It was in the 1564 A.D. that the four sultans started hatching conspiracy against the Vijayanagar kingdom and the Battle of Talikota followed in 1565 A.D. The victory was not easy for the Muslim warriors but at last after a fierce battle the Vijayanagar territory was annexed to the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golkonda. Adil Shah was assassinated in the 1597 A.D. and the throne was passed on to Ibrahim Adil Shah II, who being a minor was looked by his mother Chand Bibi while the other ministers ruled the kingdom. At last the Adil Shahi dynasty collapsed like a house of cards in 1626 A.D. when Ibrahim Adil Shah was killed in a battle between Bijapur and Ahmednagar and the empire was annexed by the Mughal monarch Aurangzeb. The Adil Shahi dynasty made a significant contribution to the arena of art and architecture, language, literature and music. The architectural grandeur of the age can be observed in the unfinished Jama Masjid which started in 1565 A.D. and has an arcaded prayer hall with fine aisles supported on massive piers and also has an impressive dome. The Dakhani language, which was an amalgamation of four languages including Gujarati, Persian-Arabic, Kannada and Marathi, developed into an independent spoken and literary language. During the reign of this dynasty many scholars, musicians, artists and Sufi saints flocked to India from far away lands like Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Turkistan and others. The religious tolerance of the monarchs of the Adil Shahi dynasty was also remarkable. The Adil Shahi kings were tolerant towards the Hindus and did not interfere in the matters of their religion. They also appointed Hindus to higher designations, especially in the field of administration and accounts which were maintained in the Marathi scriptures. The most famous among the officials of the Adil Shahi dynasty was the father of Shivaji, Shahaji. The book of the famous historian Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, Gulshane-Ibrahimi provides a detailed account of the Bahmani sultanate and the contemporary kingdoms of Adil Shahis. |