Ibrahim Adil Shah II of the Adil Shahi

Adil Shahi

The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi dynasty ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1490 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate , before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518...

 dynasty, was the king of Bijapur Sultanate.

Early life

Ali Adil Shah's father, Ibrahim Adil Shah I's had divided power between the Sunni nobles, the Habshis and the Deccanis. However, Ali Adil Shah favored Shi'as.

Kingship

After the death of Ali Adil Shah I

Ali Adil Shah I

Ali Adil Shah I was the fifth Sultan of Bijapur Sultanate.On the day of his coronation Ali abandoned the Sunni practices and reintroduced the Shi’ah Khutbah and other practices...

 in 1580
, the nobles of the kingdom decided to appoint Imran Ibrahim, son of Imran sayzada Tahmash Adil Shah and nephew of Ali Adil Shah I as the King. At this time, Ibrahim Adil Shah II was a nine-year old boy.

Seizure

A Deccani general called Kamal Khan seized power and became the regent. Kamal Khan showed disrespect to the dowager

Dowager

A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....

 queen Chand Bibi

Chand Bibi

Chand Bibi , also known as Chand Khatun or Chand Sultana, was an Indian Muslim woman warrior. She acted as the Regent of Bijapur and Regent of Ahmednagar...

, who felt that he had ambitions to usurp the throne. Chand Bibi plotted an attack against Kamal Khan, with help from another general, Haji Kishvar Khan. Kamal Khan was captured while fleeing and was beheaded in the fort.

The Regents

Kishvar Khan became the second regent of Ibrahim. He defeated the Ahmednagar Sultan at Dharaseo, capturing all the artillery and elephants of the enemy army. He then ordered other Bijapur generals to surrender all captured elephants to him. The elephants were highly valued and the generals took great offense. The generals, along with Chand Bibi, hatched a plan to eliminate Kishvar Khan with help from General Mustafa Khan of Bankapur. Kishvar Khan's spies informed him of the conspiracy. Kishvar Khan sent troops against Mustafa Khan, who was captured and killed in the battle.

Defacto Rulers

Chand Bibi

Chand Bibi

Chand Bibi , also known as Chand Khatun or Chand Sultana, was an Indian Muslim woman warrior. She acted as the Regent of Bijapur and Regent of Ahmednagar...

 challenged Kishvar Khan, who had her imprisoned at the Satara

Satara

Satara is a city located in the Satara District of Maharashtra state of India. The town is 2320 ft. above sea-level, near the confluence of the Krishna and its tributary river Venna. The city was the capital of the Maratha empire in the 17th century, hence one of the the historical cities of...

 fort and tried to declare himself the king. However, Kishvar Khan was already unpopular among rest of the generals. He was forced to flee, when a joint army led by General Ikhlas Khan marched to Bijapur. The army consisted of forces of three Habshi nobles: Ikhlas Khan, Hamid Khan and Dilavar Khan. Kishvar Khan tried his luck at Ahmednagar unsuccessfully, and then fled to Golconda. He was killed in exile by a relative of Mustafa Khan. Chand Bibi was then declared the regent.

Ikhlas Khan became regent for a short time, but he was dismissed by Chand Bibi shortly afterwards. Later, he resumed his dictatorship, which was soon challenged by the other Habshi generals.

Attack on Bijapur

Taking advantage of the situation in Bijapur, Ahmadnagar's Nizam Shahi sultan allied with the Qutb Shahi

Qutb Shahi dynasty

The Qutb Shahi dynasty was a Turko-Persian dynasty ; its members were collectively called the Qutub Shahis. They were the ruling family of the kingdom of Golkonda in modern-day Andra Pradesh, India. They were Shia Muslims and belonged to Kara Koyunlu...

 of Golconda to attack Bijapur. The troops available at Bijapur were not sufficient to repulse the joint attack. The Habshi generals realized that they could not defend the city alone, and tended their resignation to Chand Bibi. Abu-ul-Hassan, a Shi'a general appointed by Chand Bibi, called for the Maratha

Maratha

The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...

 forces in Carnatic. The Marathas attacked the invaders' supply lines. The Ahmednagar-Golconda allied army had to retreat,

Ikhlas Khan then attacked Dilavar Khan to seize the control of Bijapur. However, he was defeated and Dilavar Khan became the supreme ruler from 1582 to 1591. He was the last regent of Ibrahim.

Ibrahim Adil Shah's reign

The fifth king of the Adil Shahi

Adil Shahi

The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi dynasty ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1490 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate , before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518...

 dynasty is known in the Indian history as "Jagadguru Badshah." He tried to bring in cultural harmony, between the Shias and the Sunnis and between Hindus and Muslims through music. He was a great lover of music, played musical instruments, sang and composed praises of Hindu deities Saraswati

Saraswati

In Hinduism Saraswati , is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti....

 and Ganapati. He wrote the book Kitab-E-Navras (Book of Nine Rasas) in Dakhani. It is a collection of 59 poems and 17 couplets. According to his court-poet Zuhuri, he wrote it to introduce the theory of nine Rasas, which occupies most important place in Indian aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

, to acquaint people who were only brought up in Persian ethos. The book opens with prayer to Saraswati, the Goddess of learning. He claimed that his father was divine Ganapati and mother the Holy Saraswati. For him, the Tanpura personified learning -- "Ibrahim the tanpurawala became learned due to grace of god, living in the city of Vidyanagari" (Vidyanagari is the earlier name of Bijapur.)

Ibrahim II publicly declared that all he wanted was Vidya or learning, music, and Guruseva (serving the teacher). He was a devotee of Hazrat Banda Nawaj, the Sufi saint of Gulbarga

Gulbarga

Gulbarga is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Gulbarga District. It was formerly part of Nizam's Hyderabad state...

. He has composed a prayer to him to bestow Vidya or learning and charitable disposition.

He founded a new township Navraspur to give concrete shape to his musical conception or idea of a musical city. He had a temple built inside the precincts of the palace which still exists.

Bijapur attracted best musicians and dancers of the period because the king was famous as a great connoisseur and patron of music and it was a unique privilege to get recognition from him.

Kitabe Nauras

bhaka nyari nyari bhava ek
kaha turuk kaha barahaman

Whether a Turk (Muslim) or a Brahmin with different language—emotion is the same.

nouras soor juga joti ani saroguni
yusat sarasuti mata
ibrahim parasada bhayi dooni

Oh mother Saraswati! Since you have blessed Ibrahim, his work Navras will last for long

He has composed poems on his wife Chand Sultana, his Tanpura Motikhan and his elephant Atish Khan. He spoke Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, Dakhani, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and Kannada languages fluently, and like his predecessors, employed several Hindus in top posts.