Malik Ambar

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Malik Ambar, miniature from the 17th century.
Chand Bibi, regent of Ahmednagar, on the hawk hunt, painting from the 18th century.
Malik Ambar's mausoleum in Khuldabad

Malik Ambar (* 1549 in the Sultanate of Adal east of Harar , Ethiopia ; † 1626 ) was Peshwa (First Minister) of Ahmadnagar , a sultanate in what is now the state of Maharashtra in India . He had two sons, Fatteh Khan and Changiz Khan. Fatteh Khan succeeded his father as regent of Ahmadnagar.

Life

As a child, Chapu, as he was originally called, was sold into slavery by his parents out of necessity . Via Yemen , Damascus and Mecca he reached India with Arab slave traders , where in 1570 he came into possession of Chengiz Khan, the first minister of Ahmadnagar . Chengiz Khan, himself a native Ethiopian ( called Siddi or Habshi in India ), became Malik Ambar's teacher. After Chengiz Khan's death, he was released by his widow.

Malik Ambar managed to set up a small, independent force of 1,500 men who offered themselves to local rulers as mercenaries in the Deccan . He supported the regent Chand Bibi in the defense of Ahmadnagar against attacks by the Mughals .

After all, he served the Nizam Shahi dynasty in the Sultanate of Ahmednagar with great success as First Minister and in this role demonstrated his diverse political and administrative skills. As a military leader, he also succeeded in using guerrilla tactics that he had developed and successfully employed to limit the power of the dominant Mughals and the rival state of Bijapur, and thus postpone the decline of the Nizam from the Ahmadnagar. He was a military genius and repeatedly stood up to both the powerful north Indian mogul Akbar I and his son Jahangir . His right hand was the Marath leader Maloji, a grandfather of the greatest prince of the Marathas Shivaji . Another military leader at his side was Shahji Bhonsle, who trained the Marathen mobile units. Malik Ambar supported Shah Jahan , a grandson of Akbar, in asserting himself against his ambitious stepmother Nur Jahan in Delhi .

Malik Ambar founded the city of Khirki, later renamed Aurangabad . He named the districts of Khirki after great maratha leaders such as Malpura, Khelpura, Vithapura, Mariuseva etc. He laid out an ingenious irrigation system and he was a successful administrator. Malik Ambar was also successful at sea, appointed one of his numerous Ethiopian followers as admiral and thus established the rule of the Nawab -Siddis in the coastal state of Murud- Janjira . He had early contact with the British, who - unsuccessfully - showed a keen interest in doing business from Janjira.

He is worshiped by the Siddi , the (descendants of) Ethiopians living in India. A poet compared him to Bilal al-Habaschi , who - black African like Malik Ambar - was the companion and source of inspiration of the Prophet Mohammed . The poet wrote:

Long ago there lived Bilal, servant of the holy messenger of God,
It took a thousand years for Malik Ambar to come.

literature

  • Richard Pankhurst: The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century . Asmara: Red Sea Press 1997, p. 432 ff.
  • Radhey Shyam: Life and Time of Malik Ambar . Delhi: Manoharlal 1968
  • Shanti Sadiq Ali: The African Dispersal in the Deccan. From Medieval to Modern Times. New Delhi: Orient Longman 1996.
  • Richard M. Eaton: Malik Ambar (1548-1626): The Rise and Fall of Military Slavery. In: Richard M. Eaton: A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761. Eight Indian Lives . Cambridge: CUP 2005 (The New Cambridge History of India I, 8). Pp. 105-128
  • Omar H. Ali: Malik Ambar. Power and Slavery Across the Indian Ocean . Oxford: OUP 2016

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eaton, Deccan, p. 105
personal data
SURNAME Ambar, Malik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian Peshwa (Prime Minister)
DATE OF BIRTH 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Harar , Ethiopia
DATE OF DEATH 1626