Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (; ; ) was an independent late medieval Sultan of the Bengal Sultanate, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal after assassinating the Abyssinian Sultan, Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah, whom he had served under as wazir. After his death in 1519, the oldest surviving of his sons Nusrat Shah succeeded him. Alauddin Husain Shah is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in Bengali history, and the reigns of Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal Sultanate.
Origin and early life The origin of the dynasty is not very clear and there are multiple accounts of where it may have originated. However it is widely recognised that the dynasty's founder, Alauddin Husain Shah, was of ultimately Sayyid Arab origin.
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's writings make mention of a manuscript found in the former Bengali capital Pandua which labels Husain as a native of a village named Devnagar in Rangpur who seized an opportunity to redeem the throne of Bengal that his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, had held seventy years prior. There are local traditions in Rangpur which claim that he was indeed a native of that area. It is said that it was Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah who had ousted his grandfather Sultan Ibrahim, and as a result, Husain's father and family migrated to Kamata. Buchanan-Hamilton's manuscript is unnamed, and Momtazur Rahman Tarafdar considers the manuscript to have confused Husain Shah of Bengal with Husayn Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur, whose grandfather was Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, a contemporary of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Tarafdar, whose work is written in 1965, makes note that there was no Sultan of Bengal in that period by the name of Ibrahim. However, in the 1990s, coins of a Sultan of Bengal by the name of Nasiruddin Ibrahim Shah (r. 1415/16 – 1416/17) were discovered in Beanibazar, Sylhet which has opened discussion regarding this manuscript once again.Md. Rezaul Karim, 'Qutubuddin Azam, Nasiruddin Ibrahim and Ghiyasuddin Nusrat, three New Rulers of Sultani Bengal: Their Identification and Chronology', Journal of Bengal Art, Vol. 17, 2012: 215-27.
Nitish Sengupta asserts that Husain's mother was a Bengali, stating the following
On the other hand, the Riyaz-us-Salatin mentions Husain's father Sayyid Ashraf Al-Husaini later inhabiting Termez (in Turkestan) for a long period before settling in the Chandpur mouza of Rarh (western Bengal). Husain and his elder brother, Yusuf, spent their childhood studying under the local Qadi, who later married his daughter to Husain due to his noble background. Chandpur is often equated to the village of Chandpara in Murshidabad district, where a number of inscriptions can be founded during the early part of Husain's reign. Husain had also constructed the Kherur Mosque in Chandpara in the first year of his reign in 1494. A lake in this village, called Shaikher Dighi, is also associated with Husain. Krishnadasa Kaviraja, who was born during Husain's reign, claims that the latter worked for Subuddhi Rai, a revenue officer in the erstwhile Bengal's capital Gaur, and was severely whipped during the excavation of a lake. Local traditions in Murshidabad also claim that Husain was the rakhal (cow-keeper) for a Brahmin in Chandpara.
Considering the reference to his employment under Subuddhi Rai, historian Abdul Karim suggests that Husain had a gradual rise in Bengal's government, prior to being appointed wazir under Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah. He further offers that Husain had been following in the footsteps of his father, Sayyid Ashraf, who Karim tentatively identifies as being the officers Khan Mu'azzam Ashraf Khan and Sayyid A'zam Sayyid Dastur, mentioned in the inscriptions of the last Ilyas Shahi sultans Ruknuddin Barbak Shah and Jalaluddin Fateh Shah respectively. Karim continues that Sayyid Ashraf had been involved in the ascension of the latter, for which he was appointed wazir and acknowledged on the coinage. Karim further suggests that Husain himself may have also taken part in this regime change.
16th-century Portuguese explorer João de Barros mentions the story of a noble Arab merchant from Aden arriving in Chittagong with an army to aid the Sultan of Bengal in conquering Orissa. This merchant later killed the Sultan, thus becoming ruler of Bengal, and according to Heinrich Blochmann, Barros' narrative is in reference to Husain Shah.
Accession Most sources are in agreement that Husain was appointed the wazir (prime minister) of Sultan Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah (r. 1491-1493). Initially, Husain secretly sympathized with the rebels but ultimately he put himself openly as their head and besieged the citadel, where Muzaffar Shah shut himself with a few thousand soldiers. According to the 16th-century historian Nizamuddin, the Sultan was secretly assassinated by Husain with the help of the paiks (palace-guards), which ended the Abyssinian rule in Bengal.
Reign
Initial administrative actions Immediately after accession to the throne, Husain Shah ordered his soldiers to refrain from plundering Gaur, his capital city. But being annoyed with their continuous plundering, he executed twelve thousand soldiers and recovered the looted articles, which included 13,000 gold plates. Subsequently, he disbanded the paiks (the palace guards) who were the most significant agitators inside the palace. He removed all Habshis from administrative posts and replaced them with Turks, Arabs, Afghans, and Bengalis.
Engagement with the Delhi Sultanate Sultan Hussain Shah Sharqi, after being defeated by Bahlol Lodi, retired to Bihar, where his occupation was confined to a small territory. In 1494, he was again defeated by Sultan Sikandar Lodi and fled to Bengal, where he was granted asylum by Sultan Ala-ud-Din Husain Shah. This resulted in an expedition against Bengal in 1496 by Sultan Sikandar Lodi. Husain Shah of Bengal sent an army under his son Shahzada Danyal to fight with the Delhi army. The armies of Delhi and Bengal met at Barh near Patna. The Delhi army suffered from logistics problems from the beginning of the campaign, and thus Sikandar Lodi halted the advance of his army and concluded a treaty of friendship with Ala-ud-din Husain Shah. According to this agreement, the country west of Barh went to Sikandar Lodi while the country east of Barh remained under Husain Shah of Bengal. The final dissolution of the Jaunpur Sultanate resulted in the influx of the Jaunpur soldiery in the Bengal army, which was further strengthened by it. Moreover, the Lodis could not maintain their dominance over the entirety of the Jaunpuri territory they annexed, leading to Bengali expansion in Uttar Pradesh. This is signified by Alauddin Hussain Shah's numerous inscriptions that record the construction of mosques: a Jama Mosque in Kharid village of Balia district of Uttar Pradesh, another mosque in Sikdarpur, Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, and another mosque in Hussainabad of Balia district in 1501-02,Hussain, Syed Ejaz. Shiraz-i Hind: A History of the Jaunpur Sultanate. New Delhi: Manohar, 2017, p. 81. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/36986170/Shiraz_i_Hind_A_History_of_Jaunpur_Sultanate Hussainabad being named after Husain Shah himself. This indicates firm control of Husain Shah in trans-Gandak area of Uttar Pradesh.Hussain, Syed Ejaz. “Discovery of Husain Shah’s New Inscription and Ruins of a Jami Mosque from Husainabad in Ballia District of Uttar Pradesh and Diffusion of the Bengal Art.” Journal of Bengal Art, vol. 18, 2013, pp. 9–21. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/5812257/DISCOVERY_OF_HUSAIN_SHAH_S_NEW_INSCRIPTION_AND_RUINS_OF_A_JAMI_MOSQUE_FROM_HUSAINABAD_IN_BALLIA_DISTRICT_OF_UTTAR_PRADESH_AND_DIFFUSION_OF_THE_BENGAL_ART
Conquest of Kamrup-Kamatapur
Nilambar, the Khen dynasty ruler of Kamata Kingdom, had expanded his territory up to Kamrup on the bank of the river Baranadi in the east, and river Karatoya in Bengal in the south. Taking advantage of the Abyssinian anarchy in Bengal, he consolidated his territory by constructing a road from his capital to Ghoraghat in Dinajpur. In response, in 1498, Alauddin Husain Shah prepared to invade Kamatapur. His campaign was aided by the defection of a minister of King Nilambar. In 1499, Husain Shah invaded Kamatapur with his army, which reportedly consisted of 24,000 infantry, cavalry and a war flotilla. Nilambar had taken strong defensive measures in his capital of Kamatapur, and constructed a string of forts across his kingdom, including forts in Sadullapur, Ulipur and Jaldhaka. Husain's army started marching towards Kamatapur by taking fort Fatehpur in Sadullapur, while the navy started from Ekdala. Husain Shah personally defeated the combined army of local kings Rupnarayan, Manakumar, Lakshmana and Lakshmimana, whereas Husain Shah's general, Shah Ismail Ghazi, marched straight to Nilambar's capital. After a long siege, Ismail defeated and imprisoned King Nilambar of Kamata, pillaged and destroyed the capital city and annexed the territory of Kamatapur and Kamrup up to Hajo, 16 miles from Guwahati, the capital of Assam. A colony of Afghans was left behind at Hajo to set up administration, and prince Danyal was appointed viceregent of Kamatapur. The victory was publicly recorded in an inscription at Malda.
Odisha campaign According to the Madala Panji, Shah Ismail Ghazi commenced his campaign from the Mandaran fort (in the present-day Hooghly district) in 1508-09 and reached Puri, raiding Jajpur and Katak on the way. The Gajapati King of Orissa, Prataparudra Deva was busy in a campaign in the south. On hearing the news, he returned and defeated the invading Bengal army and chased it into the borders of Bengal. He reached the Mandaran fort and besieged it, where the general had taken shelter. The general managed to escape along with some of his soldiers. Rest of the forces of Bengal were routed, and the fort was besieged by Prataparudra's army. However, due to the treachery of one of Prataprudra's officers, the siege had to be raised and the Orissan soldiers withdrawn. Intermittent hostilities between the Bengal and Orissa armies along the border continued throughout the reign of Husain Shah, and by 1515 Orissa was a vassal of Bengal Sultanate.
Expansion in the Northeast When Gouhar Khan, the Bengali governor of Sylhet (in present-day Bangladesh) died, the district was seized by ruler of the neighbouring kingdom of Pratapgarh, Sultan Bazid. One of Husain Shah's nobles named Surwar Khan was sent to confront Bazid and when attempts at negotiations failed, fought against the Sultan and his allies. Bazid was defeated and captured and was forced to give heavy concessions to keep his kingdom, though under the suzerainty of Bengal. In reward for his actions, Surwar Khan was named the new governor of Sylhet and the defeated Sultan's daughter was given in marriage to his son, Mir Khan.*
In the northeast Husain Shah extended the boundary of his sultanate beyond Karimganj, up to Kachar district of Assam. This is signified by a inscription found in a mosque built in Kaliganj Bazar, Kachar in 1503-1504 by Sher Malik, the son of Malik Sadami the Magh, which mentions Husain Shah as the ruling sovereign. In 1513, Husain's governor in Sylhet, Rukn Khan, defeated eight tribal chiefs ruling in the borders of Sylhet.
Expeditions to Tripura and Arakan