Ahmad Shah I

Ahmad Shah I, born Ahmad Khan, was a ruler of the Muzaffarid dynasty, who reigned over the Gujarat Sultanate from 1411 until his death in 1442. He founded Ahmedabad city in 1411.

Quotes

• Sultan Ahmad Shah feasted for three days whenever the number of defenseless Hindus slain in his territories in one day reached twenty thousand.
  • Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Book I, Our Oriental Heritage (1935) VI. THE MOSLEM CONQUEST

• “Ahmud Shah having a great curiosity to see the hill-fort of Girnal pursued the rebel in that direction… After a short time, the Raja, having consented to pay an annual tribute, made a large offering on the spot. Ahmud Shah left officers to collect the stipulated amount, and returned to Ahmadabad; on the road to which place he destroyed the temple of Somapoor, wherein were found many valuable jewels, and other property.”
  • Sompur (Gujrat). Tãrîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol I, p.10

• “In the year AH 817 (AD 1414), Mullik Tohfa, one of the Officers of the King’s government was ennobled by the title of Taj-ool-Moolk, and received a special commission to destroy all idolatrous temples, and establish the Mahomedan authority throughout Guzerat; a duty which he executed with such diligence, that the names of Mawass and Girass were hereafter unheard of in the whole kingdom.”
  • General order. Tãrîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol I, p.10

• “In the year AH 819 (AD 1416), Ahmud Shah marched against Nagoor, on the road to which place he plundered the country, and destroyed the temples…”
  • On way to Nagaur (Rajasthan).Tãrîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol I, p.10-11

• “…In the year 832 he marched again to Idur; and on the sixth of Suffur, AH 832 (AD Nov. 14, 1428) carried by storm one of the principal forts in that province, wherein he built a magnificent mosque…”
  • Idar (Gujarat).Tãrîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol I, p.16

• “In the year 817, eight hundred and seventeen Hijri, he resolved to march with intent of jihad against the unbelievers of Girnar, a famous fort in Sorath. Raja Mandalik fought with him but was defeated and took refuge in the fort. It is narrated that even though that land (region) this time did not get complete brightness form the lamp of Islam, yet the Sultan subdued the fort of Junagadh situated near the foot of Girnar mountain. Most of the Zamindars of Sorath became submissive and obedient to him and agreed to pay tribute. After that, he demolished the temple of Sayyedpur in the month of Jamadi I of the year 818, eight hundred and eighteen Hijri… In the year 823, eight hundred and twenty-three Hijri, he attended to the establishment of administrative control over his dominion. He suppressed refractoriness wherever it was found. He demolished temples and constructed masjids in their places…”364
  • Sidhpur (Gujarat) Mir’at-i-Ahmadî, Mirat-i-Ahmdi, translated into English by M.F. Lokhandwala, Baroda, 1965, pp. 37-38.

• The reign of Ahmad I, which did much to consolidate the new Sultanate, lasted thirty-three years, much of which was occupied in warfare against neighbouring Rajput princes and his Muslim neighbours of Malwa, Khandesh, and the northern Deccan. In the year of his accession he had founded the capital city which still bears his name, Ahmadabad, on the left bank of the Sabarmati, with a citadel and spacious streets. He soon moved against Junagadh, compelling the payment of tribute, and from this time extended the power of the Sultanate into the central region of Saurashtra as well as the coastal lands already in Sultanate control; he also exacted tribute from the Hindu raja of Champaner. The Hindu state of Idar was a source of perpetual trouble, and Ahmad built the city of Anmadnagar (renamed Himatnagar in the twentieth century) some thirty kilometres south of Idar as a base of operations. Idar submitted on the death of the raja, although intermittent warfare with Gujarat continued for several generations thereafter. The Bahmani sultan sent a force to capture the then island of Mahim (now a part of Bombay) which was under Gujarat suzerainty in 1431, but Ahmad’s generals forced the capitulation of Thana, the Bahmanis’ most important town of the northern Konkan coast, and then recovered Mahim from the invader. In his last major campaign against his Hindu neighbours, in 1432-38, he overcame the ruler of Pavagadh and Champaner, sacked Nandod, and even forced tribute from the rulers of the distant Dungarpur, Kota and Bundi. He died in 1442 after a reign devoted to consolidating Islam in his dominions by relentless iconoclasm and oppression of the Hindus. His justice was strict but impartial, and he was known for his piety and as a disciple of two great religious teachers, Shaikh Ahmad Khattu of Sarkhej and Burhanuddin Qutb-i Alam of Vatva.
  • George Michell and Snehal Shah - Ahmadabad-Marg Publications (1988), also partially quoted in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.

• “Sultãn Ahmad… encamped near Chãmpãner on 7 Rabî-us-Sãni, AH 822 (AD 3 May, 1419). He destroyed temples wherever he found them and returned to Ahmadãbãd.”
  • Sultãn Ahmad Shãh I of Gujarat (AD 1411-1443) Champaner (Gujarat)
  • Tabqãt-i-Akharî by Nizamuddin Ahmad.

• Thereafter in AH 823 (AD 1420-21) he proceeded to different parts of his Kingdom for establishing order and good government… He got temples demolished and palaces and mosques constructed in their stead…
  • Sultãn Ahmad Shãh I of Gujarat (AD 1411-1443) General Order Mir‘ãt-i-Sikandarî in S.A.A. Rizvi in Uttara Taimûr Kãlîna Bhãrata, Aligarh, 1959, Vol. II, p. 273 , in Hindu Temples, vol 2