana
Bahmani Sultanate (c. 1347–1518 CE) · Recherla Velamas (Padmanayakas) (c. 1361–1475 CE) · Adil Shahis of Bijapur (c. 1489–1686 CE) · Gajapatis of Orissa (c. 1459–1461 CE) · Shitab Khan (Sitapati) of Warangal (c. 1504–1516 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1350–1579 CE) · Reddis of Rajahmundry (c. 1386–1448 CE) · Bahmani Sultanate (c. 1471–1489 CE) · Gajapatis of Orissa (c. 1446–1571 CE)
Rayalaseema
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1336–1646 CE)

Vijayanagara & the Qutb Shahis 1336–1687 CE

Telangana
Bahmani Sultanate (c. 1347–1518 CE) · Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1563–1565 CE) · Recherla Velamas (Padmanayakas) (c. 1361–1475 CE) · Adil Shahis of Bijapur (c. 1489–1686 CE) · Gajapatis of Orissa (c. 1459–1461 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1518–1687 CE) · Shitab Khan (Sitapati) of Warangal (c. 1504–1516 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1350–1579 CE) · Reddis of Rajahmundry (c. 1386–1448 CE) · Bahmani Sultanate (c. 1471–1489 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1524–1687 CE) · Gajapatis of Orissa (c. 1446–1571 CE)
Rayalaseema
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1336–1646 CE) · Marathas (c. 1677–1687 CE) · Adil Shahis of Bijapur (c. 1568–1686 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1579–1687 CE) · Mughal Empire (c. 1686–1724 CE)

Mughals, Asaf Jahis & the British 1687–1948 CE

Telangana
Mughal Empire (1687–1724 CE) · Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Mughal Empire (1687–1724 CE) · French East India Company (1750–1759 CE) · Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot) (c. 1710–1801 CE) · Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1753 CE) · East India Company (1759–1858 CE)
Rayalaseema
Nawabs of Kurnool (c. 1690–1839 CE) · Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot) (c. 1710–1801 CE) · Nawabs of Cuddapah (c. 1714–1779 CE) · Mughal Empire (c. 1686–1724 CE) · Morari Rao Ghorpade of Gooty (c. 1741–1776 CE) · Banganapalle State (c. 1724–1948 CE) · Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (c. 1724–1800 CE) · Marathas (c. 1743–1774 CE) · Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan (c. 1762–1799 CE)
Kingdoms and empires Sultanates Colonial powers Uncertain or debated dates Held another region first This page

Reigns

Each bar is one ruler’s reign; time runs left to right. c. = approximate date.

150015251550157516001625165016751700Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk · c. 1518–1543 CE · c. 25 yrsSultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulkc. 1518–1543 CE · c. 25 yrsJamshid Quli Qutb Shah · 1543–1550 CE · 7 yrsJamshid Quli Qutb Shah1543–1550 CE · 7 yrsSubhan Quli · 1550 CESubhan Quli1550 CEIbrahim Qutb Shah · 1550–1580 CE · 30 yrsIbrahim Qutb Shah1550–1580 CE · 30 yrsMuhammad Quli Qutb Shah · 1580–1612 CE · 32 yrsMuhammad Quli Qutb Shah1580–1612 CE · 32 yrsSultan Muhammad Qutb Shah · 1612–1626 CE · 14 yrsSultan Muhammad Qutb Shah1612–1626 CE · 14 yrsAbdullah Qutb Shah · 1626–1672 CE · 46 yrsAbdullah Qutb Shah1626–1672 CE · 46 yrsAbul Hasan Tana Shah · 1672–1687 CE · 15 yrsAbul Hasan Tana Shah1672–1687 CE · 15 yrs
  1. Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulkc. 1518–1543 CE · c. 25 yrs
  2. Jamshid Quli Qutb Shah1543–1550 CE · 7 yrs
  3. Subhan Quli1550 CE
  4. Ibrahim Qutb Shah1550–1580 CE · 30 yrs
  5. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah1580–1612 CE · 32 yrs
  6. Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah1612–1626 CE · 14 yrs
  7. Abdullah Qutb Shah1626–1672 CE · 46 yrs
  8. Abul Hasan Tana Shah1672–1687 CE · 15 yrs
Reign · c. = approximate date

Reign years after Bilgrami (1927) and the tomb inscriptions he edited. Sultan Quli's first year is shown as about 1518, the date Bilgrami takes from the Golconda mosque inscription; Ferishta, Haig and Sewell give 1512 and Gribble 1510, and Sultan Quli had governed Telingana for the Bahmanis since the 1490s. Ferishta dates Ibrahim's death to AH 989 (1581), the chronicle to AH 988 (1580). Muhammad Quli died on 17 Zi'l-qada AH 1020, which his tomb converts as 11 January 1612 and the chronicle as December 1611. Sultan Muhammad died in Jumada I AH 1035 (11 February 1626 in Rocco; Bilgrami converts 1625). Abdullah died on 21 April 1672 by the Old Style dates of Sarkar (1 May in Rocco); the Imperial Gazetteer gives 1674 and the Kistna Manual 1669. Golconda fell on 21 September 1687 (Old Style).

Family tree

The rulers and the relatives who explain the succession. Every line rests on a cited statement on a person page; the sources are listed below the tree. Select a card to open that page.

  • parent and child
  • marriage
  • adoption
  • the sources disagree (see below)
  • order of succession
Family tree: Qutb Shahismother?Uwais QuliFather of Sultan Quli(Golconda chronicle;Bilgrami)Sultan QuliQutb-ul-Mulkc. 1518–1543 CE1Haidar KhanEldest son; died beforehis fatherQutb-ud-dinChosen heir; blinded onJamshid's orders in 1543Abdul KarimDaulat KhanTwo more sons named inthe chronicleJamshid Quli1543–1550 CE2Ibrahim Quli1550–1580 CE4Subhan Quli1550 CE3Bibi JamaliDaughter of Husain NizamShah of Ahmadnagar;married Ibrahim in1563–64Abdul QadirEldest son of Ibrahim;died a prisoner atDevarakondaHusain QuliAbdul FatehMuhammad KhudabandaOther sons of Ibrahimnamed in the chronicleMuhammad Quli1580–1612 CE5Mirza Muhammad AminYoungest son of IbrahimHayat Bakhsh BegumDaughter of MuhammadQuli; queen of SultanMuhammad; ran thegovernment underAbdullah; died 1667Muhammad1612–1626 CE6Abdullah1626–1672 CE7Eldest daughter ofAbdullahMarried Sayyid Ahmad(Tavernier; Sarkar callsher Ma Sahib)Sayyid AhmadAlso called Mir Ahmad;prime minister underAbdullah; claimed thethrone in 1672Second daughter ofAbdullahMarried the Mughal princeMuhammad Sultan in 1656(Tavernier; Bernier callsher the eldest)Muhammad SultanEldest son of AurangzebThird daughter ofAbdullahMarried Abul HasanAbul Hasan Tana Shah1672–1687 CE8

  1. Generation 1

    • Uwais QuliFather of Sultan Quli (Golconda chronicle; Bilgrami)

  2. Generation 2

  3. Generation 3

    • Haidar KhanEldest son; died before his fatherSon of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk
    • 2Jamshid Quli1543–1550 CESon of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk
    • Bibi JamaliDaughter of Husain Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar; married Ibrahim in 1563–64Wife of Ibrahim Quli
    • 4Ibrahim Quli1550–1580 CESon of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-MulkHusband of Bibi Jamali
    • Qutb-ud-dinChosen heir; blinded on Jamshid's orders in 1543Son of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk
    • Abdul Karim, Daulat KhanTwo more sons named in the chronicleSons of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk

  4. Generation 4

    • 3Subhan Quli1550 CESon of Jamshid Quli
    • Abdul QadirEldest son of Ibrahim; died a prisoner at DevarakondaSon of Ibrahim Quli
    • Husain Quli, Abdul Fateh, Muhammad KhudabandaOther sons of Ibrahim named in the chronicleSons of Ibrahim Quli
    • 5Muhammad Quli1580–1612 CESon of Ibrahim Quli
    • Mirza Muhammad AminYoungest son of IbrahimSon of Ibrahim Quli

  5. Generation 5

    • Hayat Bakhsh BegumDaughter of Muhammad Quli; queen of Sultan Muhammad; ran the government under Abdullah; died 1667Daughter of Muhammad QuliWife of Muhammad
    • 6Muhammad1612–1626 CESon of Mirza Muhammad AminHusband of Hayat Bakhsh Begum

  6. Generation 6

  7. Generation 7

    • Sayyid AhmadAlso called Mir Ahmad; prime minister under Abdullah; claimed the throne in 1672Husband of Eldest daughter of Abdullah
    • Eldest daughter of AbdullahMarried Sayyid Ahmad (Tavernier; Sarkar calls her Ma Sahib)Daughter of AbdullahWife of Sayyid Ahmad
    • Muhammad SultanEldest son of AurangzebHusband of Second daughter of Abdullah
    • Second daughter of AbdullahMarried the Mughal prince Muhammad Sultan in 1656 (Tavernier; Bernier calls her the eldest)Daughter of AbdullahWife of Muhammad Sultan
    • 8Abul Hasan Tana Shah1672–1687 CEHusband of Third daughter of Abdullah
    • Third daughter of AbdullahMarried Abul HasanDaughter of AbdullahWife of Abul Hasan Tana Shah

Where the sources disagree

Abdullah's mother

Son of Sultan Muhammad and Hayat Bakhsh Begum, daughter of Muhammad Quli (Bilgrami; Sarkar)

Son of a Brahmin lady, the late king's queen (Thevenot, 1687)

  • The French traveller Thevenot, who was at Golconda in 1666, heard a different story. →
    1. Jean de Thevenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, Part III (English tr., 1687), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
  • Thevenot also heard that the king was "the Son of a Bramen Lady". →
    1. Jean de Thevenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, Part III (English tr., 1687), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
    2. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), pp. 26–27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
Sources for every line of the tree
  • Uwais Quli → Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk (parent and child)
    • The Golconda chronicle names his father as Uwais Quli, son of Pir Quli. →
      1. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 339–340 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
  • Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk → Haidar Khan, Jamshid Quli and Ibrahim Quli (parent and child)
  • Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk → Qutb-ud-din and Abdul Karim, Daulat Khan (parent and child)
  • Jamshid Quli → Subhan Quli (parent and child)
    • His son Subhan Quli succeeded him as a child, with Saif Khan Ain-ul-Mulk as regent. →
      1. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 390 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
  • Ibrahim Quli · Bibi Jamali (marriage)
    • In AH 971 (1563–64), at the siege of Kalyani, he married Bibi Jamali, a daughter of Husain Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar. →
      1. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 330–331 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
      2. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 406 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
  • Ibrahim Quli → Abdul Qadir, Husain Quli, Abdul Fateh, Muhammad Khudabanda, Muhammad Quli and Mirza Muhammad Amin (parent and child)
    • The chronicle says that Ibrahim had thirty children. →
      1. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 445 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
    • Muhammad Quli was the third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah, according to the Golconda chronicle. →
      1. Golconda chronicle, in Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 447 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)).
  • Muhammad Quli → Hayat Bakhsh Begum (parent and child)
  • Mirza Muhammad Amin → Muhammad (parent and child)
  • Muhammad · Hayat Bakhsh Begum (marriage)
  • Muhammad and Hayat Bakhsh Begum → Abdullah (parent and child) · sources disagree
  • Abdullah → Eldest daughter of Abdullah, Second daughter of Abdullah and Third daughter of Abdullah (parent and child)
  • Eldest daughter of Abdullah · Sayyid Ahmad (marriage)
  • Second daughter of Abdullah · Muhammad Sultan (marriage)
  • Third daughter of Abdullah · Abul Hasan Tana Shah (marriage)

A line from one parent only means that the cited sources name no other parent.

Golconda Fort's granite walls and a gate climbing toward the hilltop citadel.
Golconda Fort's granite walls and a gate climbing toward the hilltop citadel. · Bernard Gagnon (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab)

The Qutb Shahis were a line of eight sultans.12 They ruled from the hill fortress of Golconda and, after about 1590, from the new city of Hyderabad beside it.12 Their founder, Sultan Quli, was a Persian-born officer of the Bahmani sultanate.12 He governed its eastern province of Telingana (Telangana).12 In 1687 the last king, Abul Hasan, surrendered to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.12 By then the kingdom took in most of present-day Telangana and the Krishna–Godavari coast.12

A sultanate is a Muslim monarchy whose ruler holds the title of sultan.12 The Qutb Shahis also used the Persian title shah.12

For the Telugu country the dynasty matters in several ways:345

  • It conquered the Telugu chiefs who had held Telangana and the coast after the Bahmanis and the Gajapatis.345
  • It joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565, and then took the Guntur country and much of the south.345
  • It ruled a population that was almost entirely Hindu and Telugu-speaking, as the English and Dutch merchants of the 1610s saw. It ruled through Telugu soldiers, Brahmin accountants and, at the end, Brahmin ministers.345

This page tells the story from the Golconda side.345 See the pages of the Recherla Velamas, the Gajapatis and Vijayanagara for their side.

The sources

The main narrative sources for the sixteenth century are Persian.67 The historian Ferishta came to the Deccan from Persia, and his history runs to 1612.67 He wrote a short chapter on the kings of Golconda.67

John Briggs translated Ferishta in 1829.89 He added as an appendix an anonymous Golconda chronicle, which he called “The History of Mahomed Koolly Kootb Shah”.89 He thought it was written in Ferishta’s time.89 He noted that it had been compiled at Golconda, so Hindu names appear in their local forms.89

Bilgrami, writing in 1927, says that the first history of the dynasty was compiled under Sultan Muhammad (1612–1626).10 Hirananda Sastri, in 1932, called Briggs’s chronicle the Tarikh-i-Muhammad Qutb Shahi.11

Neither Ferishta nor the chronicle is neutral.812 Both praise the kings’ wars against Hindu rulers as holy war.812 Both report numbers and miracles without question, and Briggs noted where they disagree.812

For the seventeenth century the sources are the court histories of the Mughal emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.1314 Elliot and Dowson translated parts of them in 1877.1314 Among them is the history of Khafi Khan, whom Jadunath Sarkar thought “particularly well informed about Haidarabad affairs”.1314 Sarkar’s History of Aurangzib (2nd edition, 1930) uses these and other Persian, Dutch and English records.1514

European travellers and merchants add what they saw:1617181920

  • the English factor William Methwold, who took charge at Machilipatnam in 1618 and stayed almost five years1617
  • the French jeweller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who came in 1642, 1645 and 165218
  • the physician François Bernier and the traveller Jean de Thevenot, at Golconda in 1667 and 16661920

Inscriptions on mosques, tombs and forts, edited by Yazdani, Haig and Bilgrami, give firmer dates.2122 Some of them are in Telugu as well as Persian.2122 Telugu literature, local records (kaifiyats) and Hindu inscriptions show the kings as their Telugu subjects named them.232425

Origins in Bahmani service

Ferishta says Sultan Quli belonged to a Turkoman tribe and was born at Hamadan in Persia.6 He arrived in the Deccan as a young man.6 There he joined the Turkish bodyguard of the Bahmani king, and later became a secretary in one of the government offices.6

The Golconda chronicle traces his descent to the Kara Koyunlu Turkomans, who had once ruled in Persia.26 They were named after the black ram on their standards.26 The chronicle says he left Persia to escape the hostility of the rival White Ram clan.26 See Sultan Quli.

Both accounts say he rose by service to the Bahmani king Mahmud Shah.27 The chronicle credits him with defending the king during a night attack on the palace at Bidar.27 After this he received the title Qutb-ul-Mulk.27 He was then given the government of Telingana.28 When he later took the royal style, he was proclaimed as Sultan Quli Qutb Shah.29

The Kistna district manual of 1883 places the palace attack in 1490.30 It places his appointment as governor, with Warangal and Golconda as personal estates, in 1495.30 Bilgrami gives AH 892 (1486; AH is the Islamic way of counting years) for the attack, 1493 for the governorship, and 1495 for the grant of Golconda, Warangal and other districts.2

Independence: 1512 or 1518?

When the Qutb Shahi kingdom became independent is disputed.31 Ferishta gives AH 918 (1512), and he says that even after he took the royal state, Sultan Quli sent “magnificent presents” every year to Mahmud Shah at Bidar.31 Haig, in 1907, and Sewell, in 1900, also give 1512.3233 Gribble’s History of the Deccan gives 1510,34 and the Imperial Gazetteer of Hyderabad gives 1512.1

Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, an officer of the Hyderabad Archaeological Department, argued in 1927 for AH 924 (1518).3536 He relied on the inscription of the Jami Masjid that Sultan Quli built in Golconda fort.3536 It is dated 924, and still names the Bahmani king Mahmud Shah as sovereign.3536 On this reading Sultan Quli stayed formally loyal until Mahmud Shah died, though he governed Telingana as his own.3536 The Kistna manual likewise says that he “continued to send presents and money every year” to the Bahmani court after taking the royal style.30

The chronicle itself points both ways.2937 It says that the other Bahmani governors had made themselves kings.29 His officers then urged him to do the same, and he was proclaimed king.29 But it also says that at Mahmud Shah’s death, which it dates to AH 912 (1507), Sultan Quli “still continued his allegiance to the shadow of royalty which remained”.37

Hirananda Sastri quoted the Burhan-i Ma’asir on an earlier date.38 It says that already in AH 903 (1497) “Quli Qutb” had brought the chiefs of Telingana under him.38 He had added Warangal and Kovilkonda to his possessions.38

Conquest of Telangana and the coast

According to the Golconda chronicle, Sultan Quli spent his first years reducing the zamindars (local chiefs and landholders) of Telingana.37 In old age he claimed to have taken sixty or seventy forts “from the borders of Wurungole to Masulipatam and Rajmundry”.37 Among them were Rajakonda, Devarakonda, Warangal, Khammam and Kondapalli.37

His chief local opponent was Sitapati, a Telugu chief who held Khammam, Bellamkonda and Warangal.11 Sitapati was a historical figure.11 A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription at Warangal records that he took the fort there on 21 January 1504.11 The Persian chronicles call him Shitab Khan.11

Sultan Quli defeated Sitapati and the army of the Gajapati king of Orissa.39 After that he agreed a treaty that made the Godavari the boundary between his kingdom and Orissa.39 He also fought Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara for Pangal, Kondapalli and Kondavidu.4041

Robert Sewell compared the chronicle with Vijayanagara and Portuguese sources.42 He concluded that its campaigns, told as one series of events, cover “a period of at least twenty-one years”, from 1512 to 1534.42 They could not be dated in detail.42 Bilgrami dates the war with Shitab Khan to 1519–1525.36 He dates the conquest of Kondapalli, Rajahmundry and Eluru (then Ellore) to 1526–27.36

Sultan Quli was assassinated in 1543, and the chronicle says he was killed while praying in the mosque at Golconda.43 Ferishta says that a slave stabbed him while he examined jewels.44 Both blame his son Jamshid.4344

Jamshid and Subhan Quli

Jamshid (1543–1550) seized the throne, and blinded his elder brother, Qutb-ud-din, the declared heir.4546 His younger brother Ibrahim fled to Bidar and then to Vijayanagara.4546 There he lived at the court of Rama Raya.4546

Jamshid spent his reign in the wars of the Deccan sultans with Bidar, Bijapur and Ahmadnagar.474812 Ferishta says that in a retreat from the Bijapuri fort of Etgir he received a sabre cut that disfigured his face.4748 The chronicle gives this wound to his father.12 Ferishta also says that in his last illness Jamshid grew cruel, and put many to death.4748

Jamshid died early in AH 957 (1550), and the nobles crowned his son Subhan Quli.4950 The chronicle calls the boy seven years old, and Ferishta two.4950

Within months a party at court invited Ibrahim back.5152 The Naigwaris, Hindu infantry who garrisoned the forts, delivered Golconda to him.5152 He was crowned on 27 July 1550.5152 The Kistna manual explains the word as the Telugu Nayakvadu.53 It says that “the Hindu Minister Jagadéva Rao, supported by all the Hindu soldiery, declared for Prince Ibrahim”.53

Ibrahim Qutb Shah

Ibrahim Qutb Shah (1550–1580) gave the kingdom its lasting shape.54 He had spent about seven years at Vijayanagara.54 There, Ferishta says, Rama Raya “showed him every attention” and gave him an estate.54

The chronicle says that when Ibrahim left to claim his throne, Rama Raya offered him his brother Venkatadri with ten thousand horse.51 But Ibrahim’s companions persuaded him to refuse.51 They feared such a force might seize the kingdom for Rama Raya.51

The Telugu infantry who had made him king proved hard to control.5556 The chronicle says that his minister Jagadeva Rao plotted to put the king’s simple-minded brother on the throne.5556 The Muslim nobles complained to the king of “the power of these two Hindoos”.5556 At that time “all the garrisons in the kingdom were composed of the Naigwaries, who looked up to Jugdew Row as their chief”.5556 Jagadeva Rao fled to Berar and Vijayanagara.5556

The armies of Bijapur and Vijayanagara camped near Golconda.5758 The Naigwaris of Pangal, Kovilkonda and Ganpura handed their forts to Rama Raya.5758 Ibrahim bought peace, and then rebuilt the fort of Golconda “with stone and mortar”.5758 A later Naigwari plot to seize the forts was crushed, and its leaders executed.59

Haig, in 1907, saw the “mainspring” of Golconda’s foreign policy in “the maintenance of the balance of power”.60 The king would support an ally “up to a certain point”.60 But he withdrew or changed sides when one neighbour seemed about to crush another.60

Ibrahim married Bibi Jamali, a daughter of Husain Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar, in AH 971 (1563–64).61623 He joined Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Bidar in the alliance that defeated Vijayanagara at Talikota in January 1565.61623 The chronicle credits the alliance to Ibrahim and his minister Mustafa Khan.62 Haig credits it to Ali Adil Shah of Bijapur.63 See Talikota and Aliya Rama Raya.

After Talikota his generals turned to the coast.6465 Rifat Khan Lari, called Malik Naib, took Rajahmundry in AH 979 (1571–72).6465 Its defenders surrendered through “Yelloo Pundit, one of the Hindoo accountants in the Mahomedan army”.6465 Then Malik Naib pushed north into the Kasimkota country.6465

A Telugu kaifiyat quoted by Hirananda Sastri dates the fall of Rajahmundry to Ashadha of Saka 1495 (1573; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).23 It preserves a Telugu verse.23 In Sastri’s translation it ends: “Rajahmundry was the city of Lanka, Ibharama was Rama, Shitab Khan, the enemy (Ravana) was driven away … and Ibharama began to rule”.23

In 1579 his generals took Kondavidu and the forts south of the Krishna.66 The Kistna manual says that with this “the Hindu rule in the Kistna District now came to an end”.67 The chronicle lists his public works.68 They include the walls of Golconda, the Husain Sagar tank and the tank at Ibrahimpatnam.68 It sums up his reign with the boast that “Tulingana, like Egypt, became the mart of the whole world”.68

Muhammad Quli and Hyderabad

Ibrahim’s third son Muhammad Quli (1580–1612) moved the court out of crowded Golconda.6970717273 The Golconda chronicle dates the founding of the new city on the Musi river to AH 998 (1589–90).69 Bilgrami gives AH 999 (1590–91),70 and the Imperial Gazetteer and Sewell give 1589.7172 Sha Rocco, whose short history was published by the Hyderabad government press in 1929, gives 1591.73

The city was first called Bhagnagar, and later Hyderabad.7173 The gazetteer dates its central monument, the Charminar, to 1591, and Rocco to 1593.7173 See the pages on Hyderabad and the Charminar.

Ferishta wrote in the king’s lifetime.74 He says that the young king “became enamoured of a public singer of the name of Bhagmutty”.74 The king named the new city Bhagnagar after her, though it “has since received the name of Hydurabad”.74

The Mughal historian Khafi Khan calls her the king’s wife.75 He says the city was renamed after her death, though “in the vernacular language of the people it is still called Bhágnagar”.75

Haig called her “a Hindu girl named Bhagmati”, and Rocco “a beautiful Hindu dancing girl”.3273 Rocco says the city was renamed “after Haidar, one of the titles of Ali”.73 But a note in Briggs’s translation, and the Kistna manual, derive the name from Sultan Quli’s son Haidar Khan.7677 William Methwold wrote in the 1620s that the capital was “called by the Natiues Golchonda, by the Moores and Persians Hidraband”.78

So the record is this.747578 The new city of 1589–91 was known both as Bhagnagar and as Hyderabad.747578 The story that it was named after Bhagmati goes back to Ferishta.747578 None of the works used here cites an inscription or document of the king’s own reign that names her.747578

Muhammad Quli’s buildings in the new city included the Jami Masjid, the Charminar, hospitals and colleges.7980 The chronicle says that seventy-eight lakhs of huns (gold coins) were spent on public works in his lifetime.7980

South of the Krishna his armies took Kurnool, Nandyal and Gandikota.7972 They besieged the Vijayanagara king Venkatapati at Penukonda without success.7972 An Aravidu copper-plate grant from the Nellore district says that “Mahamanda Saha”, son of “Malikibharama”, “returned home in despair, shorn of splendour”.25 Bilgrami says the king wrote poetry in Persian and Urdu under the pen-name “Qutb Shah”.81 Rocco calls him “a poet of some repute”.82

Sultan Muhammad

Muhammad Quli had no son, and his nephew and son-in-law Sultan Muhammad (1612–1626) succeeded him.83 He was the son of Ibrahim’s youngest son Mirza Muhammad Amin, and the husband of Muhammad Quli’s daughter Hayat Bakhsh Begum.83 Rocco calls his reign “uneventful” and the king “a historian and philosopher”.84

He began the Mecca Masjid, which Bilgrami dates by a chronogram (a date hidden in a verse) to AH 1023 (1614).8583 He received embassies from Shah Abbas of Persia and the emperor Jahangir.8583 In 1622 he helped the rebel Mughal prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, with money.8583 His son Abdullah (1626–1672) succeeded him.10

Abdullah and the Mughal overlordship

Abdullah Qutb Shah came to the throne as a boy.15 Sarkar wrote that for more than forty years “the actual administration was conducted … by his mother, Hayat Bakhsh Begam, a lady of strong character”.15 After her death in 1667 it was conducted by his son-in-law Sayyid Ahmad.15

Thevenot was at Golconda in 1666.86 He heard that the queen mother was a Brahmin, and that she and the king trusted the Brahmins.86 Rocco found no other evidence that she was a Brahmin.20 But he agreed that Brahmins came into power at court in her time.20

In 1635–36 the emperor Shah Jahan, campaigning in the Deccan, sent Abdullah a farman (royal order).8788 It required his allegiance, the reading of the Friday sermon (khutba) in the emperor’s name, and the payment of tribute.8788 Abdullah came out five kos to receive the envoy, and had the khutba read in the emperor’s name.8788 He also “had coins struck in the Emperor’s name, and sent specimens of them to Court”.8788

The agreed tribute was two lakhs of huns (pagodas) a year.8990 From then until 1687 Golconda was a tributary of the Mughals.8990

Bernier, who was at Golconda in 1667, explained how it survived.9192 Its kings “have always secretly supplied the monarch of Visapour with money”.9192 They marched an army to the frontier whenever Bijapur was attacked.9192 They paid “large sums as bribes to the generals of the Mogol’s army”.9192 Sarkar called this a policy of “lip-obedience to the Emperor of Delhi”.93

Mir Jumla and the siege of 1656

Abdullah’s chief minister for many years was Mir Muhammad Said of Ardistan.9495 He was a Persian who had come to Golconda in the service of a merchant.9495 He was known by the title of his office, Mir Jumla.9495

He conquered a large territory in the Karnatak, south of the Krishna, “150 kos in length”, with mines “teeming with diamonds”.96 He kept five thousand horse of his own.96 Tavernier found him in September 1652 at Gandikota.97 He had just taken it after a three months’ siege, with the help of European gunners.97 Bernier says he farmed the diamond mines “under feigned names”.98 Later, Golconda armies took Udayagiri in 1642, and Chandragiri, the last Vijayanagara residence, in 1646.99100

In 1655–56 Mir Jumla quarrelled with the king, and took his grievances to the Mughal prince Aurangzeb.101102 Abdullah imprisoned Mir Jumla’s son, and Aurangzeb then sent his own son Muhammad Sultan against Hyderabad.101102 He sacked the city and besieged the king in Golconda.101102

The causes differ in the telling.96103104 Inayat Khan, the Mughal court historian, blames a faction jealous of the minister’s conquests.96 Tavernier tells of a plot to poison him.103 Bernier tells of “the improper intimacy subsisting between Emir-Jemla and the queen-mother”.104

A bastion of Golconda fort, the Musa Burj, carries an inscription that records the siege.105106 It is in Persian, with a version in Telugu script.105106 It says that Abdullah’s commander Musa Khan held the place.105106 A gun shot killed Aurangzeb’s officer Mir Miran in his trench, and “three days after his death peace was concluded”.105106 The Telugu text dates the siege to the bright half of Magha in Saka 1578.105106 H. Krishna Sastri converted this as 23 January 1656.105106

Peace came only with an indemnity (war payment) and the marriage of Abdullah’s daughter to Aurangzeb’s son.107108109 Mir Jumla entered Mughal service.107108109

Abul Hasan, Madanna and Akkanna

Abdullah’s son-in-law Abul Hasan, called Tana Shah, succeeded him in 1672.110111 He did so after a struggle with Abdullah’s eldest son-in-law, Sayyid Ahmad.110111

About 1673 the king gave the office of chief minister to Madanna, a Brahmin, “with the title of Surya Prakash Rao”.112 Madanna’s brother Akkanna became commander-in-chief.112 The Kistna manual says the two brothers “managed his affairs with much ability and left an enduring reputation”.113 It says that they kept their office at Vijayawada (then Bezwada).113

Sarkar wrote that Madanna’s policy rested “chiefly on a close alliance with the ever-victorious Maratha king”.114 In 1677 Shivaji was received at Hyderabad and promised a subsidy of one lakh of huns a year.114

Aurangzeb made this a charge against the king.115116 In the emperor’s eyes, Sarkar wrote, Abul Hasan’s worst offence was that “he had made the Brahmans Madanna and Akkanna, his chief ministers”.115 He had “thus allowed Hindu influence to predominate in his administration”.115 Khafi Khan reports Aurangzeb’s own letter.116 It accused the king of “placing the reins of authority and government in the hands of vile tyrannical infidels”.116 It also accused him of sending money to Shivaji’s son Sambhaji.116 These were the charges of the conqueror, and they are quoted here as such.

The fall of Golconda, 1685–1687

In June 1685 Abul Hasan was found preparing to help Bijapur.117 After that, Aurangzeb sent his son Shah Alam against Hyderabad.117 The Golconda commander Muhammad Ibrahim went over to the Mughals.118119120 Madanna advised the king to go to Warangal.118119120 Instead Abul Hasan fled to the fortress of Golconda.118119120 Hyderabad was plundered, first by its own rabble and then by the Mughal troops.118119120

The peace terms required the dismissal of Madanna and Akkanna.121122 Early in March 1686 the two brothers were murdered in the streets of Golconda.121122 Khafi Khan says the plot was laid by women of the harem “without the knowledge of Abu-l Hasan”.123 The Dutch writer Havart, quoted by Sarkar, says the people killed them “under orders from the Sultan”.124

Bijapur fell in 1686, and then Aurangzeb came in person and arrived before Golconda on 28 January 1687.125 Khafi Khan describes the siege of “eight months and ten days”.126127 He tells of mines countered by the defenders, sorties (attacks out of the fort), and famine and disease among the besiegers.126127 He tells too of the barking of a dog that foiled a night attack.126127 During the siege Aurangzeb proclaimed the annexation of the kingdom.128

The fort was entered at night, through a gate opened by one of its own commanders, Abdullah Khan Pani.127129 Sarkar dates the surrender to 21 September 1687 in the Old Style calendar.127129 One officer, Abdur Razzaq Lari, fought on alone at the gate, and was found with some seventy wounds.130131 Abul Hasan received the Mughal commanders calmly, and was sent as a prisoner to Daulatabad.130131

Bilgrami dates his death to 1699, and the Imperial Gazetteer to 1704.1321 The kingdom became a Mughal province, and its later history belongs to the Mughal governors of the Deccan and, from 1724, to the Asaf Jahis.132

Government: Persian offices and Telugu soldiers

Ferishta describes a court modelled on Persia:

“Contrary to the practice of India, he introduced the customs of Persia at his court; among which was that of beating the nobut, or imperial band, five times daily. He filled all the offices of his government with his own countrymen.”133

The high offices of the kingdom stayed in Persian hands.134 Thevenot found in 1666 that the great lords (omras) were “for the most part Persians or the Sons of Persians”.134 W. H. Moreland edited the Dutch and English reports of the 1610s.135 He noted that Persians usually held the chief offices, including that of the chief minister, the Mir Jumla.135

The titles in the chronicle and the Mughal histories are Persian:13658112124137

  • Mir Jumla and peshwa for the chief minister
  • sar-i-lashkar and sar-i-khel for commanders
  • havaldar for the head of a district13658112124137

Briggs noted that the old Hindu title had become “almost lost amid the numerous Persian appellations of Shukdar, Moamlutdar, Zillahdar, Turufdar, Tahseeldar”.137

The country below them was Telugu.138139 The chronicle uses the Telugu word tappa for a small division of a district.138139 Briggs explained this as “a Tulingy (or more properly Teloogoo) term”.138139 The chronicle calls the village officers munewars.138139

The forts were garrisoned by the Telugu Naigwaris.55 Briggs observed that “under the Mahomedan governments the infantry of their army was chiefly composed of Hindoos”.55

Methwold, at Machilipatnam about 1620, counted sixty-six forts in the kingdom.140 They were “all of them commanded by Naickes, and guarded by Gentiles Souldiers of the Countrey”.140 (Gentiles here means Hindus.) These soldiers were paid four shillings a month.140 A note in his margin explains the Naickes (nayakas) as “Captaines or Gouernors”.140

The revenue was farmed.140 Methwold wrote that the king was “the onely Free-holder of the whole Countrey”.140 The country was divided “into great gouernments, as our Shires; those againe into lesser ones as our Hundreds; and those into Villages”.140 In his words, “the Gouernment is farmed immediately from the King by some eminent man”.140 He in turn farmed out the lesser ones, and these men farmed out the villages to the country people.140 A governor who failed to pay his rent could be beaten to death.140

Moreland drew the same picture from the Dutch reports.135 Each governorship was let year by year to the highest bidder.135 Thevenot, half a century later, says the king rented out all the lands “to those who offer most”.134

Brahmins kept the accounts.141 Methwold called them “very good and ready Accountants, and in that Office, much employed by Moores of greatest Affaires”.141 (The Moors were the Muslims.) They kept the accounts “in Palmito leaues, with a Pen of Iron”.141

The chronicle names Hindu officers at every level:5564142143

  • Jagadeva Rao, minister under Ibrahim55
  • “Yelloo Pundit, one of the Hindoo accountants”, who negotiated the surrender of Rajahmundry64
  • Murahari Rao, “a Marratta bramin”, who managed the government at the end of Ibrahim’s reign142
  • Raya Rao, the Brahmin governor of the Kondavidu province under Muhammad Quli143

Thevenot found Brahmins collecting the road tolls and farming the lands of the nobles.144134 Under Abul Hasan the Brahmin brothers Madanna and Akkanna held the highest offices of all.112

The kings also wrote in Telugu.22 According to the Imperial Gazetteer, a Telugu inscription at Pangal records that the king’s mother lived in the fort in 1604, with its commandant, Khairat Khan.22 The Musa Burj inscription of Abdullah’s reign at Golconda was set up in Persian with a version in Telugu script.21105 Its architect was named Dharmachar.21105

Local Telugu chiefs kept their lands as tributaries.65145146 The chronicle records tribute from the rajas of the Kasimkota country, and from the Vijayanagara chiefs south of the Krishna.65145 The Godavari gazetteer reports a family tradition about an ancestor of the Pithapuram zamindars.146 By this tradition, Abul Hasan appointed him sirdar (commander) of the Rajahmundry country, at the head of four thousand troops.146

Court, religion and literature

The kings were Shia Muslims, and the public prayers were read in the name of the twelve Imams.133147 Tavernier thought the king very attached to the sect of Ali.148 So, he wrote, Persians seeking their fortune in India went “by preference to the King of Golconda rather than to the Mogul”.148 Thevenot saw the festival of Husain celebrated at Golconda “with more Fopperies than they do in Persia”.149

The Golconda chronicle also records the burning of temples at Devarakonda, and the destruction of a temple at Kadapa (then Cuddapah).40150 It presents both as acts of faith.40150 These are claims of a court chronicle written to praise the dynasty. They are not independent records of what happened.

Bilgrami, by contrast, described the Madanna temple that stood inside Golconda fort.151 It stood close to the king’s residence and the Jami Masjid.151 He called it “a striking proof of the toleration of Islamic Kings”.151

Persian learning flourished at the court.11115281 Bilgrami records that the Persian dictionary Burhan-i Qati was compiled under Abdullah.11115281 He records that Jamshid and Muhammad Quli wrote verse, and that Muhammad Quli wrote in Persian and in Urdu.11115281

The court also had Telugu admirers.24153154 Addanki Gangadhara dedicated his Telugu poem Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu to Ibrahim.24153154 Ponnikanti Telaganarya dedicated his Yayaticharitramu, a poem in pure Telugu, to Ibrahim’s general Amin Khan.24153154 P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao called them the only Telugu kavyas dedicated to a Muslim ruler.154 The Telugu sources called Ibrahim Ibharama or Malikibharama.2325

The best-known Telugu figure of the Qutb Shahi age is a legend.155124156 Kancherla Gopanna is remembered as Ramadas.155124156 He is said to have spent the king’s revenue on the temple of Rama at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari, and to have been imprisoned for it.155124156 He is said to have been freed when Rama and Lakshmana paid his debt.155124156

The Kistna manual (1883) and Sarkar (1930) make him a nephew of Madanna under Abul Hasan.155124 The Godavari gazetteer (1907) places him about 1725, as an official of the Nizam.156 See Kancherla Gopanna.

Diamonds, cloth and ports

In English, “Golconda” became a byword for diamonds.157 The Imperial Gazetteer points out that the stones came from mines scattered across the Qutb Shahi kingdom.157 There were none near Golconda itself.157

Moreland’s sources show the main exports of the coast in the early 17th century:5

  • cotton cloth woven by independent village weavers
  • iron and steel shipped from Machilipatnam
  • by the time of the last of these reports, diamonds from the new field at Kollur5

Kollur lies on the Krishna, on the road from Golconda to Machilipatnam.158 Tavernier found “close upon 60,000 persons” working there.159 He says the great diamond that Mir Jumla gave the Mughal emperor came from it.159

Thevenot was told that diggers near Machilipatnam paid the king a pagoda for every hour they worked, “whether they find any Diamonds or not”.134 The king’s chief mines in the Karnatak were worked only for him.134

Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) was the kingdom’s port.16 Methwold called it “the chiefe Port of the Kingdome of Golchonda”.16 The Dutch opened factories (trading posts) at Nizampatnam and Machilipatnam from 1605–06.160161 The English began trading at Machilipatnam in 1611.160161 They obtained a farman from the Sultan of Golconda in 1632.161 By 1670 the town was “famous all along the coast of Coromandel”.161 See Machilipatnam.

By the 1660s the Europeans could bully the weakened kingdom.19 Bernier saw the Dutch lay an embargo on all Golconda ships in the port until the king met their demands.19 Methwold put the king’s revenue at twenty-five lakhs of pagodas.140 Sarkar, from Khafi Khan, put it at two krores and eighty-seven lakhs of rupees when the kingdom was annexed.162

Legends of the founding

The European travellers heard stories of the kingdom’s origin that do not match the Persian histories.163 Tavernier was told that the first king of Golconda had been the most powerful of four generals of the Raja of Narsingha (Vijayanagara).163 When the raja died, they made themselves kings.163 His editor V. Ball pointed out that the kingdoms were in fact carved out of the Bahmani kingdom.163

Bernier heard that the founders of Golconda, Bijapur and Ahmadnagar had been three Georgian slaves of “Ram-ras”.164 Thevenot heard that they were captains who rebelled against a king of the Deccan whom he called Chabalem.165 None of these stories agrees with the inscriptions, which show Sultan Quli as a Bahmani governor.352

Where the sources disagree

  • Independence. AH 903 (1497) for his hold on Telingana (Burhan-i Ma’asir, as quoted by Sastri).38 1510 (Gribble).34 AH 918, 1512 (Ferishta, Haig, Sewell, the Imperial Gazetteer).3132 AH 924, 1518 (Bilgrami, from the Jami Masjid inscription).35 Still loyal at Mahmud Shah’s death (the chronicle).37
  • Sultan Quli’s death. Struck down at prayer in the mosque by the fort’s commandant (the chronicle, Bilgrami).4336 Stabbed by a slave while examining jewels (Ferishta).44
  • Sultan Quli’s sons. Six (the chronicle).166 Three (Ferishta).44
  • The wound in the face. Sultan Quli’s (the chronicle, preferred by Briggs).12 Jamshid’s (Ferishta).47
  • Subhan Quli’s age. Seven (the chronicle).49 Two (Ferishta).50
  • Rajahmundry. AH 979, 1571–72 (the chronicle, Bilgrami).64167 Saka 1495, 1573 (a Telugu kaifiyat).23
  • Ibrahim’s death. AH 988, 1580 (the chronicle, Bilgrami).168167 AH 989, 1581 (Ferishta).169
  • The founding of Hyderabad. AH 998, 1589–90 (the chronicle).69 1589 (Imperial Gazetteer, Sewell).7172 AH 999, 1590–91 (Bilgrami).70 1591 (Rocco).73
  • Bhagmati. A public singer (Ferishta).74 The king’s wife (Khafi Khan).75 Haig calls her “a Hindu girl”.32 The name Hyderabad after Haidar, a title of Ali (Rocco), or after Sultan Quli’s son Haidar Khan (Briggs, the Kistna manual).737677
  • Abdullah’s mother. Hayat Bakhsh Begum, daughter of Muhammad Quli (Bilgrami, Sarkar).1015 A Brahmin lady (Thevenot).170
  • Abdullah’s death. 1672 (Bilgrami, Sarkar, Rocco).111110171 1674 (Imperial Gazetteer).1 1669 (Kistna manual).113
  • Abul Hasan’s descent. A cousin of Abdullah (Tavernier).172 His nephew (Imperial Gazetteer).1 Descended from the Qutb Shahis on his father’s side (Sarkar).173
  • The murder of Madanna and Akkanna. Without the king’s knowledge (Khafi Khan, Bhimsen).12314 The king sent Madanna’s head himself (the Mughal court history).14 Havart says the brothers were killed “under orders from the Sultan”.124
  • Ramadas. Madanna’s nephew under Abul Hasan (Kistna manual, Sarkar).155124 An official of the Nizam about 1725 (Godavari gazetteer).156
  • Abul Hasan’s death. 1699 (Bilgrami).132 1704 (Imperial Gazetteer).1

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  2. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 194–195 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 414 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 438 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. Moreland, Relations of Golconda (1931), p. xviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  6. Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III (1829), pp. 321–322 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  7. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 427 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 337, prefatory notice to the Golconda chronicle (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  9. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 422 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 201 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Hirananda Sastri, Shitab Khan of Warangal (1932), pp. 3–4, 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 371 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  13. Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 315–316 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 420, appendix “Madanna, prime minister of Golkonda” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  15. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (2nd ed., 1930), p. 395 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. William Methwold, “Relations of the Kingdome of Golchonda”, in Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626), p. 994 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  17. Moreland, Relations of Golconda (1931), p. xxiv (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  19. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), pp. 195–196 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  20. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), pp. 26–27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  21. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 153 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  22. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 150, s.v. Pangal (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  23. Sastri, Shitab Khan of Warangal (1932), pp. 8–9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  24. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 238, extract 76 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  25. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part I (1905), p. 32 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  26. Golconda chronicle, in Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 339–342 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 343–344 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  28. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 345 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  29. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 354 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  30. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  31. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 323 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  32. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan (1907), p. 181 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  33. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 132 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  34. J. D. B. Gribble, A History of the Deccan, Vol. I (1896), pp. 129, 171 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  35. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 111, 114 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  36. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 195 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  37. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 352–353 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  38. Sastri, Shitab Khan of Warangal (1932), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  39. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 360–364 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  40. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 355–357 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  41. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 365–368 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  42. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 135 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  43. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 376–377 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  44. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 324 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  45. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 379 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  46. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 380–381 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  47. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 325–326 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  48. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 327 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  49. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 390 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  50. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 329 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  51. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 392–393 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  52. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 394 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  53. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 29 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  54. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 328 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  55. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 399 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  56. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 400–402 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  57. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 408 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  58. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 409 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  59. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 410–411 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  60. T. W. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan (1907), pp. 14–15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  61. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 330–331 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  62. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 413 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  63. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan (1907), pp. 16–17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  64. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 423–424 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  65. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 424–426 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  66. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 437–438 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  67. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  68. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 446 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  69. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 451 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  70. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan (1927), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  71. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 115 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  72. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 218 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  73. Sha Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  74. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 335 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  75. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 336 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  76. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 363 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  77. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 27 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  78. Methwold, in Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626), p. 995 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  79. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 452–453 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  80. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 484 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  81. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 132 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  82. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  83. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 200–201 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  84. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 16 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  85. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 41 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  86. Thevenot, Travels into the Levant, Part III (1687), p. 101 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  87. Badshah-nama of Abdul Hamid Lahori, in H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. VII (1877), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  88. Badshah-nama, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 53 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  89. Inayat Khan, Shah Jahan-nama, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 84 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  90. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), p. 161 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  91. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), p. 193 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  92. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), p. 194 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  93. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 400 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  94. François Bernier, tr. Archibald Constable, Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656–1668 (1891), pp. 16–17 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  95. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  96. Inayat Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 108 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  97. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), p. 284 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  98. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  99. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 278 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  100. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 279 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  101. Inayat Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 109–110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  102. Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 111–113 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  103. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), pp. 164–166 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  104. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), p. 18 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  105. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 155 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  106. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 156–157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  107. Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 116 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  108. Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 118–119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  109. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), pp. 168–170 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  110. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 398–399 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  111. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  112. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 399 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  113. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  114. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 401 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  115. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 406–407 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  116. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 325 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  117. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 407–408 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  118. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 412 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  119. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 413–415 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  120. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 319–320 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  121. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 416 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  122. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 417–418 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  123. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 321 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  124. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 421 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  125. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 423 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  126. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 327–331 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  127. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 332 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  128. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 450–451 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  129. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), pp. 451–452 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  130. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 332–333 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  131. Khafi Khan, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, Vol. VII (1877), p. 334 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  132. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  133. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 322–323 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  134. Thevenot, Travels into the Levant, Part III (1687), p. 102 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  135. W. H. Moreland (ed.), Relations of Golconda in the Early Seventeenth Century (1931), p. xvii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  136. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 329 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  137. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 449–450 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  138. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 359 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  139. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 420 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  140. Methwold, in Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626), p. 996 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  141. Methwold, in Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626), p. 997 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  142. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 444 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  143. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 448–449 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  144. Thevenot, Travels into the Levant, Part III (1687), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  145. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 435–436 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  146. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 234 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  147. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 353–354 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  148. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), p. 171 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  149. Thevenot, Travels into the Levant, Part III (1687), p. 106 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  150. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 456 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  151. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 109 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  152. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 118 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  153. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 236, extract 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  154. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 84 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  155. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  156. Hemingway, Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 261 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  157. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 114 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  158. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), pp. 172–174 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  159. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. II (1889), pp. 74–75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  160. Moreland, Relations of Golconda (1931), p. xxii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  161. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), pp. 324–325 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  162. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 456 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  163. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, tr. V. Ball, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), pp. 159–160 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  164. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1891), pp. 192–193 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  165. Jean de Thevenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, Part III (English tr., 1687), p. 91 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  166. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 377–378 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  167. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  168. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 445 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  169. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 332 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  170. Thevenot, Travels into the Levant, Part III (1687), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  171. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  172. Tavernier, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), p. 170 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  173. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (1930), p. 397 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

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People

Ibrahim Qutb Shah

1530–1580 CE

Fourth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1550–1580), a younger son of Sultan Quli. He spent seven years as an exile at Vijayanagara under Rama Raya. He came back to take the throne with the help of the Telugu foot soldiers who held the forts. He joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara at Talikota in 1565, and he conquered Rajahmundry, the northern coast and Kondavidu. Telugu poets dedicated works to him and to his officers, and Telugu records call him Ibharama. A Sanskrit copper-plate grant from Nellore calls him Malikibharama.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

1566–1612 CE

Fifth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1580–1612), third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. He founded the city of Bhagnagar, later Hyderabad, on the Musi river around 1589–91, and built the Charminar, the Jami Masjid and the Dar-ush-Shifa hospital there. Ferishta says he named the city after a singer, Bhagmati. The sources differ on who she was and on how the city got its later name. He wrote poetry in Persian and the old Urdu of the Deccan.

Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah

1593–1626 CE

Sixth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1611/12–1626), nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad Quli. He was a scholarly and peaceful king. He founded the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, began a new town called Sultannagar, sheltered the rebel Mughal prince Khurram (Shah Jahan) and had the first history of his dynasty written. His queen, Hayat Bakhsh Begum, was the mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah.

Abdullah Qutb Shah

1614–1672 CE

Seventh Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1626–1672). He was crowned as a boy and left the government to his mother Hayat Bakhsh Begum and his ministers. In 1636 he accepted the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as his overlord. His minister Mir Jumla conquered the Karnatak and its diamond mines. In 1656 Mir Jumla's quarrel with him brought Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. An inscription in Persian and Telugu records the siege. He died without a son in 1672.

Abul Hasan Tana Shah

c. 1672–1699 CE

Abul Hasan, called Tana Shah, was the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1672–1687). He was a kinsman and son-in-law of Abdullah Qutb Shah. He left the government to the Brahmin brothers Madanna and Akkanna, who allied the kingdom with the Marathas. Aurangzeb made this a charge against him and took Hyderabad in 1685. In 1687 Aurangzeb besieged Golconda for eight months, until a gate was opened by treachery. Abul Hasan died a state prisoner at Daulatabad.

Addanki Gangadhara

Telugu poet of the 16th century who dedicated his Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu, the story of King Samvarana and Tapati, to Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted it, with Ponnikanti Telaganarya's Yayaticharitramu, among the only Telugu kavyas dedicated to a Muslim ruler. Its opening praises Ibrahim's conquests in the Telugu country.

Akkanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin, brother of the minister Madanna, who commanded the army of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda in the 1670s and 1680s. With his brother he received Shivaji at Hyderabad in 1677. The Mughal peace terms of 1685 demanded his dismissal with his brother's, and the two were murdered together at Golconda in March 1686.

Jamshid Quli Qutb Shah

before 1550 CE

Second Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1543–1550), the third son of Sultan Quli. The Golconda chronicle says he had his father killed at prayer and blinded the heir, his brother Qutb-ud-din. His reign was spent in wars with Bidar and Bijapur, and his younger brother Ibrahim fled to Vijayanagara. He died of a long illness in 1550.

Kancherla Gopanna (Bhakta Ramadas)

A Telugu devotee of Rama, remembered as Ramadas. He was a revenue officer who spent government money on the Rama temple at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari and was imprisoned for it. In the legend, he was freed when Rama and Lakshmana paid his debt to the king. He is credited with the Dasarathi Sataka and with devotional songs. Writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make him a nephew of Madanna and an officer of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 places him about 1725 under the Nizams.

Madanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin who became chief minister (wazir) of Abul Hasan, the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda, about 1673, with the title Surya Prakash Rao. With his brother Akkanna he ran the kingdom for some twelve years. He allied it with the Marathas against the Mughals and kept an office at Bezwada. Aurangzeb made the employment of the two Brahmin brothers a charge against the king. They were murdered at Golconda in March 1686.

Mir Jumla (Mir Muhammad Said Ardastani)

before 1663 CE

A Persian merchant who became chief minister and army commander of Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda. He is known by the title of his office, Mir Jumla. He conquered the Karnatak south of the Krishna, including Gandikota and the diamond country of Cuddapah, and he leased the diamond mines. His quarrel with the king in 1655–56 brought the Mughal prince Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. He then joined Mughal service as Mu'azzam Khan and died in 1663 after an expedition to Assam.

Ponnikanti Telaganarya

Telugu poet of the 16th century, author of the Yayaticharitramu, the story of King Yayati in five cantos written in 'pure Telugu', avoiding Sanskrit words. He dedicated it to Amin Khan, a general of Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda, and its opening praises Amin Khan's family as servants of the sultan.

Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk

before 1543 CE

Persian-born officer of the Bahmani sultanate who governed Telingana from Golconda. He conquered much of Telangana and the Krishna–Godavari coast, and founded the Qutb Shahi dynasty. He was assassinated in 1543. According to the Golconda chronicle, he was killed at prayer in the mosque of Golconda fort. According to Ferishta, a slave killed him while he was examining jewels.

Monuments

Qutb Shahi Tombs

c. 1543–1674 CE

Royal burial ground half a mile north of Golconda Fort. It holds the domed tombs of seven Qutb Shahi kings and members of their families, with mosques and a mortuary bath, built between the 1540s and the 1670s.

Husain Sagar

c. 1562 CE

Large artificial lake between Hyderabad and Secunderabad, formed by a dam that the Golconda chronicle counts among the works of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to about 1575. Bilgrami gives AH 970 (1562) and credits it to Husain Shah Wali, the king's son-in-law, after whom it is named. A tradition printed by Hastings Fraser in 1865 tells how the tank stood empty until Neknam Khan cut a channel from the Musi.

Purana Pul

c. 1578 CE

The 'old bridge' of stone across the Musi at the western end of old Hyderabad, on the road to Golconda. Bilgrami (1927) dates it by two chronograms to AH 986 (1578), under Ibrahim Qutb Shah, fourteen years before the city. He gives its Qutb Shahi name as Pul-i Narva, from the Telugu word for a causeway. The Imperial Gazetteer and Campbell date it to 1593 under Muhammad Quli. Tavernier compared it with the Pont Neuf. Its only inscription records the rebuilding after the flood of 1820.

Charminar

c. 1591 CE

Gateway monument with four minarets at the centre of old Hyderabad. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built it when he founded the city. The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to 1591, and Bilgrami to AH 999–1000 (1590–91).

Badshahi Ashurkhana

c. 1593 CE

The royal hall of Muharram mourning in Hyderabad, built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. The Imperial Gazetteer (1909) and Campbell (1898) date it to 1594. Bilgrami (1927) read a date of AH 1001 (1592–93) in the enamelled-tile inscription over the central niche, and dated the tile work to the last year of the king's reign. Abdullah Qutb Shah's name is also in the tiles, and the outer halls were added under Nizam Ali Khan.

Jami Masjid, Hyderabad

1597 CE

Congregational (Friday) mosque of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, a short way north-east of the Charminar, built under the minister Aminu-l-Mulk. The chronogram over its door gives AH 1006 (1597). The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to 1596, and Campbell and Rocco to 1598. It is a double hall of seven arches on a paved courtyard. It once had a school, a monastery and a Turkish bath attached, and by 1898 houses and shops crowded round it.

Khairatabad Mosque

c. 1612–1626 CE

Small three-arched Qutb Shahi mosque at Khairatabad, Hyderabad, with an empty domed tomb beside it, after which the suburb is named. Neither building has an inscription. Bilgrami (1927), from a sanad (deed) of Aurangzeb's 37th year, says that Khairiyat-un-Nisa Begum, daughter of Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah, built the mosque for her tutor Mulla Abdul Malik. He dates it between 1612 and 1626. Campbell (1898), Rocco (1929) and Syed Hossein Bilgrami (1905) make its builder Khairat-un-Nisa, a daughter of Ibrahim Qutb Shah.

Mecca Masjid

c. 1617–1693 CE

Great stone mosque near the Charminar in Hyderabad. Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah began it in 1617, his successors continued it, and it was completed under Aurangzeb in the 1690s. The Asaf Jahi Nizams from Nizam Ali Khan onwards are buried in its courtyard.

Hayat Bakhshi Mosque, Hayathnagar

c. 1626 CE

Large Qutb Shahi mosque of five double arches between two tall minarets. It stands on a terrace inside a vast walled caravanserai (travellers' inn) at Hayathnagar, about nine miles east of Hyderabad. The village was founded in AH 1035 (1625–26) by Hayat Bakhsh Begum, daughter of Muhammad Quli, queen of Sultan Muhammad and mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah. The mosque has no inscription. Bilgrami dated the village to 1626 and the mosque to Abdullah's reign.

Taramati Baradari and Premamati Mosque

c. 1662 CE

A pavilion (baradari) on three terraces south of the Osman Sagar road near Golconda, and an unfinished mosque on a rock north of the road. Tradition links them with Tara Mati and Pema Mati, Hindu consorts of the Qutb Shahi kings. Neither building has an inscription. The only dated record of either woman is the grave of Pemmati at the Qutb Shahi tombs, AH 1073 (1662). The sources disagree on which kings the two women belonged to.

Toli Masjid

1671 CE

Qutb Shahi mosque on the old road from the Purana Pul to Golconda. Musa Khan, chamberlain and general of Abdullah Qutb Shah, built it. The inscription in its prayer niche gives the chronogram year AH 1082 (1671). G. Yazdani described it in 1918 as typical of the Qutb Shahi style, with Hindu motifs such as pot-shaped bases, elephant-tusk brackets and temple niches. Campbell (1898) dated it to 1604 under Muhammad Quli, but the inscription does not support that date.

Dar-ush-Shifa

Two-storeyed Qutb Shahi hospital and medical college round a square courtyard in the old city of Hyderabad, with a mosque opposite its entrance. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built it, and a caravanserai (travellers' inn) and bath were attached. The Golconda chronicle says the king built hospitals and paid their attendants. By 1909 it was a barrack, and in 1927 Bilgrami found it ruinous.

Golconda Fort

Walled hill fortress five miles west of Hyderabad. The Bahmani sultans received it from the ruler of Warangal in the 14th century. It became the seat of the Qutb Shahi sultans and was rebuilt in stone under Ibrahim Qutb Shah. It fell to Aurangzeb in 1687 after a siege of more than eight months.

Inscriptions

Epitaph of Sultan Quli, Golconda (1543)

1543 CE

Inscriptions in three bands on the black basalt tomb-chest of Sultan Quli, in the Qutb Shahi burial ground at Golconda. An epitaph at its foot calls him 'the Martyr' and 'Bara Malik'. It dates his death to Monday, 2 Jumada II AH 950 (3 September 1543 in T. W. Haig's conversion). Haig noted that the epitaph gives him no royal title. Bilgrami read the word 'Martyr' as confirming that he was murdered at prayer.

Makka Darwaza inscription, Golconda (1559)

1559 CE

An inscription in Naskh script, more than 46 feet long, across the front of the Makka Darwaza (Mecca Gate) of Golconda fort. It records that the gate was built in AH 967 (1559), in the reign of Ibrahim Qutb Shah, who is named only as 'the namesake of the Friend of God'. It was built by the efforts of his minister Kamaluddin Husain, entitled Mustafa Khan, and the inscription was written by Muhammad of Isfahan.

Jami Masjid inscription, Hyderabad

1597 CE

A Persian verse inscription of AH 1006 (1597) over the door of the Jami Masjid near the Charminar. The mosque was built in the reign of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah under the minister Aminu-l-Mulk, and the inscription is signed by the calligrapher Baba Khan.

Epitaph of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Golconda (1612)

1612 CE

A Persian epitaph in Naskh script on the black basalt sarcophagus (stone coffin) of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, founder of Hyderabad, in the Qutb Shahi necropolis at Golconda. It dates his death to Saturday, 17 Zi'l-Qa'da AH 1020, and gives his age as 49 years and his reign as 31 years. Bilgrami converted the date to 11 January 1612, and T. W. Haig to 24 January 1612.

Ma Saheba tank inscriptions (1625)

c. 1625 CE

Two nearly identical Persian inscriptions in Naskh script on black stone tablets. They are in the towers at either end of the dam of the Ma Saheba tank, on the old road from Khairatabad to Golconda. They record that the tank was built by Khanum Agha, daughter of Mir Maqsud Ali Tabataba, wife of Prince Mirza Muhammad Amin and mother of Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah. In AH 1034 (1624–25) the king granted the tank to Shah Khundkar.

Musa Burj inscription, Golconda fort (1666–67)

1666–1667 CE

A Persian inscription on the Musa Burj bastion of Golconda fort, with a version in Telugu on another wall. It records the Mughal siege of 1656. Aurangzeb's commander Mir Miran was killed by a gunshot in his trench, and peace followed three days later. Abdullah Qutb Shah's commander Musa Khan then built the great bastion, finished in AH 1077 by the architect Dharmachar. The Telugu text, read by H. Krishna Sastri, dates the siege to Saka 1578 (23 January 1656) and the completion to Saka 1589 (1667).

Toli Masjid inscription (1671)

1671 CE

A Persian verse inscription in the prayer niche of the Toli Masjid, Hyderabad. It records that Musa Khan built the mosque and that it was completed in the reign of Abdullah Qutb Shah. Its chronogram (a phrase whose letters give the date) gives AH 1082 (1671). G. Yazdani edited it in 1921, in Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica for 1917–18, and Bilgrami again in 1927. A second slab in the courtyard, of AH 1043 (1633), belongs to another mosque.

References

Sources (26)
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