_Shades of Sultans: The fascinating truth about Muslim rule in India

In writing the political history of Islam in India, historians and scholars often fall into the trap of extreme ideological convictions.

In 1397, following a coup that expelled a slave-turned-begum and her son from the halls of royal power, a sultan called Firoz Shah ascended the throne of the Bahmani kingdom in the Deccan. The Bahmanis were born from a rebellion of aristocrats and generals, who broke from the Tughluqs in Delhi and established their own regime in the south. Almost through lottery, one of them was installed as ruler, spawning a dynasty that survived two centuries, changing forever the character of the Indian subcontinent.