Malik Ambar

History glossary

Topic: Vijayanagara and the Deccan · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Malik Ambar (c. 1548–1626) was an Ethiopian-born former slave who became the peshwa (chief minister) and real ruler of the Ahmadnagar sultanate in the Deccan. He fought the Mughals for about 25 years with fast Maratha light cavalry, founded the town of Khadki (later Aurangabad) and reformed land revenue.

He matters because he delayed the Mughal conquest of the Deccan by a generation. He also trained the Marathas in the guerrilla warfare that Shivaji later used against the Mughals.

Explanation

Background: from slave to regent

  • Malik Ambar was born in Ethiopia (Abyssinia), probably around 1548. He was sold into slavery as a boy.
  • He was taken across the Arabian Sea and bought by Chengiz Khan, the peshwa of Ahmadnagar. Ahmadnagar was one of the five Deccan Sultanates that broke away from the Bahmani state between 1490 and 1518 [1].
  • In the Deccan, Africans like him were called Habshis (people from Abyssinia). Many of them rose as soldiers and nobles.
  • The Mughal attack opened his path to power:
  • Akbar's armies attacked Ahmadnagar. Chand Bibi defended the fort in 1595, and the Mughals captured it in 1600.
  • The ruling family and the court broke apart. Malik Ambar gathered troops in the countryside that was still free.
  • He put a member of the Nizam Shahi family on the throne as a puppet king (Murtaza Nizam Shah II) and ran the state himself as peshwa (regent).

Guerrilla warfare with Maratha cavalry

  • He could not beat the large Mughal army in open battle, so he used bargi-giri: hit-and-run raids by light cavalry.
  • His horsemen cut Mughal supply lines and attacked camps at night.

  • They then disappeared into the hills of the western Deccan.

  • Most of these horsemen were Marathas, often called bargirs (cavalrymen given horses and arms by the state).

  • Shahji Bhonsle, the father of Shivaji, served under him. So the Maratha method of war was learnt in Malik Ambar's service.
  • High point: at the Battle of Bhatvadi (1624) he defeated a joint force of the Mughals and Bijapur.
  • Mughal commanders sent against him included Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan and Prince Khurram (later Shah Jahan). They won back land at times, but never crushed him.

Administration and the city of Khadki

  • Land revenue reform, often compared with Todar Mal's system under Akbar:
  • Land was measured and sorted by quality. Revenue was fixed from this survey.
  • He ended revenue farming (letting middlemen bid for the right to collect tax). This cut cheating.

  • Revenue was fixed in cash or kind, and farmers were protected so that wasted villages could be settled again.

  • Khadki: he founded this town (c. 1610) as his capital, near the Daulatabad fort.

  • He built a water-supply system for it with underground channels.
  • It was later renamed Aurangabad, after Aurangzeb.

Result

  • Malik Ambar died in 1626, still undefeated. His son Fath Khan could not hold the state together.
  • Ahmadnagar was finally absorbed into the Mughal Empire under Shah Jahan in the 1630s.
  • His methods of guerrilla war and revenue survey were later used by the Marathas.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: late 16th to early 17th century. His career ran from the fall of Ahmadnagar fort (1600) to his death (1626). He fought against Akbar at first, but mainly against Jahangir.
  • Region: the western Deccan in today's Maharashtra. Key places are Ahmadnagar, Junnar, Daulatabad and Khadki/Aurangabad.
  • Dynasty: the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar, one of the five sultanates that came out of the Bahmani state [1].
  • Key people: Chengiz Khan (his first master), Murtaza Nizam Shah II (his puppet king), Shahji Bhonsle, Jahangir, Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, Prince Khurram, and Fath Khan (his son).
  • Evidence:
  • Mughal court records and Jahangir's memoir, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (the Jahangirnama). They speak of him with open hatred, which shows how much trouble he caused the Mughals.
  • Mughal painting: a well-known allegorical miniature by Abu'l Hasan shows Jahangir shooting arrows at Malik Ambar's head. It shows a victory Jahangir wished for but never won.
  • Deccani chronicles, and the water channels and buildings of Aurangabad that still survive.

Don't confuse with

  • Malik Kafur: the general of Alauddin Khalji (Delhi Sultanate, early 14th century) who raided the Deccan and the far south. Malik Ambar lived about 300 years later and defended the Deccan against Delhi's power (the Mughals).
  • Chand Bibi: the queen-regent who defended Ahmadnagar fort against Akbar (1595). She died before the fort fell in 1600. Malik Ambar rose after the fort fell.
  • Mahmud Gawan: the Persian-born minister of the Bahmani Sultanate in the 15th century. He is known for revenue reform and the madrasa at Bidar. Malik Ambar served Ahmadnagar, one of the states that came out of the Bahmani break-up.
  • Todar Mal: Akbar's finance minister, who built the Mughal zabt (measurement-based revenue) system. Malik Ambar's reform is only compared with Todar Mal's. He was never a Mughal officer and fought against the Mughals.

Prelims Hooks

  • Malik Ambar was an Ethiopian (Habshi) former slave who became peshwa/regent of Ahmadnagar (Nizam Shahi dynasty). He never took the title of king.
  • He founded Khadki, which was later renamed Aurangabad.
  • He used Maratha light cavalry in guerrilla warfare (bargi-giri). Shahji Bhonsle, Shivaji's father, served under him.
  • Battle of Bhatvadi (1624): Malik Ambar defeated the combined Mughal–Bijapur forces.
  • His land revenue reform (survey of land, no revenue farming) is compared with Todar Mal's system.
  • Trap: Ahmadnagar was one of the five Deccan Sultanates (Bijapur, Golconda, Berar, Ahmednagar, Bidar). It was not part of the Vijayanagara empire.

Mains Points

  • Why the Mughal conquest of the Deccan was slow. Malik Ambar showed that a smaller state could resist a huge empire.
  • Hit-and-run raids made the Mughals' large armies and heavy cavalry much less useful.
  • Hills, forts and local Maratha support favoured the defender.

  • So the conquest of Ahmadnagar dragged on from 1600 until Shah Jahan's reign.

  • A bridge to Maratha power. Maratha leaders such as Shahji Bhonsle learnt warfare and administration in Malik Ambar's service. Shivaji's guerrilla tactics and revenue survey grew out of this Deccani tradition. Write about it as continuity, not as a sudden new start.

  • A diverse Deccan society. An African former slave ruled a Persianate sultanate through Maratha soldiers and fought a Turko-Mongol empire. This shows that power in the Deccan depended on ability and alliances more than on birth or religion. It also supports the reading of Deccan wars as fights over land and revenue, not only over faith.

Related concepts

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Sources

  1. 1Bahmani sultanate | India, Map, & Historybritannica.com · tier 3