A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.84

c17.84

The Muslim rulers saw clearly that their disunion gave the advantage to Rāma Rāya. Ibrahim Qutb Shah and Husain Nizam Shah, who had suffered most, perhaps took the lead in the formation of the confederacy against Vijayanagar. Ferishta avers that the excesses committed by the Hindu forces against the Muslim population and sacred places in their invasions of Ahmadnagar and Golconda had no small share in rousing feeling against Rāma Rāya. Accordingly embassies passed to and fro among the sultans, their differences were made up, and steps taken to form a general league of the faithful against the Hindu monarch. Dynastic marriages cemented the political alliance between Ahmadnagar and Bijapur—Ali Adil Shah marrying Chand Bibi, the daughter of Husain Nizam Shah, and Husain's eldest son marrying one of Ali's sisters at the same time. Soon after the marriages, preparations began for the holy war. Hindu sources generally speak of all the five sultans as the opponents of Rāma Rāya, though Muslim historians leave the sultan of Berar out of account. Ali Adil Shah clearly played a double game throughout, professing friendship with both the parties. The Muslim armies met on the plains of Bijapur and began their march to the south towards the end of 1564.