Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah

Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah (, ) was the last sultan of the Hussain Shahi dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate, reigning from 1533 to 1538 CE. The dynasty was founded by his father, Alauddin Husain Shah, in 1494.

History Born as Abul Badr, one of the eighteen or twenty four sons of Alauddin Hussain Shah, the prince was heir apparent during the first half of the reign of his older brother Nasrat Shah but was superseded by his nephew Alauddin Firuz Shah II sometime before 1532. However, upon his nephew's ascension he assassinated his nephew and usurped the throne.

Banglapedia assesses him as a "weak, pleasure loving and easy-going ruler" who "had neither diplomatic foresight, nor any practical approach to the political problems which beset Bengal during his reign." His reign was marked by rebellions, including those by Khuda Bakhsh Khan, his general and governor of Chittagong, and his brother-in-law, Makhdum Alam, the governor of Hajipur. Between 1536 and 1537, Sher Shah followed up his victories by invading Bengal and defeating Mahmud Shah numerous times, occupying all lands west of the Teliagarhi pass. Mahmud Shah again repeatedly requested the Portuguese to aid him, which they did by fortifying the Teliaghari and Sakrigali passes. Sher Shah, however, out-flanked the combined armies and reached Gauda by way of Jharkhand. Mahmud Shah immediately capitulated, and was forced to pay over 13,000,000 gold coins, and cede territory up to Sakrigali. Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah and his Portuguese allies were finally decisively defeated by Sher Shah Suri on 6 April 1538 and his capital of Gaur was sacked and "sixty million in gold" was taken away by Sher Shah, as Mahmud's appeals to the Mughal Emperor Humayun went unanswered amid the emperor's preoccupation in Gujrat. A son of Mahmud, Muyid Beg, was appointed as a general in Emperor Humayun's army and fought for the emperor in Humayun's conquest of Gaur.