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Alauddin Husain Shah
Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (Bengali: আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ; Persian: علاء الدین حسین شاه; r. 1494–1519) was an independent late medieval Sultan of the Bengal Sultanate, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal after assassinating the Abyssinian Sultan, Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah, whom he had served under as wazir. After his death in 1519, the oldest surviving of his sons Nusrat Shah succeeded him. Alauddin Husain Shah is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in Bengali history, and the reigns of Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal Sultanate.
The origin of the dynasty is not very clear and there are multiple accounts of where it may have originated. However it is widely recognised that the dynasty's founder, Alauddin Husain Shah, was of ultimately Sayyid Arab origin.
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's writings make mention of a manuscript found in the former Bengali capital Pandua which labels Husain as a native of a village named Devnagar in Rangpur who seized an opportunity to redeem the throne of Bengal that his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, had held seventy years prior. There are local traditions in Rangpur which claim that he was indeed a native of that area. It is said that it was Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah who had ousted his grandfather Sultan Ibrahim, and as a result, Husain's father and family migrated to Kamata. Buchanan-Hamilton's manuscript is unnamed, and Momtazur Rahman Tarafdar considers the manuscript to have confused Husain Shah of Bengal with Husayn Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur, whose grandfather was Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, a contemporary of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Tarafdar, whose work is written in 1965, makes note that there was no Sultan of Bengal in that period by the name of Ibrahim. However, in the 1990s, coins of a Sultan of Bengal by the name of Nasiruddin Ibrahim Shah (r. 1415/16 – 1416/17) were discovered in Beanibazar, Sylhet which has opened discussion regarding this manuscript once again.
Nitish Sengupta asserts that Husain's mother was a Bengali, stating the following
Ala-ud-din Hussain Shah who ruled Gaur between 1493 and 1519 must be given the credit of being the first Bengalee ruler of Gaur. While there are many theories about his origin, he was clearly born of a Bengalee mother and was the first ruler of Gaur who gave encouragement to the newly growing Bengali language. He showed no discrimination between his Hindu and Muslim subjects and fought several wars with neighboring kings in order to consolidate the unclear frontiers of what was eventually to become Bengal.
On the other hand, the Riyaz-us-Salatin mentions Husain's father Sayyid Ashraf Al-Husaini later inhabiting Termez (in Turkestan) for a long period before settling in the Chandpur mouza of Rarh (western Bengal). Husain and his elder brother, Yusuf, spent their childhood studying under the local Qadi, who later married his daughter to Husain due to his noble background. Chandpur is often equated to the village of Chandpara in Murshidabad district, where a number of inscriptions can be founded during the early part of Husain's reign. Husain had also constructed the Kherur Mosque in Chandpara in the first year of his reign in 1494. A lake in this village, called Shaikher Dighi, is also associated with Husain. Krishnadasa Kaviraja, who was born during Husain's reign, claims that the latter worked for Subuddhi Rai, a revenue officer in the erstwhile Bengal's capital Gaur, and was severely whipped during the excavation of a lake. Local traditions in Murshidabad also claim that Husain was the rakhal (cow-keeper) for a Brahmin in Chandpara.
Considering the reference to his employment under Subuddhi Rai, historian Abdul Karim suggests that Husain had a gradual rise in Bengal's government, prior to being appointed wazir under Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah. He further offers that Husain had been following in the footsteps of his father, Sayyid Ashraf, who Karim tentatively identifies as being the officers Khan Mu'azzam Ashraf Khan and Sayyid A'zam Sayyid Dastur, mentioned in the inscriptions of the last Ilyas Shahi sultans Ruknuddin Barbak Shah and Jalaluddin Fateh Shah respectively. Karim continues that Sayyid Ashraf had been involved in the ascension of the latter, for which he was appointed wazir and acknowledged on the coinage. Karim further suggests that Husain himself may have also taken part in this regime change.
16th-century Portuguese explorer João de Barros mentions the story of a noble Arab merchant from Aden arriving in Chittagong with an army to aid the Sultan of Bengal in conquering Orissa. This merchant later killed the Sultan, thus becoming ruler of Bengal, and according to Heinrich Blochmann, Barros' narrative is in reference to Husain Shah.
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Alauddin Husain Shah
Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (Bengali: আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ; Persian: علاء الدین حسین شاه; r. 1494–1519) was an independent late medieval Sultan of the Bengal Sultanate, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal after assassinating the Abyssinian Sultan, Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah, whom he had served under as wazir. After his death in 1519, the oldest surviving of his sons Nusrat Shah succeeded him. Alauddin Husain Shah is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in Bengali history, and the reigns of Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal Sultanate.
The origin of the dynasty is not very clear and there are multiple accounts of where it may have originated. However it is widely recognised that the dynasty's founder, Alauddin Husain Shah, was of ultimately Sayyid Arab origin.
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's writings make mention of a manuscript found in the former Bengali capital Pandua which labels Husain as a native of a village named Devnagar in Rangpur who seized an opportunity to redeem the throne of Bengal that his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, had held seventy years prior. There are local traditions in Rangpur which claim that he was indeed a native of that area. It is said that it was Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah who had ousted his grandfather Sultan Ibrahim, and as a result, Husain's father and family migrated to Kamata. Buchanan-Hamilton's manuscript is unnamed, and Momtazur Rahman Tarafdar considers the manuscript to have confused Husain Shah of Bengal with Husayn Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur, whose grandfather was Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, a contemporary of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Tarafdar, whose work is written in 1965, makes note that there was no Sultan of Bengal in that period by the name of Ibrahim. However, in the 1990s, coins of a Sultan of Bengal by the name of Nasiruddin Ibrahim Shah (r. 1415/16 – 1416/17) were discovered in Beanibazar, Sylhet which has opened discussion regarding this manuscript once again.
Nitish Sengupta asserts that Husain's mother was a Bengali, stating the following
Ala-ud-din Hussain Shah who ruled Gaur between 1493 and 1519 must be given the credit of being the first Bengalee ruler of Gaur. While there are many theories about his origin, he was clearly born of a Bengalee mother and was the first ruler of Gaur who gave encouragement to the newly growing Bengali language. He showed no discrimination between his Hindu and Muslim subjects and fought several wars with neighboring kings in order to consolidate the unclear frontiers of what was eventually to become Bengal.
On the other hand, the Riyaz-us-Salatin mentions Husain's father Sayyid Ashraf Al-Husaini later inhabiting Termez (in Turkestan) for a long period before settling in the Chandpur mouza of Rarh (western Bengal). Husain and his elder brother, Yusuf, spent their childhood studying under the local Qadi, who later married his daughter to Husain due to his noble background. Chandpur is often equated to the village of Chandpara in Murshidabad district, where a number of inscriptions can be founded during the early part of Husain's reign. Husain had also constructed the Kherur Mosque in Chandpara in the first year of his reign in 1494. A lake in this village, called Shaikher Dighi, is also associated with Husain. Krishnadasa Kaviraja, who was born during Husain's reign, claims that the latter worked for Subuddhi Rai, a revenue officer in the erstwhile Bengal's capital Gaur, and was severely whipped during the excavation of a lake. Local traditions in Murshidabad also claim that Husain was the rakhal (cow-keeper) for a Brahmin in Chandpara.
Considering the reference to his employment under Subuddhi Rai, historian Abdul Karim suggests that Husain had a gradual rise in Bengal's government, prior to being appointed wazir under Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah. He further offers that Husain had been following in the footsteps of his father, Sayyid Ashraf, who Karim tentatively identifies as being the officers Khan Mu'azzam Ashraf Khan and Sayyid A'zam Sayyid Dastur, mentioned in the inscriptions of the last Ilyas Shahi sultans Ruknuddin Barbak Shah and Jalaluddin Fateh Shah respectively. Karim continues that Sayyid Ashraf had been involved in the ascension of the latter, for which he was appointed wazir and acknowledged on the coinage. Karim further suggests that Husain himself may have also taken part in this regime change.
16th-century Portuguese explorer João de Barros mentions the story of a noble Arab merchant from Aden arriving in Chittagong with an army to aid the Sultan of Bengal in conquering Orissa. This merchant later killed the Sultan, thus becoming ruler of Bengal, and according to Heinrich Blochmann, Barros' narrative is in reference to Husain Shah.