Bijapur Karnataka India

...Bijapur to soundly defeat the aggressors.

Bijapur, ruled by the 'Adil Shahi Dynasty since 1489 and engaged in constant warring, forms a coalition with the three other Muslim Deccan states— ...

The Adil Shahi dynasty of the Bijapur Sultanate begins its  greatest period in 1579 with the reign of Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, who will prove to be a skillful administrator and a generous patron of the arts.

He will revert to the Sunnite form of Islam but remain tolerant of other religions, including Christianity.

Deccani painting, a style of miniature painting that flourishes among the Deccani sultanates, is a sensitive, highly integrated blend of indigenous and foreign art forms.

The elongated figures are seemingly related to Vijayanagar wall paintings, while the floral-sprigged backgrounds, high horizons, and general use of landscape show Persian influence.

Deccani colors are rich and luminous, and much use is made of gold and white.

The earliest dated manuscript, the Nujum-ul-'ulum of 1570 (“The Stars of the Sciences”; now in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin), appears to be a product of Bijapur, which continues to be one of the principal centers of the style.

Here, painting, as well as the other arts, is greatly stimulated by the patronage of Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, who is passionately fond of music and the arts and of whom several splendid contemporary portraits exist.

Other important Deccan centers are ...

Bijapur had been unable to take full advantage of the opportunities for expansion to the south during the 1570s because of factional disputes among the nobles, as well as Golconda's interests in the areas controlled by Vijayanagar.

Ahmadnagar had thus managed to retain a slightly superior position.

The tide had began to turn in the 1580s, however, with the establishment of a stable regency at Bijapur, fortified by a series of marriage alliances with other royal lines in the Deccan and ...

Akbar had been trying to cajole Sambhaji into joining him and the Rajputs (Hindus) against Agra.

Aurangzeb and the court had therefore come to the Deccan in 1681, living in a vast tent city thirty miles in circumference while Aurangzeb acted as his own commander-in-chief.

Aurangzeb was initially successful, but not against the Marathas, who raid from their forts.

Instead, he has attempted to cut off the Hindu Marathas from Muslim Bijapur and Golconda, which are, as a result of earlier Mughal offensives, similarly predisposed against Aurangzeb.

With the objective of conquering the Marathas outright, he targets the two principal successor states to the Muslim sultanate of Bahmani in the Deccan, seizing the dying Sunnite sultanate of Bijapur in 1686.