structural:scholar_edition
Bijapur Sultanate

Located in southwestern India, straddling the Western Ghats range of southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, the Bijapur Sultanate was ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty from 1490 to 1686. The founder of the dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah, may have been a Georgian slave who was purchased by Mahmud Gawan from Iran. The Adil Shahis were originally provincial governors of the Bahmani Sultanate; but with the break-up of the Bahmani state after 1518, Ismail Adil Shah established an independent sultanate. Ismail Adil Shah and his successors embellished the capital at Bijapur with numerous monuments.

Ibrahim Adil Shah I switched to a Deccani Muslim identity, and converted strongly to Sunni Islam, the religion of the Deccani Muslims. He deviated from the traditions of his predecessor and introduced many innovations in the political and religious policies, discontinuing previous Shia practices and restoring the exercise of the Sunni Islamic practices. He degraded most of the afaqi(foreign) faction (with a few exceptions), and in their place enrolled the Deccani Muslims to services. Consequently, he brought Sunni Muslims to power and ended Shia domination by dismissing them from their posts

The Adil Shahis fought the Vijayanagara Empire, which lay to the south, across the Tungabhadra River, but fought the other Deccan sultanates as well. However, four of the five sultanates combined forces to decisively defeat Vijayanagar at the Battle of Talikota in 1565, after which the empire broke up, Bijapur seizing control of the Raichur Doab. In 1619, the Adil Shahis conquered the neighbouring sultanate of Bidar, which was incorporated into their realm.

Later in the 17th century, the Marathas revolted successfully under Shivaji's leadership, captured major parts of the sultanate, and its capital, Bijapur. The weakened sultanate was conquered by Aurangzeb in 1686 with the fall of Bijapur, bringing the dynasty to an end.