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Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

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.

Photograph down a busy street lined with shops towards the Charminar, its great arch and four minarets closing the view, with people walking in the road. Printed sideways.
Photograph down a busy street lined with shops towards the Charminar, its great arch and four minarets closing the view, with people walking in the road. Printed sideways. · Archaeological Department, H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions (G. Yazdani, Superintendent) (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Muhammad Quli was the fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty and the founder of Hyderabad. Muhammad Quli was the third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah, according to the Golconda chronicle.1 Ferishta calls him the eldest of three sons.2

The Golconda chronicle translated by Briggs dates his birth to 14 Ramzan AH 973 (April 1566; AH is the Islamic way of counting years).3 He came to the throne on his father’s death in 1580.4 Ferishta says he was twelve at his accession.5 Bilgrami says he was in his fifteenth year, which fits the birth date better.5

Early reign

According to Ferishta, the young king married a daughter of his father’s chief minister, Shah Mirza of Isfahan.6 At the minister’s urging he joined an Ahmadnagar campaign against Bijapur.6 His courtiers protested that it was beneath a king to serve under another kingdom’s general, so he withdrew.6 He later sent the minister back to Persia.6

Peace with Bijapur followed.7 It was sealed in AH 995 (1586–87) by the marriage of the king’s sister to Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur.7

Bhagnagar and Hyderabad

Ferishta says that early in his reign Muhammad Quli fell in love with a singer named Bhagmati.8 He also says that the air of Golconda had become unhealthy.8 So, Ferishta says, the king built a new city eight miles away and named it Bhagnagar after her.8 He adds that the city “has since received the name of Hydurabad”.8

The Golconda chronicle says the king moved his court because Golconda was cramped and short of water.9 It dates the foundation on the Musi to AH 998 (1589–90).9 Bilgrami gives AH 999 (1590–91). He records the tradition that Bhagmati lived in the village of Chichlam, now Shah Ali Banda.10 In this tradition the city was renamed Hyderabad after her death.10

Bilgrami also repeats a story that Ibrahim Qutb Shah ordered the Purana Pul bridge over the Musi.11 In the story the prince had crossed the river in flood on horseback to visit her.11 The French traveller Tavernier heard a version in which the king’s wife was called “Nagar”.12 His editor V. Ball corrected the name to Bhagmati.12

Later writers repeat the story with different details. The Mughal historian Khafi Khan says that “he had a wife named Bhágmati, of whom he was very fond”.13 At her request, he says, the king built a city two kos from the fortress and named it Bhagnagar.13 Some time after her death the name was changed to Haidarabad, “but in the vernacular language of the people it is still called Bhágnagar”.13

T. W. Haig, in 1907, called her “his favourite mistress, a Hindu girl named Bhagmati”.14 Archibald Constable, editing Bernier in 1891, explained Bhagnagar as “the ‘Fortunate City’”.15 Sha Rocco’s short history was published by the Hyderabad government press in 1929.16 He calls her “a beautiful Hindu dancing girl” and dates the founding of the city to 1591.16 He says the king was persuaded after her death to rename it “after Haidar, one of the titles of Ali”.16

A note in Briggs’s translation of the chronicle gives a different origin for the name: it came from Sultan Quli’s son Haidar Khan.17 The Kistna district manual of 1883 says the same.18 William Methwold, an English merchant at Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) in the 1620s, wrote that the capital was “called by the Natiues Golchonda, by the Moores and Persians Hidraband”.19

The story and the record are not the same thing. The record is that a new city was laid out on the Musi in AH 998 or 999 (1589–91).9101319 It was known as Bhagnagar to Europeans and, in Khafi Khan’s time, to the people of the country, and it was also called Hyderabad.9101319

Ferishta, who wrote in the king’s lifetime, says that the king named it after a woman called Bhagmati, and so do later writers.813 But none of the works used here cites an inscription or document of Muhammad Quli’s own reign that names her.813

Ferishta describes the new city:

“It is ten miles in circumference; and its principal streets, contrary to the other towns in India, are wide and clean: its air is healthy, and running streams are conveyed through some of the principal markets.”8

Buildings

The Golconda chronicle names the Jami Masjid and the Charminar as the king’s works in the middle of the city.20 With them were baths, hospitals and colleges whose staff were paid by the government.20 It also lists the palaces and gardens he built around Hyderabad:21

  • the Ilahi Mahal21
  • the Muhammadi gardens21
  • the palaces of Naubat Ghat, Koh-i-Tur and Nadi Mahal21
  • an almshouse dedicated to the twelve Imams21
  • a college and a public hospital21

According to the accounts of the royal treasurer, as reported in the chronicle, seventy-eight lakhs of huns (gold coins) were spent on public works during his lifetime.22 The Imperial Gazetteer credits him with these buildings:23

The gazetteer says he was reputed to have spent three million pounds on buildings and irrigation.23 It dates the Charminar to 1591, and Rocco gives 1593.2416 See the pages on Hyderabad, the Charminar and the Jami Masjid inscription.

Wars in the south

After some years of peace, the chronicle says, the king crossed the Krishna. He campaigned in the country that is now the Kurnool and Kadapa (then Cuddapah) districts. He took a fort the chronicle calls Moosulmooroo, and received the submission of the chiefs of Nandyal and Gandikota. He besieged the Vijayanagara king Venkata at Penukonda without success. Meanwhile one of his generals sacked Kadapa.25

Robert Sewell summarises these campaigns as the capture of Kurnool, Nandyal, Dole and Gandikota, followed by raids into Nellore.26 The Anantapur gazetteer dates the failed siege of Penukonda to 1589.27

A copper-plate grant of the Aravidu kings from the Nellore district gives the Vijayanagara side.28 In it “Mahamanda Saha”, “son of Malikibharama”, “returned home in despair, shorn of splendour”.28 Its editors of 1905 explained these names as Muhammad Shah and Malik Ibrahim.28 The Kistna manual adds that in this reign Kondavidu was called Murtazanagar and Kondapalli Mustafanagar, after two of the king’s generals.29

Court and politics

Shah Abbas I of Persia sent an embassy that reached Hyderabad by way of Goa.30 The chronicle dates it to AH 1012 (about 1603) and says it was received at the Kala Chabutra of Golconda.30 Because of Mughal campaigns in the Deccan, the ambassador stayed six years.30 Bilgrami gives the same dates and says the envoy lodged in the Dilkusha garden.31

The chronicle also records tension at court between the “foreigners”, mostly Persians and men from the north, and the Deccanis. It describes a riot in Hyderabad in which Deccanis plundered foreign merchants. The riot began after the city police chief ordered all unemployed foreigners out of the city. The king stopped the riot by proclamation and punished those responsible.32

In AH 1018 (1609) his younger brother Mirza Muhammad Khudabanda was implicated in a plot.33 The aim of the plot, the chronicle says, was to kill the Shia foreigners and put him on the throne.33 He died a prisoner in Golconda fort in 1611.33 W. H. Moreland quotes the English merchant Floris, who recorded the king’s death in January 1612.34 Floris remarked that the king had given the Persians control of everything.34

Bilgrami describes Muhammad Quli as a lover of Persian and Urdu poetry who wrote under the pen-name “Qutb Shah”, and says he remitted (cancelled) a number of taxes.35 Rocco calls him “a just and capable king” and “a poet of some repute”.36 He says the king’s gifts to the poor came to about £24,000 a year.36

Death and tomb

Muhammad Quli died on 17 Zi’l-qada AH 1020. The inscription on his tomb converts this as 11 January 1612.37 It gives his age as forty-nine and his reign as thirty-one years.37 Muhammad Quli had no son. He was succeeded by his nephew and son-in-law Muhammad, son of Mirza Muhammad Amin.38

His tomb near Golconda was built in his lifetime.39 Bilgrami ranked it as second to none among the Qutb Shahi tombs.39 It stands on a double terrace, the upper one 200 feet square.39 Its burial vault below the terrace was the only royal vault there that was open in Bilgrami’s time.39

Family

Ferishta says that at the start of his reign Muhammad Quli married a daughter of his father’s minister Shah Mirza of Isfahan.6 He says that in AH 995 (1586–87) the king’s sister was married to Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur.7 The chronicle names the princess Mullika Zuman.40

His daughter Hayat Bakhsh Begum married his nephew Muhammad, the son of his youngest brother Mirza Muhammad Amin, in AH 1016 (1607).4138 Muhammad succeeded him.4138 She was the mother of the next king, Abdullah Qutb Shah.42 According to Jadunath Sarkar, she ran the government for more than forty years of her son’s reign.42 See Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah.

Footnotes

  1. Golconda chronicle, in Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 447 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 333 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. Golconda chronicle, in Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. III (1829), p. 415 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)); Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan (1927), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 445, 447 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 333 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)); Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 333–334 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

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

  8. 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

  9. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 451 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 10–11 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, tr. V. Ball, Travels in India, Vol. I (1889), p. 151 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, in H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. VII (1877), p. 336 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  14. T. W. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan (1907), p. 181 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  15. François Bernier, tr. Archibald Constable, Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656–1668 (1891), p. 19 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

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

  18. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 27 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  19. William Methwold, “Relations of the Kingdome of Golchonda”, in Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626), p. 995 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  20. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 452 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  21. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 483 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

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

  23. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), pp. 115–116 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  24. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 115 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  25. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 452–457 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  26. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 218 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  27. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 22 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  28. 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

  29. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 34 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  30. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 475–476 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  31. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 200 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  32. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), pp. 476–478 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  33. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 479 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  35. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), pp. 131–132 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  36. Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (1929), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  37. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). The Golconda chronicle gives December 1611 for the same Hijri date and a reign of nearly thirty-four years: Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 483 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  38. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 141 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)); Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  39. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  40. Golconda chronicle, in Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. III (1829), p. 451 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

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

Photos

Dynasties

Qutb Shahis

c. 1518–1687 CE

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.

References

Sources (15)
  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. 333–335, 415, 445, 451–457, 475–484. [Public domain]
  2. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan: A Comprehensive Guide to the Archaeological Remains of the City and Suburbs of Hyderabad (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Hyderabad-Deccan, 1927, pp. 10–11, 17, 129–132, 141, 200. [Public domain]
  3. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 14, 115–116. [Public domain]
  4. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (tr. V. Ball), Travels in India, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Macmillan & Co., London, 1889, pp. 151. [Public domain]
  5. W. H. Moreland (ed.), Relations of Golconda in the Early Seventeenth Century (Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., No. 66) (opens in a new tab), Hakluyt Society, London, 1931, xvii. [Public domain in India]
  6. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India (opens in a new tab), Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1900, pp. 218. [Public domain]
  7. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Addison & Co.), 1905, pp. 22. [Public domain]
  8. 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. 336. [Public domain]
  9. T. W. Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), Pioneer Press, Allahabad, 1907, pp. 181. [Public domain]
  10. Sha Rocco, Golconda and the Qutb Shahs (illustrated by the Archaeological Department, Hyderabad) (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Hyderabad-Deccan, 1929, pp. 14–16. [Public domain]
  11. Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in all Ages (4th ed.) (opens in a new tab), William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, London, 1626, pp. 995. [Public domain]
  12. François Bernier (tr. Archibald Constable), Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656-1668 (opens in a new tab), Archibald Constable and Company, Westminster, 1891, pp. 19 note. [Public domain]
  13. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 32 and note. [Public domain]
  14. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 34 note. [Public domain]
  15. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV: Southern India, 1645-1689 (2nd ed.) (opens in a new tab), M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta, 1930. [Public domain]

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