Bengal Sultanate
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Sultanate of Bengal বাংলা সালতানাত | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1352–1538 1554–1576 | |||||||||||||
 The Sultanate of Bengal in 1500, including Bengal and parts of Bihar, Assam and Arakan | |||||||||||||
| Status | Sultanate | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Gaur, Pandua, Sonargaon | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Persian, Bengali, Maithili, Magadhi, Odia, Assamese and Arabic | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam (official), Hinduism, Buddhism | ||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
| Sultan | |||||||||||||
• 1342–1358 | Ilyas Shah (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1572–1576 | Daud Khan Karrani (last) | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Late medieval | ||||||||||||
| 1352 | |||||||||||||
• Fall of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah | 1538 | ||||||||||||
• Re-establishment | 1554 | ||||||||||||
| 12 July 1576 | |||||||||||||
| Currency | Tangka | ||||||||||||
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| Today part of |  Bangladesh Burma India | ||||||||||||
| History of Bangladesh |
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 Bangladesh portal |
The Bengal Sultanate, officially the Sultanate of Bengal, was a Muslim state and empire based in the Indian subcontinent on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.[1] It was an important power in South and Southeast Asia.[2] Its rulers carried the title of King of Kings in the East. The kingdom's heartland was in Bengal, which is today divided between Bangladesh and East India, but its realm included large parts of North India and western Myanmar. Its bordering countries included the Delhi Sultanate, Tibet, Ahom and Burmese states. Several dynasties ruled over Bengal Sultanate sequentially. It disintegrated at the end of the 16th century and was absorbed into the Pan-South-Asian Mughal Empire and the Arakanese Kingdom of Mrauk U
History
Delhi lost its hold over Bengal in 1338, thus paving the way for the assumption of independence by Ilyas Khan.[3] In 1342, a local warlord, Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah proclaimed himself as monarch of the Kingdom of Lakhnauti. He would go on to consolidate his rule by conquering the other independent kingdoms of Bengal before proclaiming himself as Sultan of Bengal.
The absorption of Bengal into the Mughal Empire was a gradual process beginning with the defeat of Bengali forces under Sultan Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah by Babur at the Battle of Ghaghra and ending with the Battle of Raj Mahal where the Pashtun Karrani dynasty, the last reigning Sultans of Bengal were defeated.
List of Sultans
Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1342-1414)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah | 1342–1358 | Became the first sole ruler of whole Bengal comprising Sonargaon, Satgaon and Lakhnauti. |
| Sikandar Shah | 1358–1390 | Assassinated by his son and successor, Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah |
| Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah | 1390–1411 | |
| Saifuddin Hamza Shah | 1411–1413 | |
| Muhammad Shah bin Hamza Shah | 1413 | Assassinated by his father's slave Shihabuddin Bayazid Shah on the orders of the landlord of Dinajpur, Raja Ganesha |
| Shihabuddin Bayazid Shah | 1413–1414 | |
| Alauddin Firuz Shah I | 1414 | Son of Shihabuddin Bayazid Shah. Assassinated by Raja Ganesha |
House of Raja Ganesha (1414-1435)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Raja Ganesha | 1414–1415 | |
| Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah | 1415–1416 | Son of Raja Ganesha and converted into Islam |
| Raja Ganesha | 1416–1418 | Second Phase |
| Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah | 1418–1433 | Second Phase |
| Shamsuddin Ahmad Shah | 1433–1435 |
Restored Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1435-1487)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah I | 1435–1459 | |
| Rukunuddin Barbak Shah | 1459–1474 | |
| Shamsuddin Yusuf Shah | 1474–1481 | |
| Sikandar Shah II | 1481 | |
| Jalaluddin Fateh Shah | 1481–1487 |
Habshi rule (1487-1494)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shahzada Barbak | 1487 | |
| Saifuddin Firuz Shah | 1487–1489 | |
| Mahmud Shah II | 1489–1490 | |
| Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah | 1490–1494 |
Hussain Shahi dynasty (1494-1538)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alauddin Hussain Shah | 1494–1518 | |
| Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah | 1518–1533 | |
| Alauddin Firuz Shah II | 1533 | |
| Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah | 1533–1538 |
Governors under Suri rule (1539-1554)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Khidr Khan | 1539–1541 | Declared independence in 1541 and was replaced |
| Qazi Fazilat | 1541–1545 | |
| Muhammad Khan Sur | 1545–1554 | Declared independence upon the death of Islam Shah Suri |
Muhammad Shah dynasty (1554-1564)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Muhammad Khan Sur | 1554–1555 | Declared independence and styled himself as Shamsuddin Muhammad Shah |
| Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah I (not to be confused with Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah of Lakhnauti) | 1555–1561 | |
| Ghiyasuddin Jalal Shah | 1561–1563 | |
| Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah II | 1563-1564 |
Karrani dynasty (1564-1576)
| Name | Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Taj Khan Karrani | 1564–1566 | |
| Sulaiman Khan Karrani | 1566–1572 | |
| Bayazid Khan Karrani | 1572 | |
| Daud Khan Karrani | 1572–1576 |
Mint towns
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Economy
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Culture
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Architecture
The most enduring legacy of the Bengal Sultanate is its architectural heritage. A distinct Bengali-Islamic architecture developed during its reign, which combined indigenous traditions with influences from Persia and Byzantium. It featured multiple and single domed mosques with complex terracotta and stone ornamentation.
The most grand testament to their imperial ambitions is reflected in the ruins of the Adina Mosque, the largest mosque ever built in the Indian subcontinent.[4] The mosque has a plan similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus and elements of the pre-Islamic Sassanid Taq Kasra monument.[4][5] The Mosque City of Bagerhat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sultanate-mosques are scattered throughout Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Literature
And with the three cups of wine, this dispute is going on.
All the poets of Hindustan have become excited
That this Persian ode, to Bengal is going on.
-A excerpt of a poem jointly penned by Hafez and Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah in the 14th century.[6]
With Persian as an official language, Bengal witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers and clerics. It was the preferred language of the aristocracy and the Sufis. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The earliest Persian work compiled in Bengal was a translation of Amrtakunda from Sanskrit by Qadi Ruknu'd-Din Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad al-'Amidi of Samarqand, a famous Hanafi jurist and Sufi. During the reign of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the city of Sonargaon became an important centre of Persian literature, with many publications of prose and poetry. The period is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature is illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence with the Persian poet Hafez. When the Sultan invited Hafez to complete an incomplete ghazal by the ruler, the renowned poet responded acknowledging the grandeur of the king's court and the literary quality of Bengali-Persian poetry.[7]
In the 15th century, the Sufi poet Nur Qutb Alam pioneered Bengali Muslim poetry by establishing the Rikhta tradition, which saw poems written half in Persian and half in colloquial Bengali. The invocation tradition saw Islamic figures replacing the invocation of Hindu gods and goddesses in Bengali texts. The literary romantic tradition saw poems by Shah Muhammad Sagir on Yusuf and Zulaikha, as well as works of Bahram Khan and Sabirid Khan. The Dobhashi culture featured the use of Arabic and Persian words in Bengali texts to illustrate Muslim conquests. Epic poetry included Nabibangsha by Syed Sultan, Janganama by Abdul Hakim and Rasul Bijay by Shah Barid. Sufi literature flourished with a dominant theme of cosmology. Bengali Muslim writers produced translations of numerous Arabic and Persian works, including the Thousand and One Nights and the Shahnameh.[8][9]
See also
References
- ^ David Lewis (31 October 2011). Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-139-50257-3.
- ^ Barbara Watson Andaya; Leonard Y. Andaya (19 February 2015). A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400–1830. Cambridge University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-521-88992-6.
- ^ Sen, Sailendra (2013). A Textbook of Medieval Indian History. Primus Books. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-9-38060-734-4.
- ^ a b "The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760" (PDF). Hudsoncress.net. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- ^ Hasan, Perween (2007). Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. I.B.Tauris. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-84511-381-0.
- ^ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Persian
- ^ "Persian – Banglapedia".
- ^ https://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/sacs/files/2012/07/Document-6-Billah-A.-M.-M.-A-The-Development-of-Bengali-Literature-during-Muslim-Rule.pdf
- ^ "Sufi Literature – Banglapedia".
- Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760. University of California Press
- Hussain, Syed Ejaz (2003). The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins, A.D. 1205–1576. Manohar. ISBN 978-81-7304-482-3.
- Perween Hasan (15 August 2007). Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. I.B.Tauris. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-1-84511-381-0.
- The Grammar of Sultanate Mosque in Bengal Architecture, Nujaba Binte Kabir (2012)
Further reading
- Yegar, Moshe (2002). Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 23–24. ISBN 978-0-7391-0356-2.