Muzaffarids (Gujarat)

The Muzaffarid dynasty, also called the Muzaffarids, and sometimes, the Ahmedabad dynasty, ruled the Sultanate of Gujarat in western India from 1391 to 1583. The founder of the dynasty was Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah I) who was governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate. When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. His Grand son, Ahmed Shah I established the capital at Ahmedabad.^[1] The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572.^[2] The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.^[3]

Origins

Zafar Khan's father Shaharan, has been variously described as a Chaudhary^[4] who was an agriculturist by profession, a Rajput^[5][6] from Thanesar in modern-day Haryana,^[7] a Tānk Khatri^[8] from southern Punjab,^[9] or even a Jat convert to Islam.^[10][11] During the reign of Bahadur Shah, the Gujarat kingdom was described to be of Afghan origin.^[12][13][14] Zafar Khan adopted the name Wajih-ul-Mulk. Wajih-ul-Mulk and his brother were influential Chaudharis who were agriculturists by profession but could also muster thousands of fighting men on their call.^[15] His Hindu forebears claimed descent from Rāmachandra, who the Hindus worshipped as God. Such genealogies were fabricated to glorify royalty and were generally not accepted.^[16] When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. His grand son, Ahmed Shah I established the capital at Ahmedabad.^[17] The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572.^[2] The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.^[3]

Sultans of Gujarat Sultanate

Title/Name[18]	Personal Name	Reign
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah I شمس الدین مظفر شاہ اول	Zafar Khan	1391–1403 (1st Reign)
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Shah I نصیر الدین محمد شاہ اول	Tatar Khan	1403–1404
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah I شمس الدین مظفر شاہ اول	Zafar Khan	1404–1411 (2nd Reign)
Nasir-ud-Din Ahmad Shah I ناصر الدین احمد شاہ اول	Ahmad Khan	1411–1442
Muizz-ud-Din Muhammad Shah II المعز الدین محمد شاہ دوم	Karim Khan	1442–1451
Qutb-ud-Din Ahmad Shah II قطب الدین احمد شاہ دوم	Jalal Khan	1451–1458
Daud Shah داود شاہ	Daud Khan	1458
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah I (Mahmud Begada) ناصر الدین محمود شاہ اول محمود بگڑا	Fateh Khan	1458–1511
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah II شمس الدین مظفر شاہ دوم	Khalil Khan	1511–1526
Sikandar Shah سکندر شاہ	Sikandar Khan	1526
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah II ناصر الدین محمود شاہ دوم	Nasir Khan	1526
Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah قطب الدین بہادرشاہ	Bahadur Khan	1526–1535 (1st Reign)
Interregnum Mughal Empire under Humayun: 1535 - 1536
Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah قطب الدین بہادرشاہ	Bahadur Khan	1536–1537 (2nd Reign)
Miran Muhammad Shah I میران محمد شاہ تریہم	Miran Muhammad Faruqi of Khandesh	6 weeks; 1537
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah III ناصر الدین محمود شاہ تریہم	Mahmud Khan	1537–1554
Ghiyas-ud-Din Ahmad Shah III غیاث الدین احمد شاہ تریہم	Ahmad Khan	1554–1561
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III شمس الدین مظفر شاہ تریہم	Hubboo[19] or Nannu or Nathu[20](a pretender according to Mughal historians)	1561–1573
Interregnum Mughal Empire under Akbar: 1573–1583
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III شمس الدین مظفر شاہ تریہم	Hubboo or Nannu or Nathu (a pretender according to Mughal historians)	1583 (Restored)
Mughal Empire under Akbar

Family tree

Muzaffar Shah I ?-1411 Governor of Gujarat R.1391-1403, 1404-1407 Sultan of Gujarat R.1407-1411

Muhammad Shah I ?-1404 Governor of Gujarat R.1403-1404

Ahmad Shah I 1389-1442 Sultan of Gujarat R.1411-1442

Muhammad Shah II ?-1451 Sultan of Gujarat R.1442-1451

Daud Shah Sultan of Gujarat R.1458

Ahmad Shah II 1429-1458 Sultan of Gujarat R.1451-1458

Mahmud Shah I 1445-1511 Sultan of Gujarat R.1458-1511

Muzaffar Shah II ?-1526 Sultan of Gujarat R.1511-1526

Sikandar Shah ?-1526 Sultan of Gujarat R.1526

Mahmud Shah II ?-1526 Sultan of Gujarat R.1526

Bahadur Shah ?-1537 Sultan of Gujarat R.1526-1535, 1536-1537

Latif Khan

Ahmad Shah III ?-1561 Sultan of Gujarat R.1554-1561

Muzaffar Shah III ?-1592 Sultan of Gujarat R.1561-1573, 1583

Mahmud Shah III 1526-1554 Sultan of Gujarat R.1537-1554

See also

• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Notes

1. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. Government Central Press. 1879. p. 249.
2. Sen, Sailendra (2013). A Textbook of Medieval Indian History. Primus Books. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-9-38060-734-4.
3. Sudipta Mitra (2005). Gir Forest and the Saga of the Asiatic Lion. Indus Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-81-7387-183-2.
4. "The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. p. 138. Retrieved 2023-02-24. The two brothers were chaudharis of a rather numerous agrarian community, tilling the soil, not high in the caste hierarchy but not without strength in the neighborhood
5. • Abbas, Saiyed Anwar (2 August 2021). Confluence of Cultures. Notion Press. ISBN 978-1-63904-604-1. Saharan by name, men of wealth and consequence, who belonged to Tanka Tribe of Rajputana
   • Journal of Oriental Studies, Volume 39. 1989. p. 120. Wajih- al - Mulk was by birth a Hindu Rajput of Tanka
   • Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India ( From Sultanat to the Mughals), PART ONE Delhi Sultanat ( 1206-1526). Har-Anand Publications. p. 218. ISBN 9788124110645. Sadharan who was a Rajput who converted to Islam
   • Edward James Rapson, Sir Wolseley Haig, Sir Richard Burn (1965). The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans, edited by W Haig, 1965. Cambridge. p. 294.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
   • Mahajan, VD (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 245. ISBN 9788121903646. Zafar Khan, a son of Rajput convert to Islam was appointed Governor of Gujarat in 1391AD
   • Jenkins, Everett (2010). The Muslim Diaspora - A comprehensive reference to the spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the America, 570 - 1799. McFarland & Company Inc. p. 275. ISBN 9780786447138.
   • Jutta, Jain-Neubauer (1981). The Stepwells of Gujarat: In Art- Historical perspective. p. 62. *Saran, Kishori Lal (1992). The legacy of Muslim Rule in India. Aditya Prakashan. p. 233. ISBN 9788185689036.
   • Lane-Pool, Stanley (2014). Mohammadan Dyn: Orientalism V 2 - volume 2, page -312 , writer. Routledge. p. 312. ISBN 9781317853947.
6. Kapadia, Aparna (2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781107153318.
7. Kapadia, Aparna (2018). In Praise of Kings Rajputs, Sultans and Poets in Fifteenth-century Gujarat. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781107153318. These men, a certain Saharan and his brother Sadhu, were, mostly likely peasants or pastoralists, non-Muslim Tank Rajputs from Thanesar in northwestern India (modern-day Haryana).
8. • Wink, André (2003). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 978-90-04-13561-1. Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of low subdivision called Tank.
   • Khan, Iqtidar Alam (25 April 2008). Historical Dictionary of Medieval India. Scarecrow Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8108-5503-8. The founder of the Gujarat Sultanate he was a convert from a sect of Hindu Khatris known as Tanks.
   • Misra, S. C. (Satish Chandra) (1963). The rise of Muslim power in Gujarat; a history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. Internet Archive. New York, Asia Pub. House. p. 137. Zafar Khan was not a foreign muslim. He was a convert to Islam from a sect of the Khatris known as Tank.
   • Khan, Iqtidar Alam (2004). Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India. Oxford University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-19-566526-0. Zafar Khan (entitled Muzaffar Shah) himself was a convert to Islam from a sub-caste of the Khatris known as Tank.
9. Wink, André (2003). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 978-90-04-13561-1. Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of a low subdivision called the Tank, originally from Southern Punjab
10. Agnihotri, V.K (1988). Indian History. Allied Publishers. pp. B-131. ISBN 9788184245684.
11. Rizvi, S.A.A (1987). The Wonder That Was India. Allied Publishers. p. 69. ISBN 9788184245684. The independent kingdom of Gujarat was founded by Zafar Khan, son of Sadharan, a Jat convert to Islam.
12. Collier, Dirk (2016-03-01). The Great Mughals and their India. Hay House, Inc. ISBN 978-93-84544-98-0. His next opponent was Sultan Bahadur Shah, the ambitious Afghan king of Gujarat. A relatively small but wealthy and increasingly powerful kingdom, which had by now become a place for many disgruntled Afghan warlords from all over Hindustan.
13. Ali, Kausar (1977). A New History of Indo-Pakistan, Since 1526. Aziz Publishers. Bahadur Shah was another Afghan chief who had made himself an independent ruler of Malwa and Gujrat. He had given shelter to Alam Khan, the uncle of Ibrahim Lodi and was preparing to fight for the throne in his name.
14. Eraly, Abraham (2000). Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals. Penguin Books India. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-14-100143-2. The Afghans, defeated but not crushed, remained in power in Bihar and Bengal ... Further south was the prosperous Afghan kingdom of Gujarat, a rallying ground for ambitious Afghans.
15. "The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. p. 138. Retrieved 2023-02-24. The two brothers were chaudharis of a rather numerous agrarian community, tilling the soil, not high in the caste hierarchy but not without strength in the neighborhood
16. Chandra., MISRA, Satish (1963). The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.]. London; Bombay printed. p. 137. OCLC 752803447.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
17. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. Government Central Press. 1879. p. 249.
18. The new Islamic dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys Series; Author:Clifford Edmund Bosworth ISBN 0-7486-2137-7, ISBN 978-0-7486-2137-8
19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-14. Retrieved 2011-08-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2011-08-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)