Shihab-ud-Din Mahmud, also known as Mahmud Shah and Shihab-Ud-Din Mahmud, the twelve-year-old son of Muhammad Shah III, succeeds to the sultanate of Bahmani in 1482.

A regency council is formed with hai mother the Queen as president.

Under Mahmud, sectarian rivals begin to tear apart the large sultanate, as Shiites from Afgnanistan and Persia, relative newcomers in his administration, operate at cross-purposes to the established Turkish nobles of the essentially Sunni sultanate.

The long reign of Mahmud Shah will see a period of gradual weakening of the state.

The King is highly self-indulgent, spending so lavishly that he has to extract many jewels from the Turquoise throne at the instigation of councilor Qasim Barid, who compels Mahmud to make him Prime Minister of the kingdom.

The sultan’s orders begin to be ignored; military missions, ineffective to begin with, eventually cease; and, in 1490, dissident nobles and provincial governors in the regions of Bijapur, Berar, and Ahmadnagar become semi-independent.