The smallest sultanate
The Barids were Bahmani ministers who took effective power at the capital while the nominal sultanate persisted, and ruled openly from 1527. Their territory was little more than Bidar and its district, wedged between Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda, and their history is largely one of shifting alliances to stay alive.
Bidar itself is architecturally rich beyond its political weight: the Bahmani fort, Mahmud Gawan's madrasa, the Bahmani and Barid Shahi tomb gardens, and the Barid Shahi tombs standing open to the sky in the manner of Persian garden burial.
Bidriware
The craft that carries the city's name developed under the Bahmanis and Barids: an alloy of zinc and copper, blackened with a paste made from the soil of the fort, and inlaid with silver or brass wire in arabesque and floral patterns. The contrast of matt black and bright silver is the technique's whole effect, and it has been made continuously at Bidar since.
Bijapur annexed the sultanate in 1619, and Bidar passed with it to the Mughals in 1686 and later to the Nizams of Hyderabad.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004
- Behrendt, Kurt A. The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.