Haroon Khan Sherwani

Haroon Khan Sherwani (1891-1980) was educated at Aligarh, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Grenoble and Geneva. He took his honours in History from Oxford in 1911 and was called to the bar two years later. He became head of the department of History and Political Science in Osmania University and was later appointed Principal of Nizam College, Hyderabad, 1945-46, and of Anglo-Arabic College, Delhi. 1947-48, President, Non-European History Section, VIII International Congress of Historical Sciences, Zurich, 1938; Local Secretary, Indian History Congress Hyderabad Session, 1941; President, Medieval Section, Indian History Congress, 1943; President, Fifteenth Indian Political Science Conference, Alighar, 1952; Member, Indian Delegation commonwealth Relations Conference, Lahore, 1953; President, Indian History Congress. Jubilee Session, Poona, 1963; President, Central and South Asian Section, International Conference of Asian History, Hong Kong, 1964; Editor, Medieval History of Deccan, 1954; awarded Padma Bhushan, 1969; conferred Degree of Doctor of Letters, Aligarh Muslim University, 1976. Elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society London, 1978.

---

Works

The Bahmanis of Deccan 1985

Bahmani history covers a very important part of the history of medieval India and corresponds to the period of a unified Deccan. Pre-Bahmani medieval Deccan extended to just half century when the land was governed rather precariously by the Sultans of Delhi, while the two countries between the fall of the Bahmanis and the establishment of the Asaf jahi rule was a period of complete disunion. Perhaps the first attempt at a comprehensive history of a part of the Bahmani rule was made by Professor Sherwani in his book, Mahmud Gawan, the great Bahmani Wazir which was published in 1941. The book was exceedingly well received. The age of Mahmud Gawan forms only a small though a glorious part of the history of Bahmani Deccan which is now being presented to the learned public.