| Native Name: | वऱ्हाड |
| Conventional Long Name: | Sultanate of Berar |
| Year Start: | 1490 |
| Year End: | 1572 |
| Event End: | Conquered by Ahmednagar Sultanate |
| Government Type: | Monarchy |
| Title Leader: | Sultan |
| Leader1: | Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk (first) |
| Year Leader1: | 1490 – 1504 |
| Leader2: | Tufail Khan (last) |
| Year Leader2: | 1568 – 1572 |
| P1: | Bahmani Sultanate |
| S1: | Ahmadnagar Sultanate |
| Religion: | Islam |
| Image Map Caption: | Berar sultanate with neighbouring polities, circa 1525.[1] |
| Capital: | Ellichpur |
| Common Languages: | |
| Stat Area1: | 29340 |
| Today: | India |
The Berar sultanate was an early modern Indian kingdom in the Deccan, ruled by the Imad Shahi dynasty.[2] It was one of the Deccan sultanates, and was established in 1490 following the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate by Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk.[3] It was annexed by the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in 1572 following an invasion.
On the establishment of the Bahmani Sultanate in the Deccan in 1347, Berar was constituted one of the five provinces into which their kingdom was divided, being governed by a tarafdar, with a separate army. The perils of this system became apparent when the province was divided (1478 or 1479) into two separate provinces, named after their capitals Gawil and Mahur.
In 1490, Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, who had been appointed governor of Berar by Mahmud Gawan after assisting him in his campaigns, proclaimed his independence amidst the civil unrest in the Bahmani Sultanate and founded the Imad Shahi dynasty of Berar. He proceeded to annex Mahur to his new kingdom and had its capital at Ellichpur. Imad-ul-Mulk was by birth a Kanarese Hindu, but had been captured as a boy in one of the expeditions against the Vijayanagara Empire and brought up as a Muslim. Gavilgad and Narnala were also fortified by him.
Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk died in 1504 and his successor, Aladdin Imad Shah resisted the aggression of Ahmadnagar with the help from Bahadur Shah, sultan of Gujarat. The next ruler, Darya, ascended the throne in 1530 and tried to align with Bijapur to prevent aggression from Ahmadnagar, but was unsuccessful. In 1568, Burhan Imad Shah, who had succeeded his father six years prior, was deposed by his minister Tufail Khan, and assumed rule of the Sultanate. This gave a pretext for the intervention of Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar, who invaded Berar, imprisoned and put to death Tufail Khan, his son Shams-ul-Mulk, and the former-king Burhan, and proceeded to annex Berar into his own dominions of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in 1572.
The sultans of Berar belonged to the Imad Shahi dynasty: