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Ibrahim Khan of Kurnool

Ibrahim Khan Panni, also called Bahadur Khan, held Kurnool from 1715 until 1724. The Kurnool manual says that when Daud Khan Panni was killed, Ibrahim took the fort of Kurnool from the emperor's commander by hiding soldiers in palanquins, and then obtained a grant of the jagir (land grant). He joined the subahdar Mubariz Khan against Nizam-ul-Mulk and was killed with him at Shakar Kheda in 1724. The manual praises his fair treatment of Hindus. Kirkpatrick's sketch of the family (1811) makes him Daud Khan's nephew, gives him a reign of more than fourteen years and has him die at Kurnool.

Ibrahim Khan was the second Pathan ruler of Kurnool. He held it for about nine years, from the death of Daud Khan Panni in 1715 until his own death in 1724.1 The Kurnool manual of 1886 remembers him for one clever trick and one lost battle.1 Its author also praised him for treating Hindus fairly.1 See the Nawabs of Kurnool and Daud Khan Panni.

Taking the fort, 1715

The manual explains that under the Mughals a jagirdar (holder of a land grant) did not hold the chief fort of his grant.1 An officer independent of him held it.1 So when Daud Khan died, the fort of Kurnool was in the hands of the emperor’s killadar (fort commander), Iras Khan.1

Ibrahim Khan, Daud Khan’s brother in the manual, came with a few followers and halted at Panchalingala.1 Iras Khan invited him in as a guest and got a separate house ready for his women.1 Ibrahim then filled several palanquins with soldiers and sent them in as his women.1 With armed men inside the fort, he claimed the jagir and demanded the keys.1 Iras Khan refused and was locked up, so he gave up the keys and was allowed to leave.1

Ibrahim then wrote politely to the subahdar (governor) Mubariz Khan and asked for the usual robes of honour.1 The request was granted, and the emperor sent a sanad (deed of grant).1 Muhammad Burhanuddin’s history (1905) adds that the emperor Farrukhsiyar declared him the rightful successor to Kurnool.2 See Mubariz Khan.

His rule

The manual says that Ibrahim, unlike the Bijapur governors before him, treated the Hindus “with great forbearance in religious matters”.1 He usually renewed their inams (rent-free grants) on the old terms.1 As proof the manual cites a sanad of 1712 kept by the temple manager of Srisailam.1 It confirmed the temple’s villages and its fees.1 Burhanuddin calls him “a great statesman”, because he kept Muslims and Hindus “on equal terms”.3

Kirkpatrick’s sketch says that Ibrahim rebuilt Kurnool’s citadel in masonry, because its wall had been only of mud.4 He also improved the town and built up an army, much of it “Afghans of his own tribe”.4 With it he made many of the nearby poligars (local chiefs) pay him tribute.5

Shakar Kheda, 1724

By 1724 the emperor wanted Nizam-ul-Mulk destroyed and sent secret orders to Mubariz Khan.1 Ibrahim and other jagirdars were told to march to Hyderabad with their troops.1 Irvine names him in the subahdar’s camp as “Bahadur Khan Panni, faujdar of Karnul” (faujdar: military governor).6 Irvine also says that Bahadur Khan held the town of Zafarnagar, a place of Afghans, as a permanent grant.7 Khafi Khan lists “Bahadur Khan, brother of Daud Khan Pani” among the men who joined Mubariz Khan.8

At Shakar Kheda, Irvine says, “Ibrahim Khan Panni (entitled Bahadur Khan, and brother of the well-known Daud Khan Panni)” led the right wing.9 He had 2,000 Afghan horsemen with him.9 He was killed in the battle, and so was Mubariz Khan.10 The manual dates the battle to 24 September 1724.1 His younger son, Alif Khan, followed him.1 See Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I and Alif Khan.

Where the sources disagree

  • His relationship to Daud Khan. The Kurnool manual, Irvine and Khafi Khan call him Daud Khan’s brother.198 Kirkpatrick, following the Persian writer Mir Husain, makes him the son of Daud Khan’s brother Ali Khan Panni, who ruled for five or six years first.4 A Gazetteer of Southern India (1855) also makes him the son of an Ali Khan.11
  • His death. The manual, Irvine and Burhanuddin say that he died at Shakar Kheda in 1724.1103 Kirkpatrick tells it differently.5 In his account Ibrahim did homage to Nizam-ul-Mulk after a victory near Burhanpur, which a note dates to 1720.5 He then fell ill, went home and died at Kurnool three or four years later.5
  • Length of rule. The manual’s dates give him about nine years.1 Kirkpatrick says he ruled “somewhat more than fourteen years”, and the 1855 gazetteer says fourteen.511
  • The Srisailam grant. The manual dates his taking of Kurnool to after Daud Khan’s death in 1715.1 But the Srisailam sanad it cites as his is dated 1712.1 Kirkpatrick reports that Ibrahim was said to have governed Adoni while his uncle was alive.4

Footnotes

  1. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 30 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26

  2. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui, The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (Madras, 1905), p. 60 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. Burhanuddin, The Carnatic & Kurnool (1905), p. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. William Kirkpatrick (tr.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, “An Historical Sketch of the Patan Principality of Kurnool”, p. lv (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lvi and note 12 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. William Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 143 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Khafi Khan, Muntakhabu-l Lubab, in H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. VII (1877), p. 526 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 146 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 148 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. A Gazetteer of Southern India, with the Tenasserim Provinces and Singapore (Madras: Pharoah and Co., 1855), p. 69, “Kurnool” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Nawabs of Kurnool

c. 1690–1839 CE

A Pathan family of the Panni tribe held Kurnool, where the Tungabhadra meets the Handri, as a jagir (land grant) from the Mughal conquest of the 1680s until the British annexed it in 1839. The Mughal general Daud Khan Panni received the jagir. His kinsman Ibrahim Khan seized the fort in 1715 and died fighting the first Nizam in 1724. Himmat Bahadur Khan helped to kill two Nizams, Nasir Jang and Muzaffar Jang, in 1750–51 and died in the second fight. The French then stormed Kurnool. His brother Ranmast (Munawwar) Khan won it back in 1752 and paid tribute to the Nizam and to Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. In 1800 the Nizam gave the tribute to the East India Company. The last Nawab, Ghulam Rasul Khan, was removed from power in 1839 after troops found a secret store of arms in his fort. Kurnool became a British district.

References

Sources (6)
  1. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1886, pp. 30. [Public domain]
  2. William Irvine (ed. Jadunath Sarkar), Later Mughals, Vol. II: 1719-1739 (opens in a new tab), M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta; Luzac and Co., London, 1922, pp. 140, 143, 146, 148. [Public domain]
  3. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VII (opens in a new tab), Trübner and Co., London, 1877, pp. 526. [Public domain]
  4. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui (Moulvi), The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (opens in a new tab), Commercial Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 60–61. [Public domain]
  5. William Kirkpatrick (tr. and ed.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan to Various Public Functionaries (opens in a new tab), Black, Parry and Kingsbury, London, 1811, lv–lvi. [Public domain]
  6. Pharoah and Co. (comp.), A Gazetteer of Southern India, with the Tenasserim Provinces and Singapore (opens in a new tab), Pharoah and Co., Madras, 1855, pp. 69. [Public domain]

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