Person · Malwa sultan · India
Hoshang Shah
/hoːʃəŋɡ ʃaːh/
Also known as Alp Khan, Hushang Shah, Hoshang Shah Ghori, Hushang Shah Ghuri
The second ruler of the Malwa sultanate, reigning from 1406 to 1435, who moved the capital from Dhar to the hill fort of Mandu and gave it the form it still has. His reign established Malwa as an independent power in the wake of Timur's sack of Delhi, and the town of Hoshangabad on the Narmada carries his name.
- Date
- r. 1406 – 1435
- Periods
- Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Delhi Sultanate
- Confidence
- Not assessed
Worth knowing
His marble tomb at Mandu is among the earliest substantial marble structures in India. An inscription there records a visit by architects of Shah Jahan's court, and the building is often cited as a precedent studied before the Taj Mahal.
Connections (2)
- Tomb in townNarmadapuram / Hoshangabad
The town is named for Hoshang Shah, the early fifteenth-century Malwa sultan who moved his capital from Dhar to the hill fort of Mandu and gave it the form it still has. His marble tomb at Mandu, the earliest marble building of its kind in India, was reportedly studied by Shah Jahan's architects — an inscription there records their visit — before they built the Taj.
- Architectural modelTaj Mahal
Hoshang Shah's tomb at Mandu, finished about 1440, is the earliest marble building in India, and a plaque inside records that Shah Jahan sent four architects including Ustad Hamid to study it in 1659. The line from a Malwa sultan's tomb to the Taj Mahal is therefore documented rather than inferred, which is unusual: Indian architectural influence is nearly always argued from resemblance rather than from a signed visitors' book on the wall.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hoshang Shah”. Ziauddin Barani, Tārīkh-i Fīrūz Shāhī; Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate.
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