After the death of Mahmud Begarha on the 23rd November, 1511, the throne passed to his son Muzaffar II, who waged successful wars against the Rajputs and restored Mahmud Khalaji of Malwa to his throne. Muzaffar’s death on the 7th April, 1526, was followed by two short and insignificant reigns of his sons, Sikandar and Nasir Khan Mahmud II, till in the month of July of the same year his more daring son, Bahadur, got possession of the throne.
Brave and warlike like his grandfather, Bahadur was a famous ruler in the history of medieval India. He not only defeated Mahmud II of Malwa and annexed his kingdom in 1531 but also overran the territories of the Rana of Mewar, the old enemy of his house, and stormed Chitor in A.D. 1534. Fortune, however, went against him in his wars with Humayun, in the course of which he was deprived not only of the newly-conquered province of Malwa but also of the greater part of his own kingdom. But on the withdrawal of the Delhi troops, Bahadur regained his kingdom and turned his attention towards expelling the Portuguese, whose assistance he had sought in vain against the Mughuls. Failing to persuade the Portuguese governor, Nunho da Cunha, to come to him, he himself proceeded to visit him on board his ship in February, 1537, but was treacherously drowned by the Portuguese, and all his companions were murdered. After the death of Bahadur, anarchy and confusion reigned supreme in Gujarat under his weak successors, who were mere puppets in the hands of rival baronial parties; so it was easily annexed to the Mughul Empire by Akbar in A.D. 1572.
Kashmir
In the year A.D. 1315 Shah Mirza, a Muslim adventurer from Swat, entered the service of the Hindu Prince of Kashmir, who died shortly afterwards. Shah Mirza seized the throne of Kashmir in A.D. 1339 or 1346 under the title of Shams-ud-din Shah and caused coins to be struck and the Khutba to be read in his name. He used his newly-acquired power wisely, and died in A.D. 1349. His sons, Jamshid, ‘Ala-ud-din, Shihab-ud-din, and Qutb-ud-din, then reigned successively for about forty-six years. After Qutb-ud-din’s death in A.D. 1394, his son Sikandar ascended the throne of Kashmir.
Reigning at the time of Timur’s invasion of India, Sikandar exchanged envoys with him, though the two never met each other. He was generous towards the men of his own faith, and many learned Muslim scholars flocked to his court from Persia, Arabia and Mesopotamia, but his general attitude was not liberal. He died, after a reign of twenty-two years and nine months, in A.D. 1416. His eldest son, ‘Ali Shah, then reigned for a few years, after which he was overpowered by his brother, Shahi Khan, who ascended the throne in June, A.D. 1420, under the title of Zain-ul-Abidin.
Zain-ul-‘Abidin was a benevolent, liberal and enlightened ruler. He did much to diminish theft and highway robbery in his kingdom by enforcing the principle of the responsibility of the village communities for local crimes, regulated the prices of commodities, lightened the burden of taxation on the people, and rehabilitated the currency, which had been greatly debased during the reigns of his predecessors. His public works immensely benefitted his subjects. He was a man of liberal ideas, and showed remarkable toleration towards the followers of other faiths. He recalled the Brahmanas, who had left the kingdom during his father’s reign, admitted learned Hindus to his society, abolished the jizya and granted perfect religious freedom to all. He possessed a good knowledge of Persian, Hindi, and Tibetan, besides his own language, and patronised literature, painting and music. Under his initiative, the Mahabharata and the Rajatarangini were translated from Sanskrit into Persian, and several Arabic and Persian books were translated into the Hindi language. Thus, for all these qualities, he has been justly described as “the Akbar of Kashmir “, though he differed from him in a few traits of personal character. He died in November or December, 1470, and was succeeded by his son Haidar Shah.
The history of the later Sultans of Kashmir is uninteresting and unimportant. After Zain-ul-‘Abidin’s death, anarchy “ensued under the rule of nominal kings who were placed on the throne as a mark for the machinations of the different parties who were seeking pre-eminence for purposes of self-aggrandizement and plunder”. Towards the end of A.D. 1540, Mirza Haidar, a relative of Humayun, conquered Kashmir. He governed it, theoretically, on behalf of Humayun, but in practice as an independent ruler, till 1551, when he was overthrown by the Kashmir nobles, who resumed their intrigues and quarrels. About A.D. 1555 the Chakks seized the throne of Kashmir, but with no relief to the troubled kingdom, which was absorbed into the Mughul Empire in the time of Akbar.
Independent Sultanates in Southern India, including Khandesh
Khandesh
Khandesh was a province of Muhammad bin Tughluq’s empire in the valley of the Tapti river. Firuz Shah entrusted its government to one of his personal attendants, Malik Raja Faruqi, whose ancestors had been respected nobles of the Delhi court in the reigns of ‘AIa-ud-din Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughluq. In the period of confusion following the death of Firuz Shah, Malik Raja, following the example of his neighbor, Dilawar Khan of Malwa, declared his independence of the Delhi Sultanate. He was defeated by Muzaffar Shah I of Gujarat in several battles. Being a man of peaceful disposition, he treated his subjects, Muhammadans as well as Hindus, with kindness and consideration. He died on the 29th April, 1399, and his son, Malik Nasir, soon made himself absolute master of Khandesh by overpowering his brother Hasan. The new Sultan captured the fortress of Asirgarh from its Hindu chieftain, but Ahmad Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat, defeated him when he attacked Nandurbar and compelled him to swear fealty to him. His war against his son-in-law, ‘Ala-ud-din Ahmad of the Bahmani dynasty, also ended in disaster for him and he died in the year 1437-1438. Then after the two uneventful reigns of his son, ‘Adil Khan I (1438-41), and grandson, Mubarak khan I (1441-1457), the throne of Khandesh was occupied by Mubarak Khan’s son, ‘Adil Khan II, who was an able and vigorous ruler and tried hard to restore administrative order in his kingdom, the authority of which was extended by him over Gondwana. On his death without any issue in 1501, the throne passed to his brother Daud, who, after an inglorious reign of about seven years, died in 1508, and was succeeded by his son, Ghazni Khan. Ghazni Khan was poisoned within ten days of his accession, and Khandesh was plunged into disorder due to the faction fights of two rival claimants to its throne, one being supported by Ahmad Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar, and the other by Mahmud Begarha of Gujarat, till the latter succeeded in raising his candidate to the throne with the title of ‘Adil Khan III. The reign of ‘Adil Khan III was not marked by any event of importance. He died on the 25th August, 1520, and his weak successors had not the courage or ability to save the kingdom from the aggressions of its external enemies. Like Gujarat, Khandesh was annexed by Akbar to his empire in 1601.