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Siddi Masud Khan

Abyssinian noble of Bijapur. By the Bellary gazetteer's count he was governor and jagirdar (land-grant holder) of Adoni from 1662 to 1687. From 1678 he was regent of the kingdom for the boy-king Sikandar Adil Shah. He built the Jama Masjid of Adoni, which its inscriptions date to AH 1079 (1666–67). Driven from the capital, he held Adoni as the last Bijapur stronghold in the Telugu country. He surrendered it to the Mughals, in 1688 according to Sarkar.

Siddi Masud was one of the Abyssinian nobles who ruled the eastern provinces of the Bijapur kingdom in its last decades.1 The Bellary gazetteer (1904) calls him the best known of the Bijapur governors of Adoni.1 It gives his years there as 1662 to 1687.1

The gazetteer says: “He was one of several Abyssinians who attained to high office under the Musalmans”.1 It adds that he “is remembered in history as an unsuccessful regent of Bijapur from 1678 to 1683”.1 In 1683 he “retired permanently to his jaghir of Adoni”.1 See Adoni and the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.

Wealth and family

Grant Duff calls him “an Abyssinian, son-in-law of Seedee Johur, and Jagheerdar of Adonee”.2 (A jagheerdar or jagirdar is the holder of a land grant.) In a note he adds that Masud got his wealth “by the favor of Einayat Oolla, a rich man, and Jagheerdar of Adonee, who made him his heir”.2

Jadunath Sarkar describes the Abyssinian nobles of Bijapur as “ruling over the eastern province, viz., the Karnul district and a part of the Raichur Doab”.34 He writes about how little such rulers changed the provinces.34 In his view, Masud’s “form of administration and Court-life” would have been the same if he had made himself “Nawab of Ikkeri in Kanara instead of Karnul in Telugu-land”.34 He writes that “there is no reason to suppose” otherwise.34 See Siddi Jauhar.

Regent of Bijapur

The Afghan regent Bahlol Khan was dying in 1677.5 The Mughal general Dilir Khan arranged that Masud should take his place.5 Sarkar gives the terms:5

  • Bahlol was to resign in Masud’s favour
  • Masud was to pay six lakhs of rupees owed to the Afghan soldiers
  • at Kulbarga Masud made peace with the Mughals, promising to obey Aurangzeb, make no alliance with Shivaji and send the king’s sister to the Mughal court5

He became wazir (chief minister) on 21 February 1678.6 Grant Duff says that “his personal property was the principal motive for choosing Musaood Khan”.27 This was “especially as he promised to pay the debts of Dilere Khan, as well as the arrears due to the troops”.27 But once back at Bijapur, he dismissed much of the cavalry, who went over to the Marathas and the Mughals.27 Sarkar says that he “utterly failed” to put down the disorder of the kingdom.8

Dilir Khan besieged Bijapur in 1679.9 Masud called in Shivaji with the promise of the Raichur doab, and he defended the city until the Mughals withdrew.9 Giving up the doab made him unpopular.9 The rival party “obliged Masud Khan to retire to Adoni”.9

Grant Duff puts his retirement “probably about a year after Sivajee’s death”, that is about 1681.10 See Sikandar Adil Shah.

Builder at Adoni

The Bellary gazetteer records three works of his at Adoni:1

  • a masonry well just west of the lowest gate of the fort, where an inscription “relates how he constructed it”
  • the Jama Masjid in the town, “the finest piece of Muhammadan architecture in the district”, which inscribed panels on its front show that he built
  • a new bastion in the fort, recorded on an inscribed stone1

His diwan (minister) Venkanna Pant dug the great well in the town that bears his name.1 The gazetteer also names a well built by Riza Ambar, “a diwan of his”.1112 It names the Singara Masjid, “said to be so called because it stood in the Singara totam or ‘beautiful garden’ of Masaud Khan”.1112 See the Jama Masjid, Adoni.

The surrender of Adoni

The sources differ on the end.1314 Grant Duff says that after the fall of Bijapur and Golconda, Prince Azam and Ghazi-ud-din marched against Adoni.1314 It was “still in possession of Musaood Khan, formerly regent of Beejapoor”.1314 Masud, “considering resistance as altogether hopeless”, gave up his lands.1314 He refused to enter the imperial service and died unknown.1314

The Bellary gazetteer follows local tradition and dates the attack to 1687.115 It says that Masud’s forces beat off an attack in the plain.115 Then Ghazi-ud-din Khan aimed his guns at the Jama Masjid.115 “Masaud Khan, who held the building dearer than his life, surrendered to save it”.115 He too “declined to enter Aurangzeb’s service and died in comparative obscurity”.115

The Imperial Gazetteer (1908) puts the expedition in 1686.16 The Kurnool manual names the Mughal commander as Ghiyas-ud-din Khan.17 After taking Adoni from Masud, he went on to take Kurnool.17

Sarkar used the official history of Aurangzeb’s reign, and he gives a different ending.1819 On 25 January 1688 Firuz Jang was sent with 25,000 cavalry “to conquer the district of Karnul and the fort of Adoni, south of the Tungabhadra”.1819 There “Siddi Masaud was now reigning in independence”.1819 The treasure and royal symbols of the Adil Shahs were believed to have been taken to Adoni by Masud while he was wazir.1819

The Mughals sacked the villages around and surrounded the fort.1819 Then, “at last on 6th August 1688, Siddi Masaud was induced to capitulate”.1819 Sarkar adds that “his fort was occupied and renamed Imtiaz-garh, the Siddi was enrolled in the Mughal peerage as a 7-hazari”.1819 (A 7-hazari was a noble of the rank of seven thousand.) His sons and relatives were favoured.1819

Footnotes

  1. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (1904), p. 196 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14

  2. James Grant Duff, A History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 282 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (2nd ed., 1930), p. 151 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 153 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 173 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 283 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 174 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. James M. Campbell (ed.), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XXIII: Bijapur (1884), p. 433 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 320 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 198 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 345 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  14. Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 346 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  15. Francis, Bellary (1904), p. 197 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 452 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  17. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 459 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  19. Sarkar, Aurangzib IV (1930), p. 460 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

References

Sources (6)
  1. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1904, pp. 196–200. [Public domain]
  2. James Grant Duff, A History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1826, pp. 282–283, 320, 345–346. [Public domain]
  3. 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, pp. 151–153, 157, 173–174, 459–460. [Public domain]
  4. James M. Campbell (ed.), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XXIII: Bijapur (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay, 1884, pp. 432–433. [Public domain]
  5. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 452. [Public domain]
  6. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1886, pp. 29. [Public domain]

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