Malik Hasan Bahri | |
Reign: | 26 March 1482 – 1486 |
Malik | |
Succession: | Prime Minister |
Predecessor: | Mahmud Gawan |
Successor: | Qasim Barid I |
Issue: | Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I |
Death Date: | 1486 |
Malik Hasan Bahri or Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri was a noble of the Bahmani Sultanate who served as the Prime minister following the death of Sultan Muhammad III on 26 March 1482 until his death in 1486. He was the leader of the Deccani faction in the conflict between them and the Westerners, called the Afaqis or the gharibs. In his role, he was the chief coordinator of the plan to topple from power and execute Mahmud Gawan, the Afaqi Prime minister at the time who was the de facto leader of the Sultanate. Muhammad III died a year later in 1482, and the Deccani-favouring Mahmood Shah granted him the role of Prime minister with his accession. Upon his acceptance of his new role, he became known as Malik Naib, and his title of Nizam-ul-Mulk was passed down to his son, Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who would later found the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.
He was originally a Brahmin from Pathri, but during Alau'd-din Ahmad Shah's invasion of the Konkan, led by Mahmud Gawan, was taken captive by the Sultan and converted to Islam.
Malik Hasan participated in the Bahmani invasion of Orissa in 1475 as a commander of the Bahmani army, and through its spoils was made the tarafdar of Telangana. He would rule as the provincial governor until the taraf's division with the invasion of the Gajapatis in 1478, and was subsequently governor of the eastern of the two new provinces, Rajamundry. The lessened significance of his new position angered him, and was the origin of his hatred for Mahmud Gawan, who he would later plot to have killed.