The Malwa Sultanate was a Muslim kingdom of central India that ruled the Malwa plateau, roughly today's western Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern Rajasthan, from about 1401 until the Mughal conquest of 1562. It was founded by Dilawar Khan Ghuri, an Afghan governor of the Delhi Sultanate, as Delhi's authority disintegrated. Ruled mostly by Afghan dynasties from the hilltop fortress-city of Mandu, it fought constantly with its neighbours and was a notable centre of manuscript painting.
Founding
Dilawar Khan stopped sending tribute to Delhi after 1392, and the invasion of northern India by Timur and his sack of Delhi left provincial governors free to go their own way. Dilawar Khan is generally said to have assumed royal status in 1401, founding what is called the Ghurid dynasty. His first capital was Dhar, but the court soon moved to Mandu, which was renamed Shadiabad, "the city of joy".
The Ghurid sultans
Dilawar Khan's son Alp Khan took the throne as Hoshang Shah. Accusing him of having killed his father, Muzaffar Shah I of the Gujarat Sultanate invaded in 1407, captured him and installed a governor at Dhar, but Hoshang was restored the following year. Wars with Gujarat and with the Bahmani Sultanate of the Deccan recurred for decades.
The Khalji dynasty
In 1436 Mahmud Khan, a commander related both to Dilawar Khan's family and to the earlier Khalji sultans of Delhi, deposed Hoshang Shah's grandson and declared himself sultan as Mahmud Shah I. The Khalji dynasty he founded held Malwa until 1531. His son Ghiyas-ud-Din was followed by Nasir-ud-Din, who took the throne in October 1510 after a struggle with his brother.
Decline and Gujarati rule
The sultanate weakened in the early sixteenth century. In 1519, after the Battle of Gagron, much of Malwa fell under the control of Rana Sanga of Mewar, who placed his vassal Medini Rai in charge of part of it. The last Khalji ruler, Mahmud Shah II, became dependent on Gujarat, and in May 1531 Bahadur Shah of Gujarat took Mandu and annexed the kingdom. The Mughal emperor Humayun held it briefly in 1535 and 1536, and a former Khalji officer, Qadir Shah, regained part of the country in 1537.
Baz Bahadur and the Mughal conquest
In 1542 Sher Shah Suri conquered Malwa and appointed Shujaat Khan as governor. His son Baz Bahadur declared himself independent in 1555. In 1561 Akbar sent an army under Adham Khan and Pir Muhammad Khan, which defeated Baz Bahadur at Sarangpur on 29 March. Baz Bahadur briefly won back his kingdom with help from Khandesh and Berar after Pir Muhammad's death, but in 1562 a second Mughal army drove him out. Malwa became a province of the Mughal Empire, governed from Ujjain.
Art and culture
Mandu was an important centre of book painting. An illustrated Jain text, the Kalpa Sutra, was produced there in 1439 under Mahmud Shah I. The best known work is the Nimat Nama, a book of recipes and cookery whose pictures show Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din. Other illustrated manuscripts include a Bustan painted by Haji Mahmud in 1502 and a dictionary of rare words. Persian was the language of government.
On our maps
Our 1400 map shows Malwa in central India, then on the point of becoming fully independent, between the Gujarat Sultanate to the west and the Delhi Sultanate to the north.
Sources
In pictures
3 images · scroll →From the atlas
Malwa Sultanate on our maps
Borders of Time draws the Malwa Sultanate on one of its 54 world maps, the one for 1400 CE. There it covers about 246,000 km² (95,000 sq mi), roughly the size of the United Kingdom today.
On that map it borders the Bahmani Kingdom and the Sultanate of Delhi.
On the map before it appears (1300 CE), the same area belongs to the Sultanate of Delhi. On the map after its last appearance (1492 CE), it belongs to Berar.
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did the Malwa Sultanate exist?
- From 1401 to 1562, 161 years. The atlas draws it on its maps for 1400.
- Where was the Malwa Sultanate?
- At its largest, on the 1400 map, its land lies in today’s India (100%). On that map it borders the Bahmani Kingdom and the Sultanate of Delhi.
- What was the capital of the Malwa Sultanate?
- Its capitals over time included Dhar and Mandu.
- How big was the Malwa Sultanate?
- The Malwa Sultanate was largest on the 1400 map, at about 246,000 km² (95,000 sq mi).