Person · Deccan queen regent · India
Chand Bibi
Also known as Chand Bibi — Ahmadnagar
The 16-century Deccan sultanate queen Chand Bibi (Chand Khatun, 1550-1600), who defended Ahmadnagar against Mughal sieges in the 1590s. Chand Bibi was the daughter of Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar and the wife of Ali Adil Shah I of Bijapur. After her husband's 1580 assassination and her return to Ahmadnagar as regent for her nephew Bahadur Nizam Shah, she led the defence of Ahmadnagar against Akbar's Mughal invasion of 1595. She personally led cavalry charges from the city walls during the four-month siege and successfully negotiated the 1596 Treaty of Ahmadnagar that preserved Nizam Shahi autonomy. The 1600 Mughal second siege under Prince Daniyal ended with Chand Bibi's murder by her own Nizam Shahi noble Hamid Khan. Her defence of Ahmadnagar links the Deccan sultanates to the Mughal-Deccan wars and makes her one of the few medieval Indian women rulers who successfully led military campaigns.
- Date
- 1595–1599
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Patron dynasty
- Nizam Shahi / Adil Shahi
- Condition
- historical person
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 19.090, 74.740
About the place
Placed at Ahmadnagar, the Nizam Shahi capital she defended against Akbar's armies in 1595 and where she was killed by her own troops in 1600.
Connections (1)
- Life routeAhmadnagar Fort
Chand Bibi is the queen of Ahmadnagar Fort in 1595. She rode its walls in armour against Akbar’s son Murad’s Mughal army and negotiated the surrender of Berar in place of a full capitulation, buying Ahmadnagar three more years. She was killed inside the fort in 1600 during a second siege, and the fort is the one place where every phase of her regency is documented.
Sources
Persian chronicles of the Deccan and Mughal campaigns; modern Deccan histories.
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