Sultanate of Bijapur

Sultanate of Bijapur
1490–1686
Map of the Adil Shahi dynasty of the Bijapur Sultanate at its greatest extent[1]
Capital	Bijapur
Official languages	Persian
Common languages	Deccani[a] Kannada[a] Marathi[b]
Religion	Shia Islam (1504–34 and 1558–82) Sunni Islam (1490–1504, 1534–58, after 1582)
Government	Monarchy
Sultan
• 1490–1510	Yusuf Adil Shah (first)
• 1672–1686	Sikandar Adil Shah (last)
Historical era	Early modern
• Established	1490
• Disestablished	1686
Preceded by Succeeded by Bahmani Sultanate Mughal Empire Portuguese India Maratha Confederacy
Today part of	India

The Sultanate of Bijapur was an early modern kingdom in the western Deccan and South India, ruled by the Adil Shahi or Adilshahi dynasty. Bijapur had been a taraf (province) of the Bahmani Kingdom prior to its independence in 1490 and before the former's political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century. It was one of the Deccan sultanates, the collective name of the five successor states of the Bahmani Kingdom. At its peak, the Sultanate of Bijapur was one of the most powerful states in South Asia,^[5] second to the Mughal Empire, which conquered it in 1686 under Aurangzeb.

The founder of the sultanate, Yusuf Adil Shah, after emigrating to the Bahmani Sultanate, rose his position within the state and was appointed governor of the province of Bijapur. In 1490, he created a de facto independent Bijapur state, before becoming formally independent with the Bahmanis' collapse in 1518.

The Bijapur Sultanate's borders changed considerably throughout its history. Its northern boundary remained relatively stable, straddling contemporary southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka. The Sultanate expanded southward, its first major conquest the Raichur Doab following the defeat of the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota in 1565. Later campaigns in the Karnatak and Carnatic extended Bijapur's formal borders and nominal authority as far south as Tanjore. Bijapur, for most of its history, was bounded on the west by the Portuguese state of Goa, on the east by the Sultanate of Golconda, to the north by the Ahmednagar Sultanate and to the south by the Vijayanagara Empire and its succeeding Nayaka dynasties.

The sultanate clashed incessantly with its neighbours. After the allied victory over Vijayanagara at Talikota in 1565, the state further expanded through its conquest of the neighbouring Bidar Sultanate in 1619. The sultanate was thereafter relatively stable, although it was damaged by the revolt of Shivaji, who founded an independent Maratha Kingdom which went on to become the Maratha Confederacy. The greatest threat to Bijapur's security was, from the late 16th century, the expansion of the Mughal Empire into the Deccan. Various agreements and treaties imposed Mughal suzerainty on the Adil Shahs, by stages, until Bijapur's formal recognition of Mughal authority in 1636. The influence of their Mughal overlords, in combination with continual strife with the Marathas, sapped the state of its prosperity until the Mughal conquest of Bijapur in 1686.

The former Bahmani provincial capital of Bijapur remained the capital of the sultanate throughout its existence. After modest earlier developments, Ibrahim Adil Shah I and Ali Adil Shah I remodelled Bijapur, providing the citadel and city walls, and a congregational mosque. Their successors, Ibrahim Adil Shah II, Mohammed Adil Shah and Ali Adil Shah II, further adorned Bijapur with palaces, mosques, a mausoleum and other structures, considered to be some of the finest examples of Deccani and Indo-Islamic architecture.

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