Bengal’s diverse population shows that we are made up of complex racial mixtures, which, no doubt, are the results of centuries of intermixing. There are all shades of darker and lighter skinned people, and the variety of facial features, heights and hair types suggest that over a long period people came to Bengal from many parts of the world and inter-married, producing the variety of looks that make up the Bengali population today.

One such group that came to Bengal were Ethiopians from Africa. Very little is known about their history in Bengal and only a few people, mainly in academia, know that Bengal was once ruled by African sultans, who locally became known as Habshis, and the period as the Habshi rule of Bengal. At that time the capital of the Bengal Sultanate was Gaur, most of which is situated in the Malda district of present-day West Bengal in India. A small section of the nineteen miles-long city stands in Rajshahi in Bangladesh.  

During 1487-1494, the Bengal Sultanate was ruled by a series of four sultans who were from a Habshi background. Many books and articles describe the short-lived rule, just over six years in total, as the Habshi Dynasty, in the same manner that say, the Ilyas Shahi Dynasty or the Hussain Shahi Dynasty is described. But there was no such a thing as the Habshi Dynasty, even though these four rulers were from a Habshi background. This is because there was no Habshi dynasty established. Each of the rulers was a different individual, except for the third sultan who might have been the son of the second sultan, or not even from a Habshi background in the first place.

The period of the Habshi rule of Bengal (1487-94) was preceded and followed by what has been described as the restored Ilyas Shahi Dynasty (1433-59) and the Hussain Shahi Dynasty (1495-1538) respectively. Historians have written much about both of these two dynasties and the periods involved but hardly anything of interest has been written on the Habshi period. As a consequence, most people, even in Bengal, do not even know that there were African rulers of Bengal. 

Bengal was the only place in the Indian subcontinent that saw a large territory under the rule of four Habshi sultans. Although Malik Ambar, the most famous Habshi commander in India, who was active in the Deccan a century later defeating Moghul Armies was never a formal ruler, at times he was the de facto ruler exercising power from behind the formal sultan. In Bengal, in contrast, Ethiopian sultans actually ruled the Sultanate, which had vast territories under its control. 

The Habshi rule was established by one of the palace eunuchs, called Shehzada Barbak Shah (1487/8). This also permanently ended the rule of the Ilyas Shahis, the longest-serving dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate. This fact should itself make the studying of the Hasbhi rule of Bengal a very important topic for research. 

The main primary sources of information on the Habshi rule of Bengal consist of two books. One called Tarikh-i Firishta, written by Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (Ferishta) during the first decade of the 17th Century, more than one hundred years after the Habshi rule had ended. The second, called Ryiazuddin-s-Salatin (A History of Bengal) was written by Ghulam Husain Salim, in around 1778, nearly three hundred years after the episode. Coins, inscriptions and accounts of foreign visitors add details and evidence of dates, names and extent of territories under each of the sultan’s rule.

Most of the writings on the ‘Habshi rule of Bengal’ (1487-94) are very generalised and brief. They narrate the story of how a Habshi eunuch called Khawajesara, who called himself Sultan Shahzeda Barbak Shah, after killing the last Ilyas Shahi ruler, Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, in 1487, usurped power to become a very short-lived sultan. However, within a matter of a few months, he was said to have been killed and deposed by Malik Andil, the loyal Habshi commander of Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, the last ruler of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty. Malik Andil then became the new ruler in the same year and called himself Sultan Saifuddin Firuz Shah.

Image 01- Firoz Minar from ‘Gaur: Its Ruins and Inscriptions by John Henry Ravenshaw.

Most narratives state that Malik Andil was reluctant to take power after he had killed Sultan Shahzada Barbak Shah. For him, his action to depose the eunuch sultan was only to avenge the killing of his master, Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, and restore the throne to its rightful owner, the young son of the murdered sultan. However, the dowager queen, the wife of the murdered Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, did not want her son, being just two years old, to become the new sultan and the sultanate ruled by a regent until the infant sultan reached maturity. Instead, she requested Malik Andil to take the position as she had promised to God that she would make whoever killed the usurper, Sultan Shahzada Barbak Shah, the new sultan. The dowager queen’s position was supported by the nobles. As Malik Andil had a good reputation and was highly regarded by most at the court, he accepted the request.

Malik Andil became the new sultan in 1487 and called himself Sultan Saifuddin Firuz Shah. Although the composition of the nobles at court have not been researched, it is highly likely that many individuals of Ethiopian origin were an important part of the Gaur nobility of the time and enjoyed powerful positions of influence in the military, politics and society.

The rule of Sultan Saifuddin Firuz Shah lasted for just over two years, and there exist controversies regarding how his life ended in 1490 – whether he died from natural causes or was killed by a rival. Regardless, he has been painted mostly positively by historians as being a good and just king who brought stability to the country, although some of his contemporaries were worried that he would bankrupt the treasury through his public works programme and excessive concerns for the poor. 

After he died or was killed in 1490, a young child was enthroned, named Sultan Qutubuddin Mahmud Shah. This new sultan did not enjoy the position for long as he was killed and deposed within a year of his enthronement by another Habshi named Sidi Badr Diwana, who then established himself on the throne as Sultan Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah in 1490. Sidi Badr Diwana first murdered Habash Khan, the prime minister and the regent protector of Sultan Qutubuddin Mahmud Shah, before moving shortly afterwards to kill the young sultan.

In contrast to the rule of Sultan Saifuddin Firuz Shah, who was considered a wise and benevolent ruler, Sultan Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah has been depicted as the opposite. He was said to have been unwise and cruel, eliminating potential rivals, increasing taxation and foolishly reducing the pay of the army. These actions led his Prime Minister, Hussain Sharif to switch sides and work with dissatisfied nobles and rivals both at court and outside to organise a rebellion. The rebels successfully killed Sultan Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah in 1494, which ended the brief ‘Habshi rule of Bengal’. After that, the Hussain Shahi dynasty was established by Hussain Sharif, which ruled the Sultanate for several generations until it was ended with the victory of the Afghan Sher Shah over the last Hussain Shahi ruler, Ghyasuddin Mahmud Shah, in 1538.

Muhammad Ahmedullah has lived in the UK since 1973 when he arrived there as a child from Bangladesh. He completed his early education in Newham, East London, further education in Hendon, North West London and higher education at the universities of Essex and Kent, from the latter gaining a PhD in 1998 on the relationship between theory of knowledge and political theory. Most of his career involved working for local councils in central government’s inner city regeneration programmes during 1990 and 2010. Since 2011, he has worked for several non-government organisations delivering projects on history and community cohesion. He also provides a fundraising service for small community and voluntary organisations. He is a founder member of Brick Lane Circle that runs a variety of projects and activities, one of which is the annual Bengal History Week. His personal blog website is www.imbuenomad.com, where he also writes a regular blog.  

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