Muzaffarids (Gujarat)

The Muzaffarid dynasty was founded by Zafar Khan. He has been described to be of Indian origins by scholars. There have been various claims about their origin from medieval to modern historians.

According to medieval historians, he was son of Saharan who was a Muslim Kalal or wine seller. His aunt (sister of Saharan) married Firuz Shah Tughlaq after which they converted to Islam and rose to prominence.{{Cite book |last=Pawar |first=Kiran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2DaAAAAMAAJ&q=zafar+khan+kalal |title=Women in Indian History: Social, Economic, Political and Cultural Perspectives |date=1996 |publisher=Vision & Venture |isbn=978-81-86769-01-0 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Siddiqi |first=Iqtidar Husain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbTXAAAAMAAJ&q=zafar+khan+kalal |title=Islam and Muslims in South Asia: Historical Perspective |date=1987 |publisher=Adam Publishers & Distributors |language=en}} Medieval historians including Ibn Battuta and Ziauddin Barani wrote about his family belonging to Khumars or vinteners, known for wine selling.{{Cite book |last=Manglik |first=Mr Rohit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ck8zEQAAQBAJ&dq=zafar+khan+kalal&pg=RA4-PA26 |title=Urbanisation in India: [9789366894775] |date=2023-08-21 |publisher=EduGorilla Community Pvt. Ltd. |isbn=978-93-6689-477-5 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWtuAAAAMAAJ&q=zafar+khan+kalal |title=Medieval India: Researches in the History of India, 1200-1750 |date=1992 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en}} Later, other medieval historians described them with their Hindustani name Kalal.{{Cite book |last=History |first=Aligarh Muslim University Centre of Advanced Study in |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2fnuoRtzUIC&q=Kal%C4%81l+Medieval+India+I |title=Medieval India I: Essays in the History of India, 1200-1750 |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-564658-0 |language=en}} Historians like Kiran Pawar and Iqtidar Khan Siddiqi suggest their origin to be of Kalal tribe. Pawar credited their rise with high positions to the love affair turned marriage of Saharan's sister and Tughlaq.

Zafar Khan's father Saharan, has been variously described as a Chaudhary who was an agriculturist by profession of a caste lower in traditional hierarchy.{{Cite web |title=The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/752803447 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.worldcat.org |page=138 |language=en |quote=The two brothers were chaudharis of a rather numerous agrarian community, tilling the soil, not high in the caste hierarchy but not without strength in the neighborhood}} Other historians including Aparna Kapadia suggest that he might have been a Tank Rajput. Kapadia has described him to hail from Thanesar in modern-day Haryana.{{Cite book |last=Kapadia |first=Aparna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrxsDwAAQBAJ |title= In Praise of Kings Rajputs, Sultans and Poets in Fifteenth-century Gujarat |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2018 |isbn= 9781107153318 |pages=8|quote= These men, a certain Saharan and his brother Sadhu, were, mostly likely peasants or pastoralists, non-Muslim Tank Rajputs from Thanesar in northwestern India (modern-day Haryana).}} Meanwhile, historians like Andre Wink suggest Zafar Khan's origin to be of a Tānk Khatri*{{Cite book |last=Wink |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyYslywJUE8C&q=muzaffar+khan+tank+khatri&pg=PA143 |title=Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries |date=2003 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13561-1 |pages=143 |language=en |quote=Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of low subdivision called Tank.}}

• {{Cite book |last=Khan |first=Iqtidar Alam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzZFUcDpDzsC&q=muzaffar+shah+tank+khatri&pg=PA107 |title=Historical Dictionary of Medieval India |date=25 April 2008 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-5503-8 |pages=107 |language=en |quote=The founder of the Gujarat Sultanate he was a convert from a sect of Hindu Khatris known as Tanks.}}
• {{Cite book |last=Misra |first=S. C. (Satish Chandra) |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofmuslimpowe0000unse |title=The rise of Muslim power in Gujarat; a history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442 |date=1963 |publisher=New York, Asia Pub. House |others=Internet Archive |pages=137 |quote=Zafar Khan was not a foreign muslim. He was a convert to Islam from a sect of the Khatris known as Tank.}}
• {{Cite book |last=Khan |first=Iqtidar Alam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4PfAAAAMAAJ |title=Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-566526-0 |pages=57 |language=en |quote=Zafar Khan (entitled Muzaffar Shah) himself was a convert to Islam from a sub-caste of the Khatris known as Tank.}} from southern Punjab.{{Cite book |last=Wink |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyYslywJUE8C&q=gujarat+sultanate+tank+khatri&pg=PA143 |title=Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries |date=2003 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13561-1 |pages=143 |language=en |quote=Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of a low subdivision called the Tank, originally from Southern Punjab}} Some historians like V.K. Agnihotri and S.A.A. Rizvi describe him to be a Jat convert to Islam.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MazdaWXQFuQC&dq=Zafar+Khan%27s+father+Sadharan%2C+was+a+Jat+convert+to+Islam.&pg=RA1-PA131| pages=B-131| title=Indian History| last1=Agnihotri| first1=V.K| date=1988 | publisher=Allied Publishers| isbn=9788184245684 }}{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/TheWonderThatWasIndiaVol2SAARizvi/page/n113/mode/2up| pages=69| title=The Wonder That Was India| last1=Rizvi | first1=S.A.A| date=1987| publisher=Allied Publishers| quote=The independent kingdom of Gujarat was founded by Zafar Khan, son of Sadharan, a Jat convert to Islam. | isbn=9788184245684 }}

During the reign of Bahadur Shah, the Gujarat kingdom was described to be of Afghan origin.{{Cite book |last=Collier |first=Dirk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40ywDAAAQBAJ&q=kingdom+of+gujarat+afghan |title=The Great Mughals and their India |date=2016-03-01 |publisher=Hay House, Inc |isbn=978-93-84544-98-0 |language=en|quote=His next opponent was Sultan Bahadur Shah, the ambitious Afghan king of Gujarat. A relatively small but wealthy and increasingly powerful kingdom, which had by now become a place for many disgruntled Afghan warlords from all over Hindustan.}}{{Cite book |last=Ali |first=Kausar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoNDAAAAYAAJ&q=His+next+opponent+was+Sultan+Bahadur+Shah,+the+ambitious+Afghan+king+of+Gujarat. |title=A New History of Indo-Pakistan, Since 1526 |date=1977 |publisher=Aziz Publishers |language=en|quote=Bahadur Shah was another Afghan chief who had made himself an independent ruler of Malwa and Gujrat. He had given shelter to Alam Khan, the uncle of Ibrahim Lodi and was preparing to fight for the throne in his name.}}{{Cite book |last=Eraly |first=Abraham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04ellRQx4nMC |title=Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals |date=2000 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-100143-2 |language=en|page=23|quote=The Afghans, defeated but not crushed, remained in power in Bihar and Bengal ... Further south was the prosperous Afghan kingdom of Gujarat, a rallying ground for ambitious Afghans.}} Zafar Khan adopted the name Wajih-ul-Mulk. Wajih-ul-Mulk and his brother were influential Chaudharis who were agriculturists by profession but could also muster thousands of fighting men on their call.{{Cite web |title=The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.] {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/752803447 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.worldcat.org |page=138 |language=en |quote=The two brothers were chaudharis of a rather numerous agrarian community, tilling the soil, not high in the caste hierarchy but not without strength in the neighborhood}} His Hindu forebears claimed descent from Rāmachandra, who the Hindus worshipped as God. Such genealogies were fabricated to glorify royalty and were generally not accepted.{{Cite book |last=Chandra. |first=MISRA, Satish |url=https://worldcat.org/oclc/752803447 |title=The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat. A history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. [With a map.]. |date=1963 |publisher=London; Bombay printed |pages=137 |oclc=752803447}} When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. His grand son, Ahmed Shah I established the capital at Ahmedabad. The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572. The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.

{{Chart top|width=100%|collapsed=no|House of Muzaffar}}

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|A01=Muzaffar I
Shah
{{r.|1391|1403|
1404|1411}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

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{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | A01 | | | | | | | | | |

|A01=Muhammad I
Shah
{{r.|1403|1404}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

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|A01=Ahmad I
Shah
{{r.|1411|1442}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | |)|-|-|-|.| | | | | | |}}

{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | A01 | | A02 | | | | | |

|A01=Muhammad II
Shah
{{r.|1442|1451}}

|A02=Dawud
Shah
{{r.|1458|1458}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

|boxstyle_ A02 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

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{{Tree chart| | | | | | A01 | | A02 | | | | | | | | | |

|A01=Ahmad II
Shah
{{r.|1451|1458}}

|A02=Mahmud I
Shah
{{r.|1458|1511}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

|boxstyle_ A02 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | |}}

{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | A01 | | | | | | | | | |

|A01=Muzaffar II
Shah
{{r.|1511|1526}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

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{{Tree chart| | A01 | | A02 | | A03 | | A04 | | | | | |

|A01=Sikandar
Shah
{{r.|1526|1526}}

|A02=Mahmud II
Shah
{{r.|1526|1526}}

|A03=Bahadur
Shah
{{r.|1526|1535|
1536|1537}}

|A04=Latif
Khan

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{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | | A01 | | A02 | |

|A01=Mahmud III
Shah
{{r.|1537|1554}}

|A02=Ahmad III
Shah
{{r.|1554|1561}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

|boxstyle_ A02 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

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{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | | A01 | | | | | |

|A01=Muzaffar III
Shah
{{r.|1561|1573|
1583|1583}}

|boxstyle_ A01 =border-color:#FFD700

}}

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• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

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Category:Dynasties of India

Category:Gujarat Sultanate

Category:1583 disestablishments

Category:States and territories established in 1391

Category:Sunni dynasties