Alauddin Husain Shah

Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (; ; ) was an independent late medieval Sultan of the Bengal Sultanate, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal after assassinating the Abyssinian Sultan, Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah, whom he had served under as wazir. After his death in 1519, the oldest surviving of his sons Nusrat Shah succeeded him. Alauddin Husain Shah is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in Bengali history, and the reigns of Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal Sultanate.

Origin and early life The origin of the dynasty is not very clear and there are multiple accounts of where it may have originated. However it is widely recognised that the dynasty's founder, Alauddin Husain Shah, was of ultimately Sayyid Arab origin.

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's writings make mention of a manuscript found in the former Bengali capital Pandua which labels Husain as a native of a village named Devnagar in Rangpur who seized an opportunity to redeem the throne of Bengal that his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, had held seventy years prior. There are local traditions in Rangpur which claim that he was indeed a native of that area.

Nitish Sengupta asserts that Husain's mother was a Bengali, stating the following

One of the first mosques built by Husain Shah, the Kherur Mosque, in Chandpara, where he reportedly spent much of his childhood.On the other hand, the Riyaz-us-Salatin mentions Husain's father Sayyid Ashraf Al-Husaini later inhabiting Termez (in Turkestan) for a long period before settling in the Chandpur mouza of Rarh (western Bengal). Husain and his elder brother, Yusuf, spent their childhood studying under the local Qadi, who later married his daughter to Husain due to his noble background. Chandpur is often equated to the village of Chandpara in Murshidabad district, where a number of inscriptions can be founded during the early part of Husain's reign. Husain had also constructed the Kherur Mosque in Chandpara in the first year of his reign in 1494. A lake in this village, called Shaikher Dighi, is also associated with Husain. Krishnadasa Kaviraja, who was born during Husain's reign, claims that the latter worked for Subuddhi Rai, a revenue officer in the erstwhile Bengal's capital Gaur, and was severely whipped during the excavation of a lake. Local traditions in Murshidabad also claim that Husain was the rakhal (cow-keeper) for a Brahmin in Chandpara.

Considering the reference to his employment under Subuddhi Rai, historian Abdul Karim suggests that Husain had a gradual rise in Bengal's government, prior to being appointed wazir under Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah. He further offers that Husain had been following in the footsteps of his father, Sayyid Ashraf, who Karim tentatively identifies as being the officers Khan Mu'azzam Ashraf Khan and Sayyid A'zam Sayyid Dastur, mentioned in the inscriptions of the last Ilyas Shahi sultans Ruknuddin Barbak Shah and Jalaluddin Fateh Shah respectively. Karim continues that Sayyid Ashraf had been involved in the ascension of the latter, for which he was appointed wazir and acknowledged on the coinage. Karim further suggests that Husain himself may have also taken part in this regime change.

16th-century Portuguese explorer João de Barros mentions the story of a noble Arab merchant from Aden arriving in Chittagong with an army to aid the Sultan of Bengal in conquering Orissa. This merchant later killed the Sultan, thus becoming ruler of Bengal, and according to Heinrich Blochmann, Barros' narrative is in reference to Husain Shah. Hussainabad being named after Husain Shah himself. This indicates firm control of Husain Shah in trans-Gandak area of Uttar Pradesh.

Conquest of Kamrup-Kamatapur

The Panbari Mosque was thought to have been built by Husain Shah to commemorate the Kamata victory.Nilambar, the Khen dynasty ruler of Kamata Kingdom, had expanded his territory up to Kamrup on the bank of the river Baranadi in the east, and river Karatoya in Bengal in the south. Taking advantage of the Abyssinian anarchy in Bengal, he consolidated his territory by constructing a road from his capital to Ghoraghat in Dinajpur. In response, in 1498, Alauddin Husain Shah prepared to invade Kamatapur. His campaign was aided by the defection of a minister of King Nilambar. In 1499, Husain Shah invaded Kamatapur with his army, which reportedly consisted of 24,000 infantry, cavalry and a war flotilla. Nilambar had taken strong defensive measures in his capital of Kamatapur, and constructed a string of forts across his kingdom, including forts in Sadullapur, Ulipur and Jaldhaka. Husain's army started marching towards Kamatapur by taking fort Fatehpur in Sadullapur, while the navy started from Ekdala. Husain Shah personally defeated the combined army of local kings Rupnarayan, Manakumar, Lakshmana and Lakshmimana, whereas Husain Shah's general, Shah Ismail Ghazi, marched straight to Nilambar's capital. However, due to the treachery of one of Prataprudra's officers, the siege had to be raised and the Orissan soldiers withdrawn. Intermittent hostilities between the Bengal and Orissa armies along the border continued throughout the reign of Husain Shah, and by 1515 Orissa was a vassal of Bengal Sultanate.

Expansion in the Northeast When Gouhar Khan, the Bengali governor of Sylhet (in present-day Bangladesh) died, the district was seized by ruler of the neighbouring kingdom of Pratapgarh, Sultan Bazid. One of Husain Shah's nobles named Surwar Khan was sent to confront Bazid and when attempts at negotiations failed, fought against the Sultan and his allies. Bazid was defeated and captured and was forced to give heavy concessions to keep his kingdom, though under the suzerainty of Bengal. In reward for his actions, Surwar Khan was named the new governor of Sylhet and the defeated Sultan's daughter was given in marriage to his son, Mir Khan.

In the northeast Husain Shah extended the boundary of his sultanate beyond Karimganj, up to Kachar district of Assam. This is signified by a inscription found in a mosque built in Kaliganj Bazar, Kachar in 1503-1504 by Sher Malik, the son of Malik Sadami the Magh, which mentions Husain Shah as the ruling sovereign. In 1513, Husain's governor in Sylhet, Rukn Khan, defeated eight tribal chiefs ruling in the borders of Sylhet. According to Rajmala, a late royal chronicle of Tripura, Husain Shah despatched his army four times to Tripura. The Tripura army offered stiff resistance and did not yield any territory, but in the last expedition, Husain Shah established the fort of Kaliagarh in Tripuri territory (which later became the modern town of Kasba, Brahmanbaria) and succeeded to annex at least some portion of the territory of Tripura. The 1513 Sonargaon inscription of Khawas Khan, entitled Sar-i-Lashkar-i-Tripura (Commander-in-chief of the Army Stationed in Tripura) is interpreted by a number of modern scholars as an evidence of annexure of at least a part of Tripura by Husain Shah.

During Alauddin Husain Shah's expeditions to Tripura, the ruler of Arakan helped Dhanya Manikya, the ruler of Tripura and expelled Husain Shah's officers from Chittagong. In 1516, Husain Shah decided to launch an expedition to Arakan. Husain assigned the charge of the land army for Arakan expedition to Paragal Khan; prince Nasrat, who was made crown prince of Bengal in 1515, was placed in overall command. On Nasrat's order, Paragal Khan advanced from his base on the Feni River. The territory up to the western bank of Kaladan river was placed under his governorship administration. The hostilities probably ended in 1516, when Mrauk U recognized Bengali sovereignty over Chittagong and northern Arakan. Husain Shahi victory over Arakan is also corroborated by Portuguese adventurer Joao de Silvera who, landing in Chittagong in 1517, stated that Arakan was a vassal state of Bengal Sultanate. Consequently, a Portuguese mission came to Bengal to establish diplomatic relations towards the end of Husain Shah's reign.

Husain Shah's long reign of more than a quarter of a century was a period of peace and prosperity, which was strikingly contrast to the period that preceded it. The liberal attitude of Husain Shah towards his Hindu subjects is also an important feature of his reign. Many Brahmins had taken service at his court.

Cultural contribution

The reign of Husain Shah witnessed a remarkable development of Bengali literature. Under the patronage of Paragal Khan, Husain Shah's governor of Chittagong, Kabindra Parameshvar wrote his Pandabbijay, a Bengali adaptation of the Mahabharata. Similarly, under the patronage of Paragal's son Chhuti Khan, who succeeded his father as governor of Chittagong, Shrikar Nandi wrote another Bengali adaptation of the Mahabharata. Kabindra Parameshvar in his Pandabbijay eulogised Husain Shah. Bijay Gupta wrote his Manasamangal Kāvya also during his reign. He eulogised Husain Shah by comparing him with Arjuna (samgrame Arjun Raja prabhater Rabi). He mentioned him as Nripati-Tilak (the tilak-mark of kings) and Jagat-bhusan (the adornment of the universe) as well. An official of Husain Shah, Yashoraj Khan, wrote a number of Vaishnava padas and he also praised his ruler in one of his pada. During Husain Shah's reign a number of significant monuments were constructed. Wali Muhammad built Chota Sona Masjid in Gaur.

In 1502 AD, the Sultan ordered a Madrasa to be built "for the teaching of the sciences of religion and for instruction in the principles which lead to certainty, in the hope of obtaining from Allah the great reward and begging from Him that He will ever remain pleased (with him.)"

During his reign, an Islamic scholar known as Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yazdan Bakhsh Bengali visited Ekdala where he transcribed Sahih al-Bukhari and gifted it to the Sultan in Sonargaon. The manuscript is currently kept at the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library in Bankipore, Patna, Bihar.

Religious policy The reign of Husain Shah is also known for religious tolerance towards his subjects. While R.C. Majumdar writes that during his Orissa campaigns he destroyed some Hindu temples, which Vrindavana Dasa Thakura has mentioned in his Chaitanya Bhagavata, he was well known for his tolerance of Hinduism, for which his Hindu subjects named him Nripati Tilak (Crown of Kings) and Jagat Bhushana (Adornment of the Universe)- and many of his previously oppressed Hindu subjects even compared him to an incarnation of Krishna. About one hundred graves belonging to members of the Husain Shahi dynasty were located in the vicinity of Husain Shah's tomb.

Husian Shah's long reign of more than a quarter of a century was a period of peace and prosperity, which was strikingly contrast to the period that preceded it. Husain Shah had strengthened trade relations with the middle east, and Bengal's economy flourished during his reign. Ludovico de Varthema, who visited Gaur between 1503–1508, recorded: “Fifty ship are laden every year in this place with cotton and silk stuffs... These same stuffs go through all Turkey, through Syria, through Persia, through Arabia Felix, through Ethiopia, and through all India." The liberal attitude of Husain Shah towards his Hindu subjects is also an important feature of his reign. Many Brahmins had taken service at his court. .

R.C. Majumdar summarizes, Husain was unlucky in not having had an Abul Fazl to record his sayings and glorify his actions, and no contemporary chronicle has survived. But the few facts known of his reign are sufficient clues to the greatness of a ruler who may well be compared with Akbar. Of all the Muslim sovereigns Bengal had had, he captured most the imagination of the people and "the name of Husain Shah the good, is still remembered from the frontiers of Orissa to the Brahmaputra".

Family and issue According to Riyaz-us-Salatin, which was compiled in 1788, Husain Shah had eighteen sons. He is also said to have at least eleven daughters. However, Portuguese official Tome Pires, who was a contemporary of Husain, wrote in 1515 that Husain Shah had twenty four sons by his concubines, and many daughters. Among these are: Danyal: likely the eldest son. Served as viceregent of Kamatapur during his father's reign, may have been killed at the end of the campaign on Kamata kingdom. According to the Assam Buranji, Danyal's son Musunder Ghazi succeeded him as governor of Kamatapur, but had died before 1515. Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah alias Ali Shah: was made crown prince of Bengal in 1515; succeeded his father. Reigned as Sultan of Bengal from 1519 to 1532. Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah: born as Abdul Badr, reigned as Sultan of Bengal from 1533 to 1538. Raushan Akhtar Banu: possibly a granddaughter. Married Ibrahim Danishmand, a Sufi saint and landowner. A daughter: married Jalal Khan, son of Hussain Shah Sharqi, erstwhile sultan of Jaunpur. A daughter: married Kandarpadeva, a son of the Brahmin Madan Bhaduri of Bhaturia. A daughter: married another son of Madan Bhaduri of Bhaturia, who also converted to Islam before their marriage. A daughter: married Makhdum Alam, governor of Bihar. A daughter: married Alauddin, a general of her brother Nasrat Shah. A daughter: married Alfa Husaini, an Arab merchant, who assisted with ships and materials for prince Nasrat's conquest of Chittagong.

In 1659, a descendant of Husain Shah named Saiyid Ambia received, by order of the Mughal emepror Aurangzeb, a grant of 50 bighas of rent-free land for the maintenance of the royal Husain Shahi tombs at Gaur. His descendant, Mir Hansa, was still in possession of the land in 1863.