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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Asad Khan Lari

Turkish officer of Bijapur (died 1549), born Khusrau Aqa. He held Belgaum as a jagir (land grant) and was the chief minister and army commander of Ismail and Ibrahim I Adil Shah. In 1535–37 he led the first Bijapur attack on Adoni. He besieged the fort and surprised the camp of Venkatadri, Rama Raya's brother, who had come to relieve it.

Asad Khan was the leading noble of Bijapur for more than a generation.1 Cousens says that his name was Khusrau Aqa, and that he was a Turk.1 He had defended the young Ismail Adil Shah when the regent Kamal Khan attacked the palace.1 Ismail gave him the title of Asad Khan, with the fort of Belgaum as a jagir (land grant).1

Bijapur was defeated on the Krishna in 1520–21.2 A sipahsalar is an army commander. After that, Ferishta says, the king “conferring the dignity of Sipahsalar on Assud Khan, added several districts to his jageer, and made him henceforward his principal counsellor in all important affairs”.2 See the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.

The siege of Adoni

Under Ibrahim Adil Shah I, the Bijapur army visited Vijayanagara in 1535.3 After this, Asad Khan was sent to take Adoni.3 Ferishta says that the fort was “on the point of surrendering” when Venkatadri, the younger brother of Ramraj, came with a great army to relieve it.3

Asad Khan gave up the siege, fought a battle and lost it.3 He went back about twenty-one miles.3 Then, “with four thousand chosen horse”, he “surprised the camp of Venkatadry”.3 Venkatadri barely escaped, “leaving his treasures, family, and elephants, in the hands of the victors”.3

Venkatadri then asked for peace, with Asad Khan as go-between.45 Courtiers told the king that his minister had taken a great sum from Ramraj for freeing the prisoners.45 Ibrahim replied that “he returned God thanks that he had a servant to whom great kings condescended to pay contributions”.45 When Asad Khan came back, the king made him prime minister as well as commander-in-chief.5

Later years

Cousens says that Ibrahim honoured Asad Khan by marrying his daughter.67 The king declared that a son by her should be his heir.67 Some wished to raise Tahmasp, a son of Ibrahim, to the throne in place of Ali, and Cousens calls Tahmasp “grandson of Asad Khan Lari”.67

Enemies at court twice turned the king against him.68 Ibrahim set out to visit him at Belgaum, sorry for what he had done, but arrived too late.68 Asad Khan, “said to have been over a hundred years old”, died in AH 956 (1549; AH is the Islamic way of counting years).68 He was buried in the tomb he had built near the fort of Belgaum.68 There, Cousens wrote, “he is still remembered and treated as a wali or saint”.68

Footnotes

  1. Henry Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, Vol. XXXVII, 1916), p. 4 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III (1829), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 85 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 87 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  7. Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

References

Sources (2)
  1. Muhammad Qasim Ferishta (tr. John Briggs), History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India till the Year A.D. 1612, Vol. III (opens in a new tab), Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1829, pp. 51, 85–87. [Public domain]
  2. Henry Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains, with an Historical Outline of the 'Adil Shahi Dynasty (Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, Vol. XXXVII) (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay (archive.org scan of the 1976 facsimile reprint, Bharatiya Publishing House, Varanasi), 1916, pp. 4, 6–8. [Public domain]

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