Home›Dynasties of the Deccan›Bidar Barid Shahi (1489–1619)
The Barid Shahis emerged from a Bahmani prime-ministership and ruled from the fortress city of Bidar after the central court collapsed. Though smaller than their neighbours, they produced one of the most distinctive art forms of the Deccan, and the lobed tombs of their sultans remain among the finest examples of Deccan funerary architecture.
From vizier to sultan
Qasim Barid I rules in the failing Bahmani sultan's name until his line assumes sovereignty
The dynasty was founded in 1489 by Qasim Barid I, a noble of Turkic origin who served as amir al-umara, the chief minister, to the failing Bahmani sultans at Bidar. As the Bahmani sultanate crumbled around him, Qasim and his successors ruled in the sultan's name until at last they assumed sovereignty in their own right. They took Bidar itself as their capital — the same fortress city the Bahmanis had built up in the previous century — and governed a compact but central kingdom for 130 years.
The diplomacy of survival
A compact kingdom pivotal between Bijapur and Golconda, held together by marriage and alliance
Eight Barid sultans followed Qasim Barid I across the line of the dynasty, ending with Amir Barid III. Bidar was small in territory compared to its neighbours, but its location made it strategically pivotal between the Adil Shahis to the west and the Qutb Shahis to the east — and the Barids became expert at the diplomacy of survival, marrying their daughters into neighbouring royal houses to maintain delicate alliances for over a century.
Bidriware: masters of metal
A blackened alloy inlaid with silver that survives nowhere on earth but Bidar
The most enduring inheritance of the Barid Shahis is Bidriware — a blackened zinc-and-copper alloy inlaid with silver and brass, still made by hereditary artisans in the lanes of Bidar after five centuries. The craft requires the local soil of Bidar fort to blacken the metal during finishing, and so survives nowhere else in the world. Vessels, hookahs and ornaments in Bidriware travelled from the Barid court across Asia and into the cabinets of Europe.
A city of saints
The shrines and madrasa that kept Bidar a centre of Dakhni intellectual life
Their court was a nexus of Sufi scholarship under the chain of the Chishti and Qadiri orders, and Bidar remained a centre of Dakhni intellectual life throughout their rule. The shrine of Khwaja Bandanawaz at nearby Gulbarga and the Madrasa of Mahmud Gawan at Bidar continued to draw seekers from Khorasan and the Arab world. Bidar in this period was as much a city of saints as of sultans.
Absorbed into Bijapur
The last sultan surrenders Bidar to Ibrahim Adil Shah II
The Barid Shahis maintained their position by playing their stronger neighbours against each other, but in 1619 they were finally absorbed into the Adil Shahi kingdom of Bijapur. The last sultan, Amir Barid III, surrendered Bidar to Ibrahim Adil Shah II, and the kingdom passed into Adil Shahi sovereignty.
The unspoiled city of the Deccan
The lobed tombs, the living craft, and one of the great architectural cities of the south
The lobed tombs of the Barid sultans on Bidar's eastern plain are among the finest examples of Deccan funerary architecture, with their distinctive bulbous domes and chajja eaves. Bidriware survives as a living craft. And Bidar itself — the seat of the Bahmanis and then the Barids — remains one of the great unspoiled architectural cities of the Deccan.
The Barid Shahi Sultanate in dates
- 1489Qasim Barid I, a Turkic noble serving as amir al-umara (chief minister) to the failing Bahmani sultans at Bidar, effectively takes control; he rules in the sultan's name as the Bahmani court crumbles.
- c. 1489–1527The Barids maintain the fiction of Bahmani sovereignty until the dynasty formally ends in 1527; by then they have been the real power at Bidar for nearly four decades.
- Post-1527The Barid Shahis assume full sovereignty in their own right over a compact but strategically central kingdom, with Bidar — the old Bahmani capital — as their seat.
- c. 16th c.The Bidriware craft flourishes at Bidar: a blackened zinc-and-copper alloy inlaid with silver and brass, finished using the local soil of Bidar fort; vessels, hookahs, and ornaments travel from the Barid court across Asia and into European cabinets.
- c. 16th c.The Madrasa of Mahmud Gawan at Bidar and the Shrine of Bandanawaz at nearby Gulbarga continue to draw scholars and Sufi seekers; Bidar remains as much a city of saints as of sultans.
- c. 16th c.Eight Barid sultans maintain their kingdom through expert diplomacy — marrying daughters into the neighboring Adil Shahi and Qutb Shahi royal houses to preserve delicate alliances over more than a century.
- c. 16th c.The Barid sultans build their distinctive lobed tombs on Bidar's eastern plain — bulbous domes with chajja eaves — among the finest examples of Deccan funerary architecture.
- 1619Amir Barid III, the last sultan, surrenders Bidar to Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur; after eight sultans and 130 years the Barid Shahi kingdom is absorbed into the Adil Shahi sultanate.
- LegacyBidar endures as one of the great unspoiled architectural cities of the Deccan; Bidriware — the craft that survives nowhere else on earth — is still made by hereditary artisans in the lanes of the fort after five centuries.