Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji by Manu S. Pillai

Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji by Manu S. Pillai
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author delves into a detailed history of the Deccan Sultnates. He starts with how the Dynasties ruling Delhi during the 13th and 14th century send their generals to capture the southern kingdoms and how these generals settled down and setup their own independent kingdoms.

The book outlines their rivalry and friendship with the other kingdoms like the Vijayanagara, the kingdom of Kalinga (modern day Odisha) and other smaller kingdoms. It covers how they started off as one kingdom, but soon split into several. Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmednagar were the main ones and they had inter Sultanate rivalry too. Most of the time the succession in these kingdoms where bloody with many losing either their sight or lives. The women too played a role in many of these successions. Chand Bibi being of the main woman who played a big role in these Sultanate.

The Sultanates derived their hegemony from either Iran or Iraq depending on whether Shia or Sunni was the flavour of the season.

Once the Mughals took over Delhi they started fighting an internecine battle with the Sultanates and by the time of Aurangazeb almost all of them were wiped out and the Marathas took over from them at the end of the era of Aurangazeb.

An interesting read. If one really wishes to digest the details, it will be better to keep a notebook and pen alongside and keep noting the key events. It will be rather difficult to keep all the intricacies in the head and still have a clear picture. It tends to become muddled.

A good read.

View all my reviews