The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate

The Deccan sultans left a grand architectural and artistic legacy. They commissioned palaces, mosques, gardens and tombs as well as decorative paintings and coins. Of these sultanates, the Nizam Shahs (r. 1490-1636) were particularly significant, being one of the first to emerge from the crumbling edifice of the Bahmani Empire (c. 1347-1527). Yet their rich material record remains largely unstudied in the scholarly literature, obscuring their cultural and historical importance. This book provides the first analysis of the architecture of the Nizam Shahs. Pushkar Sohoni examines the critical relationship between architectural production, courtly practice and royal authority in a period when the aspirations and politics of the kingdom were articulated through architectural expression. Based on new primary research from key sites including the urban settlements of Ahmadnagar, Daulatabad, Aurangabad, Junnar and the port city of Chaul, Sohoni sheds light on broader Islamicate ideas of kingship and shows how this was embodied by material artefacts such as buildings and sites, paintings, gardens, guns and coins.
As well as offering a vivid depiction of sixteenth-century South Asia, this book revises understanding of the cultural importance of the Nizam Shahs and their place in the Indian Ocean world. It will be a vital primary resource for scholars researching the history of the medieval and early modern Deccan and relevant for those working in Art History, Islamic Studies, South Asian Studies and Archaeology.

Pushkar Sohoni is a Lecturer in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught at the University of British Columbia and has had fellowships at various institutions, including the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Max-Planck Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has published in the books The Visual World of Muslim India and Garden and Landscape Practices in Pre-Colonial India and in the Journal of Deccan Studies and South Asian Studies. He received his doctorate in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER 1
LOCATING FRAGMENTS: BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DECCAN
The Deccan: a brief history
Hindustan and the Deccan as diverse and unified landscapes
Visual Culture of the Deccan Sultanates
Continuities and ruptures: Purity and Hybridity of Architecture in the Deccan
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CHAPTER 2
MULTIPLE PASTS: THE NIZAM SHAHS OF AHMADNAGAR
The Nizam Shahs
Architectural patronage under the Nizam Shahs
Drawing boundaries: Historiography of the Nizam Shahs
CHAPTER 3
CONSTRUCTING SOCIETY: SOCIETY AND ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE
Methods to study architectural remains
Guilds and movements of craftspeople recovered
Sultanate architecture and regional variations
Extra-regional Architectural Programs and Building Typologies
Global Architecture and Local Construction
Urgency to study, research and recover
CHAPTER 4
LAYING THE LAND: PATTERNS OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR DIS-TRIBUTION
Urban Design and Settlements
Junnar
Daulatabad
Ahmadnagar
Chaul
Parenda
Sindkhed Raja
Urban Systems: Water Supply and civic buildings
Military Design and Fortification
CHAPTER 5
DESIGNS OF GRANDEUR: PALACES AND MANSIONS
Palaces and Mansions
Farah Bakhsh Bagh
Hasht Bihisht Bagh
Manzarsumbah
Palace near Bhatavadi (Kalawantinicha Mahal)
Architecture of Palaces for the Sultan
CHAPTER 6
OTHER ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAMS
Mosques
Tombs
Hammams, caravansarais and miscellaneous buildings
CHAPTER 7
MATERIAL CULTURE BEYOND ARCHITECTURE AND SETTLEMENTS
Visual space
Ahmadnagar paintings
Coins of the Nizam Shahs
Texts
Other contributions
Cultural production and technological innovation
CHAPTER 8
CONCLUSION: END OF AN OLD WORLD
BIBLIOGRAPHY