Sheikh Hamid Explained

Sheikh Hamid Lodi/Lawi was the founder of the Lodi dynasty of Multan. He ruled the Emirate of Multan from 985 to 997.

Biography

Hamid's origins are disputed. According to some scholars, Hamid was supposedly a descendant of Sama (or Usama) Lawi who was son of Ghalib Lawi.^{[1] [2]} Other sources state that he was from the Lodi tribe of Pashtuns.^{[3] [4] [5]} According to Samuel Miklos Stern, the Lodi dynasty itself might have been fabricated as its mention only starts appearing with later historians like Firishta.^[6]

According to Firishta, the Hindu Shahi king Jayapala ceded the regions of Multan and Lamghan to Hamid, after joining an alliance with him and the Muslim emir of Bhera against the raids of Sabuktigin during the reign of Alp-Tegin. Sabuktigin upon becoming amir in Ghazni broke up this alliance through diplomatic means and convinced Hamid Lodi to acknowledge his overlordship.^[7]

He ruled the Emirate of Multan after the death of the Fatimid da'i Jalam ibn Shaban around 985 AD. He was succeeded by his grandson, Fateh Daud.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: MacLean, Derryl N. . Religion and Society in Arab Sind . 2023-10-20 . BRILL . 978-90-04-66929-1 . en. 533.
2. Book: Seyfeydinovich . Asimov, Muhammad . History of civilizations of Central Asia: The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century . Edmund . Bosworth, Clifford . UNESCO . 1998-12-31 . UNESCO Publishing . 978-92-3-103467-1 . en. 302-303.
3. Web site: Lōdīs . 2024-05-22 . referenceworks . en. "The Lōdīs are related to a clan of the Ghilzay tribe of Afghanistān [see ghalzay] and ruled over parts of north India for 77 years. Afghāns came to the Indus plains from Rōh [q.v.] as early as 934/711-12 with the army of Muḥammad b. Ķāsim, the conqueror of Sind, and allied themselves politically with the Hindū-Shāhī [q.v.] rulers of Lahore, and receiving part of Lāmghān [see lāmghānāt ] for settlement, built a fort in the mountains of Peshawar to protect ¶ the Pandjāb from raids. During Alptigin's government at Ghazna, when his commander-in-chief Sebüktigin raided Lāmghān and Multān, the Afghans sought help from Rādjā Djaypāl who appointed their chief, Shaykh Ḥamīd Lōdī, viceroy of the wilāyats of Lamghān and Multān. Shaykh Ḥamīd appointed his own men as governors of those districts, and thereby the Afghāns gained political importance; their settlements stretched southwards from Lāmghān to Multān, incorporating the tracts of Bannū and Dērā Ismā‘īl Khān. Later, a family of the Lōdī tribe settled at Multān, which was ruled in 396/1005 by Abu 'l-Fatḥ Dāwūd, a grandson of Shaykh Ḥamīd..
4. Book: Lal, Kishori Saran . Studies in Asian History: Proceedings of the Asian History Congress, 1961 . 1969 . [Published for the] Indian Council for Cultural Relations [by] Asia Publishing House . 978-0-210-22748-0 . en.
5. Book: Ahmad, Zulfiqar . Notes on Punjab and Mughal India: Selections from Journal of the Punjab Historical Society . 1988 . Sang-e-Meel Publications . en. 533.
6. Samuel Miklos Stern . October 1949 . Ismā'ili Rule and Propaganda in Sīnd . Islamic Culture . 23 . 303 . Islamic Culture Board.
7. Book: The Hindu Sahis of Afghanistan and the Punjab, A.D. 865-1026: A Phase of Islamic Advance Into India. Yogendra Mishra. Vaishali Bhavan. 1972. 100–103.
8. Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=18eABeokpjEC&pg=PA297. History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume 4. The regions of Sind, Baluchistan, Multan and Kashmir. N. A. Baloch. A. Q. Rafiqi. UNESCO. 9789231034671. 1998. 297–298.