, the name of the “caste-cluster of agriculturalists-turned-warriors” inhabiting the north-west Dakhan, Mahārās̲h̲tra “the great country”, a term which is extended to all Marāt́hīspeakers. The Marāt́hā homeland stretched between 15° N. and 23° N., nearly equidimensional with the main mass of the Dakhan lavas north of the Malaprabha river and south of the Sātpūras. It lies within the rain-shadow of the Western Ghāts, a plateau compartmented by mesas and buttes between ¶ which valleys of black soil, watered by a 20” to 30” annual rainfall, yielded cereals, oilseeds a…

[see marāt́hās ].

, a small town in South India (lat. 18° 26′ N., long. 77° 11′ E.), in British Indian times the chef-lieu of a taluk in the Bīdar District of Ḥaydarābād State [ q.v.], now coming within the Maharashtra State of the Indian Union. It has a fort dating back to the end of the 9th/15th century. It was part of the lands of the Barīd S̲h̲āhs of Bīdar [ q.vv.], and then of their successors the ʿĀdil S̲h̲āhs of Bīd̲j̲apur [ q.vv.] until it was besieged by S̲h̲āh Ḏj̲ahān’s army in 1044/1635 and then incorporated into the Mug̲h̲al empire. Its chief fame stems from the fiercely-fought ba…

is the capital of the district fo that name in India (Presidency of Bombay) on the river Siva. In 1901 the town numbered 42,000 inhabitants, the district (6586 square miles = 17,058 square kilometres) 837,695 inhabitants. The town was built in 1494 by Aḥmad Niẓām S̲h̲āh, the founder of the dynasty of the Niẓām S̲h̲āhs [ q.v.], who reigned for about a century in Aḥmadnagar, until, after a brave defence by Čānd Bībī, the place was taken by Akbar’s troops and annexed to the Mogul empire. After the death of Awrangzīb, Aḥmadnagar became subject to the Mar…

, bearing the title of Mahābat Ḏj̲ang, was the governor of Bengal (1740-56) under the later Mug̲h̲al emperors of India. Being the son of a Turkoman of the name of Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿAlī, he started his career as the governor of Bihar, and after defeating the previous governor of Bengal, Sarfarāz Ḵh̲ān, entered Murs̲h̲idābād [ q.v.] on 12 May 1740, as viceroy of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. For most of the time, he was engaged in ceaseless and fruitless warfare against the Marāṭhās, who finally succeeded in taking Orissa from him. He died on 9 April 1756 a…

, formerly a petty Muslim state in the Bundelkhand Agency of Central India, is now administered as part of Madhya Pradesh (area: 122 square miles; population: 25, 256, of which only 12% are Muslims). Its rulers were descended from ʿImād al-Mulk G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn, the grandson of Āṣaf D̲j̲āh, the Niẓām of Ḥaydarābād. About 1784 G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn came to terms with the Marāthās who granted him a d̲j̲āgīr of 52 villages, the name Bāonī being derived from bāwan (fifty-two). This grant was later recognised by the British. Because of his loyalty during the 1857 revolt, the nawāb was granted a sanad …

, Afg̲h̲ān commander in northern India during the 18th century, whose power-base was in Rohilkand, where he founded the town of Nad̲j̲ībābād [ q.v.]. Involved in the confused struggles for power in Dihlī during the reigns of the fainéant Mug̲h̲al Emperors Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Bahādur [ q.v.] and ʿAlamgīr II in the 1750s, as opponent of the Nawwāb-wazīr of Awadh (Oudh) [ q.v.] Ṣafdār D̲j̲ang, he worked closely with the Afg̲h̲ān ruler Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī [ q.v.] and received from him in 1757 the title of amīr al-umarāʾ and custodianship of the Emperor ʿĀlamgīr II. At…

, the name of a District and of ¶ its administrative centre, in the western Deccan of India. In British Indian times, these fell within the Bombay Presidency; within the Indian Union, they are now on the southeastern fringe of Mahāras̲h̲tra State. The town (lat. 17° 43′, long. 75° 56′ E.) was an early centre of the Marāt́hās [ q.v.]. In 718/1318 it came finally under the control of the Dihlī Sultans, being governed from Deogīrī or Dawlatābād [ q.v.], then under the Bahmanīs, then oscillating between the ʿĀdil S̲h̲āhīs of Bīd̲j̲āpur and the Niẓām S̲h̲āhīs of Ahmadnagar befo…

, a town in the western part of the Rohilk̲h̲and region of modern Uttar Pradesh state in India (lat. 29° 37′ N., long. 78° 19′ E.), the centre of a taḥṣīl of the same name in the Bijnor District. The town was founded by the Afg̲h̲ān commander and wazīr of the Mug̲h̲al Emperors, Nad̲j̲īb al-Dawla [ q.v.], who in 1168/1755 built a fort, Patthagaŕh, one mile to the east. Sacked by the Marāt́hās [ q.v.] in 1186/1772, it passed two years later to the Nawwābs of Awadh [ q.v.] (Oudh). Nad̲j̲īb al-Dawla’s greatgrandson Maḥmūd participated in the Great Rebellion of 1857-8, and his palace wa…

, Maham , a town in the district and ¶ taḥṣīl of Rohtak in India, on the road connecting Dihlī and Hānsī, situated in lat. 28° 58′ N. and long. 76° 18′ E.; it was formerly in the Pand̲j̲āb, but since 1947 has fallen within the Indian Union (Hariana State). It was probably founded by Rād̲j̲pūt princes, but was allegedly destroyed at the end of the 12th century by Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad G̲h̲ūrī [see g̲h̲ūrids ]. The D̲j̲āmiʿ Masd̲j̲id has an inscription from the reign of Humāyūn, recording its construction by Bēgam Sulṭān in 1531, and another from A…

, Muḥammad Nuṣrat , Deccani Urdu poet of the 11th/17th century, whose work marks a stage in the history of Urdu language and literature. Born in the Carnatic as a relative of the ruling family there, he at first lived as a dervish but then moved to Bīd̲j̲āpūr [ q.v.], wherehe became an official and the poet-laureate of the ʿĀdil-S̲h̲āhī ʿAlī II b. Muḥammad (1066-83/1656-72 [see ʿādil-s̲h̲āhs ]. He wrote many poems, including ḳaṣīda s and g̲h̲azal s, but more especially a number mat̲h̲nawī s of substantial length. The most important of these was his ʿAlī-nāma , a eulog…

, a small town in Central India, before Partition in the Native State of Dewās, now in the Shajapur District of the state of Madhya Pradesh in the Indian Union (lat. 23° 34′ N, long. 76° 24′ E). It is essentially a Muslim town, founded by the sultans of Mālwā [ q.v.], but on an ancient site. It was reputedly the location of a battle in 840/1437 when Maḥmūd K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī I of Mālwā was defeated by the forces of Mēwāŕ [ q.v.], and, of more certain historicity, it was captured in 932/1526 from Maḥmūd II of ¶ Mālwā by Rāṇā Sāṇgā [ q.v.] of Čitawr. Then in 968/1561 it was seized by Akbar from the local…

, a port of India, with an island fort and two creeks forming a harbour, about 60 miles/90 km. north of Bombay. The large village of Kēlvē on the opposite bank of one creek is now incorporated with it in one municipality named Kēlvē-Māhīm, which distinguishes it from the suburb of Māhīm on Bombay island. The name is also spelt Mahīm and, in Bahmanī records, Mahāʾim. It was known to have been included in the possessions of the Dihlī sultanate in the mid-8th/14th century, from which it passed to the Gud̲j̲arāt sultanate, of which it became the southernmost port …

, the first of the Sadōzay rulers of Afg̲h̲ānistān and founder of the Durrānī empire, belonged to the Sadōzay section of the Popalzay clan of the Abdālī [ q.v.] tribe of Afg̲h̲āns. In the early 18th century the Abdālīs were to be found chiefly around Harāt. Under their leader Zamān Ḵh̲ān, the father of Aḥmad Ḵh̲ān, they resisted Persian attempts to take Harāt until, in 1728, they were forced to submit to Nādir S̲h̲āh. ¶ Some time later they rebelled under Ḏh̲u’l-Fiḳār Ḵh̲ān, the brother of Aḥmad Ḵh̲ān, but were once more defeated by the Persian r…

, b. S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam K̲h̲ān b. Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān b. S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn known as Kōt́ā Bābā... b. Bharēč K̲h̲ān... b. Ḳays ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd, the legendary ancestor of the Pat́hāns or Afg̲h̲āns, a ḥāfiẓ (memorizer) of the Ḳurʾān, was the head of an important ruling family of Rohilkhand during the 12th/18th century. Some of his ancestors had migrated from S̲h̲ōrābak in the Pis̲h̲in district of West Pakistan to Čač Hazāra where the family ultimately settled. He was born in 1120/1708 at Tor S̲h̲ahāmatpūr. a small little-known village in rōh ( i.e., a hilly country, a term loosely applied to the t…

, a Persian word for “leader” with various connotations (Pahl. pēs̲h̲ōpay ). As a title, it was used for one of the ministers of the Bahmanī sultans of the Dakhan and, more specifically, the hereditary ministers of the Marāt́hā kings of Satara [see marāt́hās ]. At first, the Pēs̲h̲wā was only the mukhya pradhān or “prime minister” of Śivād̲j̲ī’s Council of Eight, and this post was not hereditary up to 1125/1713, the year of the accession of Bālād̲j̲ī Visvanāth, when the Pēs̲h̲wā began to outstrip the other pradhāns and the Pratīnīdhī in importance. When the P…

, a town of northern India (lat. 29° 24′ N., long. 76° 58′ E.) situated 86 km/57 miles north of Dihlī; it is also the name of the southernmost taḥṣīl in the Karnāl District of what was in British Indian times the province of the Pand̲j̲āb [ q.v.] but has since 1947 been in the eastern or Indian part of the divided province of the former Pand̲j̲āb, at present in Haryana province of the Indian Union. On three occasions has the fate of Hindustān been decided on the plain of Pānīpat: in 1526, when Bābur ¶ [ q.v.], the Barlās Turk, defeated Ibrāhīm Lōdī [ q.v.]; in 1556, when Akbar [ q.v.] crushed the forces …

, the Marāt́hā corruption of the Arabic word d̲j̲azīra “island”, is the name of a former native state in the heart of the Konkan on the west coast of India. It actually owes its name to the fortified island of D̲j̲and̲j̲īra (lat. 17° 45′ N. and long. 73° 05′ E.), lying at the entrance of the Rajapuri creek, half a mile from the mainland on the west and 48 km. south of Bombay. The impregnable fort, which has an excellent command over the Arabian Sea, rose to prominence under the Niẓām S̲h̲āhī [ q.v.] rulers of Aḥmadnagar towards the end of the 9th/15th century when a Ḥabs̲h̲ī or Abyssini…

, ruler of the south Indian state of Mysore (Mahisūr [ q.v.]) from 1782 until his death in 1799, was probably born in 1760. His father, Ḥaydar ʿAlī K̲h̲ān Bahādur [ q.v.], was a military commander who in 1761 took control of Mysore from the descendants of the dynasty of Hindū rulers that had built up the state from early in the 17th century. Mysore under Ḥaydar ʿAlī and later under Tīpū was in constant contention with the Marāt́hās [ q.v.] and with those who claimed to exercise Mug̲h̲al authority in southern India, the Niẓāms of Ḥaydarābād [ q.v.] and the Nawwābs of Arcot [ q.v.] or the Carnatic, a…

, a city of northern India in the uppermost part of the Ganges-D̲j̲amnā Doʾāb (lat. 29° 57′ N., long. 77° 33′ E.), now in the extreme northwestern tip of the Uttar Pradesh State of the Indian Union. It was founded in ca. 740/1340, in the reign of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ [ q.v.] and was named after a local Muslim saint, S̲h̲āh Haran Čis̲h̲tī. The city and district suffered severely during the invasion of Tīmūr; in 932/1526 Bābur traversed them on his way to Pānīpat, and some local Mug̲h̲al colonies trace their origin to his followers. Muslim influe…