The Muzaffarid dynasty, also called the Muzaffarids, and sometimes, the Ahmedabad dynasty, ruled the Sultanate of Gujarat in western India from 1391 to 1583. The founder of the dynasty was Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah I) who was governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate. 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.[1] The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572.[2] The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.[3]
Origins
Zafar Khan's father Shaharan, has been variously described as a Chaudhary[4] who was an agriculturist by profession, a Rajput[5][6] from Thanesar in modern-day Haryana,[7] a Tānk Khatri[8] from southern Punjab,[9] or even a Jat convert to Islam.[10][11] During the reign of Bahadur Shah, the Gujarat kingdom was described to be of Afghan origin.[12][13][14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17] The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572.[2] The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.[3]
Abbas, Saiyed Anwar (2 August 2021). Confluence of Cultures. Notion Press. ISBN978-1-63904-604-1. Saharan by name, men of wealth and consequence, who belonged to Tanka Tribe of Rajputana
Journal of Oriental Studies, Volume 39. 1989. p. 120. Wajih- al - Mulk was by birth a Hindu Rajput of Tanka
Edward James Rapson, Sir Wolseley Haig, Sir Richard Burn (1965). The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans, edited by W Haig, 1965. Cambridge. p. 294.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Mahajan, VD (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 245. ISBN9788121903646. Zafar Khan, a son of Rajput convert to Islam was appointed Governor of Gujarat in 1391AD
^Wink, André (2003). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN978-90-04-13561-1. 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
^Rizvi, S.A.A (1987). The Wonder That Was India. Allied Publishers. p. 69. ISBN9788184245684. The independent kingdom of Gujarat was founded by Zafar Khan, son of Sadharan, a Jat convert to Islam.
^Collier, Dirk (2016-03-01). The Great Mughals and their India. Hay House, Inc. ISBN978-93-84544-98-0. 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.
^Ali, Kausar (1977). A New History of Indo-Pakistan, Since 1526. Aziz Publishers. 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.
^The new Islamic dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys Series; Author:Clifford Edmund Bosworth ISBN0-7486-2137-7, ISBN978-0-7486-2137-8
