Muzaffarids (Gujarat) Explained

The Muzaffarid dynasty, also called the Muzaffarids, and sometimes, the Ahmedabad dynasty, was an Indian royal family that 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.^[18] The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.^[19]

Sultans of Gujarat Sultanate

Title/Name[20]	Personal Name	Reign
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah I	Zafar Khan	1391 - 1403 (1st Reign)
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Shah I	Tatar Khan	1403 - 1404
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah I	Zafar Khan	1404 - 1411 (2nd Reign)
Nasir-ud-Din Ahmad Shah I	Ahmad Khan	1411 - 1442
Muizz-ud-Din Muhammad Shah II	Karim Khan	1442 - 1451
Qutb-ud-Din Ahmad Shah II	Jalal Khan	1451 - 1458
Daud Shah	Daud Khan	1458
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah I (Mahmud Begada)	Fateh Khan	1458 - 1511
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah II	Khalil Khan	1511 - 1526
Sikandar Shah	Sikandar Khan	1526
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah II	Nasir Khan	1526
Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah	Bahadur Khan	1526 - 1535 (1st Reign)
Interregnum Mughal Empire under Humayun: 1535 - 1536
Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah	Bahadur Khan	1536 - 1537 (2nd Reign)
Miran Muhammad Shah I	Miran Muhammad Faruqi of Khandesh	6 weeks; 1537
Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah III	Mahmud Khan	1537 - 1554
Ghiyas-ud-Din Ahmad Shah III	Ahmad Khan	1554 - 1561
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III	Hubboo[21] or Nannu or Nathu[22] (a pretender according to Mughal historians)	1561 - 1573
Interregnum Mughal Empire under Akbar: 1573 - 1583
Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III	Hubboo or Nannu or Nathu (a pretender according to Mughal historians)	1583 (Restored)
Mughal Empire under Akbar

See also

• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Notes and References

1. Book: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. 1879. Government Central Press. 249.
2. Book: Sen, Sailendra . A Textbook of Medieval Indian History . Primus Books . 2013 . 978-9-38060-734-4 . 114–115.
3. Book: Sudipta Mitra. Gir Forest and the Saga of the Asiatic Lion. 2005. Indus Publishing. 978-81-7387-183-2. 14.
4. Web site: The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] WorldCat.org ]. 2023-02-24 . www.worldcat.org . 138 . en . 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. • Book: Abbas, Saiyed Anwar. Confluence of Cultures. 2 August 2021 . Notion Press . 978-1-63904-604-1 . en. Saharan by name, men of wealth and consequence, who belonged to Tanka Tribe of Rajputana.
   • Book: Journal of Oriental Studies, Volume 39 . 1989 . 120 . en . Wajih- al - Mulk was by birth a Hindu Rajput of Tanka.
   • Book: Chandra, Satish. Medieval India (From Sultanat to the Mughals), PART ONE Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526). Har-Anand Publications. 2004. 218. 9788124110645. en. Sadharan who was a Rajput who converted to Islam.
   • Book: Edward James Rapson, Sir Wolseley Haig, Sir Richard Burn . The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans, edited by W Haig, 1965 . Cambridge . 1965 . 294.
   • Book: Mahajan, VD . History of Medieval India . S. Chand . 2007 . 9788121903646 . 245 . en . Zafar Khan, a son of Rajput convert to Islam was appointed Governor of Gujarat in 1391AD.
   • Book: Jenkins, Everett . The Muslim Diaspora - A comprehensive reference to the spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the America, 570 - 1799 . McFarland & Company Inc. . 2010 . 9780786447138 . 275.
   • Book: Jutta, Jain-Neubauer . The Stepwells of Gujarat: In Art- Historical perspective . 1981 . 62. *Book: Saran, Kishori Lal . The legacy of Muslim Rule in India . Aditya Prakashan . 1992 . 9788185689036 . 233.
   • Book: Lane-Pool, Stanley . Mohammadan Dyn: Orientalism V 2 - volume 2, page -312, writer . 2014 . 9781317853947 . 312. Routledge .
6. Book: Kapadia, Aparna . Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region . Cambridge University Press . 2018 . 9781107153318 . 8.
7. Book: Kapadia, Aparna . In Praise of Kings Rajputs, Sultans and Poets in Fifteenth-century Gujarat . Cambridge University Press . 2018 . 9781107153318 . 8. 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. • Book: Wink, André . Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries . 2003 . BRILL . 978-90-04-13561-1 . 143 . en . Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of low subdivision called Tank..
   • Book: Khan, Iqtidar Alam . Historical Dictionary of Medieval India . 25 April 2008 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-5503-8 . 107 . en . The founder of the Gujarat Sultanate he was a convert from a sect of Hindu Khatris known as Tanks..
   • Book: Misra, S. C. (Satish Chandra) . The rise of Muslim power in Gujarat; a history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442 . 1963 . New York, Asia Pub. House . Internet Archive . 137 . Zafar Khan was not a foreign muslim. He was a convert to Islam from a sect of the Khatris known as Tank..
   • Book: Khan, Iqtidar Alam . Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India . 2004 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-566526-0 . 57 . en . Zafar Khan (entitled Muzaffar Shah) himself was a convert to Islam from a sub-caste of the Khatris known as Tank..
9. Book: Wink, André . Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries . 2003 . BRILL . 978-90-04-13561-1 . 143 . en . 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. Book: Indian History. B-131. Agnihotri. V.K. 1988 . Allied Publishers. 9788184245684 .
11. Book: The Wonder That Was India. 69. Rizvi . S.A.A. 1987. Allied Publishers. The independent kingdom of Gujarat was founded by Zafar Khan, son of Sadharan, a Jat convert to Islam. . 9788184245684 .
12. Book: Collier, Dirk . The Great Mughals and their India . 2016-03-01 . Hay House, Inc . 978-93-84544-98-0 . en. 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. Book: Ali, Kausar . A New History of Indo-Pakistan, Since 1526 . 1977 . Aziz Publishers . en. 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. Book: Eraly, Abraham . Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals . 2000 . Penguin Books India . 978-0-14-100143-2 . en. 23. 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. Web site: The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] WorldCat.org ]. 2023-02-24 . www.worldcat.org . 138 . en . 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. Book: Chandra., MISRA, Satish . The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.]. ]. 1963 . London; Bombay printed . 137 . 752803447.
17. Book: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. 1879. Government Central Press. 249.
18. Book: Sen, Sailendra . A Textbook of Medieval Indian History . Primus Books . 2013 . 978-9-38060-734-4 . 114–115.
19. Book: Sudipta Mitra. Gir Forest and the Saga of the Asiatic Lion. 2005. Indus Publishing. 978-81-7387-183-2. 14.
20. The new Islamic dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys Series; Author:Clifford Edmund Bosworth,
21. Web site: Archived copy . 2011-08-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180714022016/https://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D00702050%26ct%3D0 . 2018-07-14 . dead .
22. Web site: Archived copy . 2011-08-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160305011605/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D00701023&ct=151&rqs=256&rqs=436&rqs=514&rqs=601&rqs=734 . 2016-03-05 . dead .