Mahmud Gawan

Mahmud Gawan (1411, Iran - 1481) was a Prime Minister in the Bahamani Sultanate of Deccan. Khwaja Mahmud Gilani, from the village of Gawan in Persia, was well-versed in Islamic theology, Persian language and Mathematics and was a poet and a prose writer of repute. Later, he became a minister in the court of Muhammad Shah III (1463-1482). A storehouse of wisdom, Mahmud enjoyed the trust and confidence of rulers, locals as well as that of foreign kingdoms, who had great respect for Mahmud.

His characteristics are as follows: competent and successful general, capable administrator, learned man, patron of art and poetry

Career

He was very capable and efficient. Greatly impressed with his military genius, Sultan Humayun Shah had taken him in his service. After Humayun's death, he became the guardian of his minor prince Nizam Shah. He had the reigns of Government in his hands. When the young Sultan died in 1463 and his brother Muhammad III aged 9 succeeded him, Mahmud Gawan served as the prime minister. He effectively put an end to the havoc wrought on the pilgrims of Mecca and on merchants by the fleets of RaoRana Shankarrao Surve and RaoRana Neelkanthrao Surve Rajas of Khelna (Vishalgarh) and Sangameshwar which were part of Shringarpur jagir of Surve Maratha clan respectively. He captured Goa, the best part of Vijayanagar empire. In 1474, a terrible famine known as "famine of Bijapur" devastated the Deccan. Large number of people fled to Gujarat and Malwa. For 2 years the rains failed and when they came in the third year, scarcely any farmers remained in the country to cultivate the lands.

Campaigns against Vijayanagar

Mahmud Gawan served the state most faithfully and enlarged the kingdom to an extent never achieved before. He conquered Kanchi or Kanjeevaram during the course of campaign against Vijayanagar. He fought successful wars against ruler so Konkan, Sangameshwara, Orissa and Vijayanagar.

Mahmud Gawan Madrasa was built by Mahmud Gawan, the Vizier of the Bahmani Sultanate as the center of learning in the Deccan.

Education

He built the great university in Bidar which is known as Mahmud Gawan Madrasa. Almost at the centre of Bidar's Old Town stand the graceful buildings, which bear testimony to the genius and eclecticism of Mohammad Gawan. A linguist and a mathematician, he, together with carefully chosen scientists, philosophers and religious seers, created a distinguished religious school. His extensive library boasted of 3,000 manuscripts.[1]

This madarasa had a 242 ft length, 222 ft width and 56 ft height three-storied building with a monumental minaret, a mosque, labs, lecture halls and students' cells overlooks an immense courtyard with arches on every side giving it a graceful facade. Many of the blue tiles on the mosque's outer walls have been pilfered. The minaret is elegant with Samarkhand-like domes here and there.

Death

Unfortunately, plots were hatched to topple him; the nobles forged a treasonous document purportedly from him. In a drunken state the Sultan ordered him executed in April 1481. "With him departed all the cohesion and power of the Bahmani Sultan."[2]

Later the Sultan regretted his hasty decision and buried his Prime Minister with honours.

Legacy

A Russian traveller, Athanasius Nikitin, who visited Bidar, has recorded that Mohammad Gawan's mansion was guarded by a hundred armed men and ten torchbearers.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Deccan dreams". Business Line. 23 September 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Sen, Sailendra (2013). A Textbook of Medieval Indian History. Primus Books. pp. 106–108. ISBN 978-9-38060-734-4.
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