Ibrahim Adil Shah II

Sepia photograph of a walled enclosure seen across open ground, a tall gateway with minarets at the centre flanked by a domed tomb on the left and a mosque on the right. · Philip Meadows Taylor and James Fergusson (John Murray, London); photographer not named on the plate (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Ibrahim was the son of Tahmasp, a brother of Ali Adil Shah I.¹² Ali had named him his heir in AH 987 (AH is the Islamic way of counting years).¹² He came to the throne in 1580 as a boy in his ninth year.¹²

Cousens says that he “was generally called Ibrahim Jagat Gir (the holder of the world), but sometimes Ibrahim Jagat Guru”.² Cousens explains: “guru being a Hindu devotee and teacher, Ibrahim having been accused of leanings towards Hinduism”.²

The historian Muhammad Qasim Ferishta wrote with his support.³ He calls himself “placed, by the bounty of his sovereign, Ibrahim Adil Shah II., above all pecuniary wishes”.³ See the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.

Regents and Adoni

For his first years regents governed the kingdom.²⁴ Ali’s widow Chand Bibi was in charge of the young king’s education.²⁴ Cousens describes the quarrels of the nobles, the queen’s imprisonment at Satara and two invasions by Ahmadnagar and Golconda.²⁴

Ferishta tells what happened under the regent Dilawar Khan.⁵ The minister “by stratagem got into his power Ghalib Khan, governor of the fortress of Adony, who had rebelled, and caused him to be blinded”.⁵

Ferishta also records that Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah wanted to keep the peace with Bijapur.⁶ So he “sent his sister to Ibrahim Adil Shah; and the nuptials were celebrated with great magnificence at Shahdoorg”.⁶

In AH 1003 (1595) Burhan Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar made an alliance “with the Ray of Penkonda” against Bijapur.⁷ The Ray promised to besiege forts on the Karnatak frontier.⁷

Ferishta says that the next year the king sent a force against “one of the zemindars of the Carnatic, who, taking advantage of the war, had besieged the fortress of Adony”.⁸ The fort was “now in danger of falling from want of provisions”.⁸ Then news came that “the infidels of the Carnatic had on the approach of the royal troops raised the siege of Adony, and fled to their own country”.⁸

Ferishta’s history of Bijapur ends at this point.⁹ Briggs noted that Ferishta went on writing until about 1612 but never finished the Bijapur section.⁹ See Adoni.

Penukonda and Kurnool

Henry Heras placed in this reign the Bijapur siege of Penukonda that Ferishta tells under Ali I.¹⁰¹¹ In his reconstruction, Venkata II of Vijayanagara had allied with Burhan Nizam Shah.¹⁰¹¹ Ibrahim II then marched south and besieged Penukonda for three months.¹⁰¹¹ Venkata went to Chandragiri, and the garrison was close to surrender.¹⁰¹¹

Venkata then bribed Hundiatum Naik and his Bergi horse to desert.¹⁰¹¹ So the sultan withdrew, “leaving Mustafa Khan to protect the frontiers”.¹⁰¹¹ See Penukonda and Venkatapati II.

Heras adds that it was “probably not long after this event” that the Bijapur sultan sent Abdul Wahab with a powerful army to Kurnool.¹¹ He was to take it from Gopala Raja, a grandson of Rama Raya.¹¹

The Kurnool district manual places the conquest “at the beginning of the seventeenth century”.¹²¹³ It says that Gopala Raja was helped by troops from Venkatapati of Penukonda, but he had to flee through the northern gate of the fort.¹²¹³ It records that Abdul Wahab governed Kurnool for about sixteen years, until his death in 1618.¹²¹³

The Bellary gazetteer says that one of the first governors of Adoni remembered by name was Malik Rahiman Khan.¹⁴ He “held the post for twenty-seven years, from 1604 to 1631”.¹⁴ See Abdul Wahab Khan and Kurnool.

Bijapur at its height

Cousens describes the long peace after 1595.¹⁵ In this time the king built “that splendid memorial of his—the mausoleum to the glory of his queen, Taj Sultana”, the Ibrahim Rauza.¹⁵ In 1599 he began a new city, Nauraspur, west of Bijapur.¹⁵

The Mughals now pressed on the Deccan.¹⁵¹⁶ Ibrahim’s daughter Sultana Begam was promised in marriage to Akbar’s son Daniyal.¹⁵¹⁶ Cousens quotes the traveller Pietro della Valle (1623–24) on the tribute, and on the humble ceremony with which the king received the emperor’s letters.¹⁵¹⁶

In 1624 Malik Ambar of Ahmadnagar plundered Nauraspur, and Ibrahim died in 1627.¹⁶ Cousens says that “Bijapur attained its high water-mark of prosperity during the reigns of Ibrahim II. and Sultan Muhammad”.¹⁶ See Bijapur.

Family

Ferishta says that Tahmasp had two sons, Ibrahim and Ismail.¹⁷¹⁵ The younger was kept a prisoner at Belgaum.¹⁷¹⁵ Cousens tells how rebels there proclaimed Ismail king in the 1590s.¹⁷¹⁵ He was defeated, blinded and imprisoned again.¹⁷¹⁵

Cousens says that Ibrahim’s eldest son, Darvesh Padshah, was passed over.¹⁶ A younger son, Muhammad, was raised to the throne in 1627 at the age of fifteen.¹⁶ See Muhammad Adil Shah.

Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III (1829), p. 142 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Henry Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, Vol. XXXVII, 1916), p. 11 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, “The Author’s Preface to Vol. III”, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III (1829), p. 2 of the preface (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 12 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 159 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 183 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 187 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 188 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Henry Heras, The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I (1927), p. 336 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Heras, Aravidu Dynasty I (1927), p. 337 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 28 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (1904), p. 196 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Cousens, Bijapur and its Architectural Remains (1916), p. 14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. III (1829), p. 176 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴