12.1 Bahmani Kingdom · Part 3

of government that was followed by all the successor sultanates as well as by the Marathas later. He appointed a council of eight ministers of state: . Vakil-us-sultana or lieutenant of the kingdom, the immediate subordinate of the sovereign. . Wazir-i-kull, who supervised the work of all other ministers; . Amir-i-jumla , minister of finance; . Wasir-i-ashraf , minister of foreign affairs and master of ceremonies; . Nazir , assistant minister for finance; . Peshwa who was associated with the lieutenant of the kingdom; . Kotwal or chief of police and city magistrate in the capital, and . Sadr-i-jahan or chief justice and minister of religious affairs and endowments. He took strong measures for the suppression of highway robbery. Institutional and geographic consolidation under Muhammad Shah laid a solid foundation for the kingdom. He built two mosques at Gulbarga. One, the great mosque, completed in , remainsan impressive building. The next hundred years saw a number of Sultans one after another, by succession or usurpation. All of them fought with their southern neighbour, but without gaining much territory. In Warangal was subdued and their progress further eastwards was challenged by the Orissan rulers. The XI History - Lesson - - Bahmani and Vijayanagar Kingdoms fair and neutral in this conflict. Jealous of his success they forged a letter to implicate Gawan in a conspiracy against the Sultan. Sultan, who himself was not happy with Gawan’s dominance, ordered his execution. Gawan’s execution augured ill for the Sultanate. Several of the foreign nobles who were considered the strongest pillars of the state began to leave for their provinces, leading to the disintegration of the Sultanate. Golkonda Fort: The Raja Krishna Dev of the Kakatiya dynasty with Warangal as capital constructed the Golkonda Fort on a granite hill. During – the fort was handed over to Sultan Kali Kutub Khan as a Jagir (land grant). He reconstructed and rechristened the mud fort into a granite fort and called the place Muhammed Nagar. Later, the Golkonda fort came into the possession of the Bahmani dynasty. Still later, the Qutub