Sikandar Khan Lodi, often known as Nizam Khan, was a Pashtun Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate from 1489 until 1517. In the year 1517, Sikandar Lodi died. After his father Bahlul Khan Lodi passed away in July 1489, he ascended to the throne of the Lodi dynasty. He wrote a diwan of 9000 poems in Persian and was the second and most successful king of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi sultanate. He made an effort to reclaim the lost areas that had belonged to the Delhi Sultanate and was successful in enlarging the Lodi Dynasty’s domain.
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About Sikandar Lodi
Sikandar was Sultan Bahlul Lodi’s second child who was also the founder of the Lodi dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate. Sikandar Lodi was born on 17th July 1458 and passed away on 21st November 1517 (aged 59). He was buried in Lodi Gardens, in Delhi. Sikandar was a capable leader who promoted trade throughout his realm. Gwalior and Bihar became part of the areas under Lodi’s power thanks to him. With Alauddin Hussain Shah and his Bengali realm, he signed a pact. He gave the order for the construction of the modern city of Agra in 1503. Sikandar Lodhi was succeeded by Ibrahim Khan Lodi.
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Sikandar Lodi’s Conflicts with Man Singh Tomar
The newly proclaimed Raja Man Singh Tomar resolved to avoid a conflict by paying Bahlul Lodi a tribute of 800,000 tankas (coins) because he was unprepared for an attack from Delhi. Bahlul Lodi was succeeded as Sultan of Delhi by Sikandar Lodi in 1489. Some rebels from Delhi who had been implicated in a conspiracy to topple Sikandar Lodi were granted shelter by Manasimha in 1500. The Sultan launched a punitive expedition to Gwalior in an effort to punish Raja Man Singh Tomar and increase his dominion. He conquered Dholpur in 1501, a Gwalior dependent whose monarch Vinayaka-deva had fled to Gwalior. Then Sikandar Lodi marched in the direction of Gwalior, but he was forced to stop after crossing the Chambal River due to an infection that broke out in his camp. By sending his son Kunwar Vikramaditya to the Lodi camp with presents for the Sultan, Raja Man Singh Tomar took advantage of the chance to mend fences with the Lodi. On the condition that Vinayaka-deva is given back control of Dholpur, he agreed to drive the rebels out of Delhi. Sikandar left after accepting these conditions. According to historian Kishori Saran Lal, this story about Vinayaka Deva losing Dholpur was made up by Delhi chroniclers to make the Sultan look good.
Sikandar Lodi continued his conflict with the Tomar Kings of Gwalior in 1504. To the east of Gwalior, he first took control of the Mandrayal fort. He pillaged the vicinity of Mandrayal, but the following disease outbreak claimed the lives of many of his warriors, forcing him to retreat to Delhi. Later, when Agra had just been founded and was closer to Gwalior, Lodi relocated his base there. He marched against Gwalior after taking Dholpur, referring to the operation as a holy war. Between September 1505 and May 1506, Lodi was successful in pillaging the countryside near Gwalior, but Raja Man Singh Tomar’s hit-and-run strategy prevented him from taking the fort. Due to a lack of food caused by Lodi’s destruction of crops, Lodi was forced to end the siege. Raja Man Singh Tomar attacked his army near Jatwar on the way back to Agra, killing many of the invaders. After failing to take the Gwalior fort, Lodi made the decision to take the lesser forts close by.
He took control of the Uditnagar (Utgir or Avantgarh) fort, which was located along the Narwar – Gwalior path, in February 1507. He attacked Narwar in September 1507, whose king (a member of the Tomar clan) alternated between being loyal to the Malwa Sultanate and the Tomaras of Gwalior. After an extended siege of a year, he took the fort. In December 1508, Lodi marched to Lahar (Lahayer), a town to the southeast of Gwalior, and put Narwar in charge of Raj Singh Kachchwaha. He stayed at Lahar for a short while, using that time to purge the rebels from the area around it. Lodi remained active in additional battles during the following few years. He devised a plot to seize Gwalior in 1516, but a medical condition prevented him from carrying it through. In addition to Sikandar Lodi’s passing in November 1517 due to sickness, Raja Man Singh Tomar also passed away in 1516.
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Religion
The Lodi Sultans were Muslims who, like their forebears, recognised the Abbasid Caliphate’s dominance over the Muslim world. Sikandar attempted to establish his Islamic credentials by turning to strict Sunni orthodoxy as a political ploy because his mother Bibi Ambha was a Hindu. Under persuasion from the ulama, he destroyed some Indian structures and was extremely ruthless against those who opposed him. Additionally, he prohibited women from entering the Mazars (mausoleums) of Muslim saints as well as the yearly procession of Salar Masud’s spear, a famous Muslim martyr. Prior to Sikandar, local administrators handled the administration of justice in smaller cities and villages while the Sultan himself sought advice from Islamic law academics (sharia). The establishment of sharia courts by Sikandar allowed the qazis to enforce sharia law on a greater populace in a number of places. Although these courts were formed in regions with sizable Muslim populations, non-Muslims may also use them for non-religious concerns like property disputes.
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