Skip to main content

Badaun: Where History Reigns Supreme

Today, Budaun may be a non- descript town in the district of the same name in the western Uttar Pradesh, history weighs heavily on it. 

About 235 km from Delhi, Budaun came into prominence when it became a centre of power during the reign of Iltutmish of the Slave Dynasty of Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who ruled from AD 1210 to 1236, served as the governor of Badaun under the Delhi Sultan Qutab ud-din Aibak before becoming the Sultan. It was at Badaun where Tajuddin Yalduz, successor of Muhammad of Ghor in Ghazni and a rival of Iltutmish, was beheaded on the instruction of the latter in 1216. The imposing Shamsi mosque in the town was commissioned by Iltutmish. 

Budaun was the birthplace of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1236-1325), one of the most famous Sufi saints of Chisti order. His Dargah in Delhi attracts a large number of visitors. 

Alauddin Alam Shah, the last ruler of Sayyid Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, found it better to retire in Badaun after abdicating the throne in favour of Buhlul Khan Lodi who founded a new dynasty which came to be known as the Lodi dynasty. 

The tombs of Alam Shah and his mother are an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument in Badaun.  


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Matangini Hazra

Matangini Hazra was a woman revolutionary and brave freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India from the British and laid down her life for it.  She was from a small village called Hogla located near Tamluk, the headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. Hazra was born on October 19, 1870. Matangini Hazra was one of the protagonists of the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamralipta National Government), a parallel government established during the Quit India Movement.  Matangini Hazra was shot dead by the police in front of the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942.  Matangini Hazra was  affectionately known as Gandhi buri, Bengali for old lady Gandhi.  The famed Hazra Road in Kolkata is also named after her. 

Muhammad Shah Rangila

Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, died in 1707. Muhammad Shah became Mughal emperor in 1719. During the interregnum, Bahadur Shah I , Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi-ud-Darajat and Rafi-ud-Daula ascended the Mughal throne. Jahandar Shah was murdered on the orders of Farrukhsiyar who had the support of the two powerful Mughal nobles Sayyid Abdullah and his brother Sayyid Husain Ali at that time. They are famous in history as Sayyid brothers, the King-makers. In 1719, Farrukhsiyar were murdered in utter disregard of a Mughal emperor by Sayyid brothers. Rafi-ud-Darajat died of consumption in a few months. Rafi-ud-Daula was addicted to opium and died in 4 months. Sayyid brothers now chose Raushan Akhtar, a son of Jahan Shah (the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I), to be the emperor. Raushan Akhtar ascended the throne under the title of Muhamamd Shah in September 1719. In the beginning Muhammad Shah was a puppet in the hands of Sayyid brothers who soon began to lose their gri...

Minhaj-us-Siraj: Author of Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

Minhaj-ud-din Abu Uraar bin Siraj-ud-din al-Juzjani, popularly known as Minhaj-us-Siraj,  was a medieval historian who was patronized by Slave Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud to whom he had dedicated his magnum opus Tabaqat-i-Nasiri . Since Siraj held the high office of the Chief Qazi of Delhi to which he was appointed by Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, it is natural that Tabaqat-i-Nasiri gives a first hand account of the historical events from the conquest of Delhi by Muhammad of Ghur up to the year 1260 AD. Siraj was temporarily removed from the post of Chief Qazi from 1253 to 1255 when a section of nobles induced the Sultan to send his prime minister Balban into exile.  Tabaqat-i-Nasiri has been translated into English by Raverty .   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page was last edited on 24 July 2021