Thread by @NafeesRehmanDr

Today is 476th death anniversary of Sher Shah Suri – the Pashtun tiger king of Hindustan who masterfully established his rule, forced the Mughals out of Hindustan, and introduced many reforms that the Indian sub-continent continues to benefit to this day.

Thread.

Ibrahim Khan, grandfather of Sher Shah Suri, migrated to Punjab from the foothills of the Sulaiman Mountains in D.I. Khan (present day Pakistan) where he made a career working for the fellow Pashtun nobles (Mohabat khan, Jamal Sarang etc.)

and received Jagir from them. Hassan Khan, son of Ibrahim Khan and father of Sher Shah, moved to Sasaram Bihar later. It was here* that Farid Khan (birth name of Sher Shah) was born during the reign of Ibrahim Lodhi.

Ibrahim Lodhi (reign 1517-1526), of the Pashtun Lodhi dynasty, was defeated by Zaheer-ud-Din Babur in April 1526, at Panipat that brought an end to the 75 yrs of Pashtuns rule of the Delhi Sultanate and marked the beginning of the Mughal rule in Hindustan.

https://twitter.com/NafeesRehmanDr/status/1252281931716341762

There is confusion if Sher Shah Suri was born in Sasaram (Bihar) and or in Hisar (Haryana). Tomb of Hasan Khan, father of Sher Shah Suri, is in Sasaram (photo on the left) while his grandfather’s tomb is in Hisar (photo on the right)

Just two years after Babur's victory over Ibrahim Lodhi in 1528, Babur noticed Sher Shah Suri in a banquet eating food with his dagger. Babur immediately felt threatened and wanted him arrested but was convinced by his nobles that such an act would antagonize Pashtuns.

Sher Shah Suri would prove Babur correct years later when Sher Shah Suri after taking over Bengal, started to wrestle away one area after another from Babur’s son Humayun’s control and ultimately forcing him to seek refuge in Kabul.

Map of Suri dynasty.

Sher Shah Suri reformed military to better prepare against the Mughals, and then to defend his Sultanate against enemy. Afghans flocked to enlist in his service and army because Sher Shah treated them well as he relied on them. He had declared to kill any Afghan who would refuse

to fight for him.

Read more about his military reforms here: khyber.org/history/a/mili…

Many do not know that Sher Shah Suri sent an envoy to the Ottoman court of Suleman the Magnificent in 1544 and concluded the first Afghan-Ottoman military alliance against the Persian empire. However, it fell apart with the death of Sher Shah in 1545.

Interestingly, Humayun was later supported by the Persian empire to take parts of Hindustan from the Suris when they were involved in the civil war among themselves in the mid-1550s.

Given the Mughal’s experience with the Pashtuns, Emperor Akbar left it as a law to his descendants to never appoint Pashtuns as governors, and as generals but only as soldiers, to never receive pay of more than Rs. 4,000/year. He didn’t want to lose the throne again to them.

Sher Shah died on this day in 1545. Her is a photo of his magnificent tomb in Sasaram.

Here is excellent summary of his grand reforms that he introduced in his very short few years of rule.

Give it a read: thefridaytimes.com/when-good-gove…

By the way, the Shere Khan character in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, the master orientalist whose writings have demonized Afghans across the globe, is named after Sher Khan aka Sher Shah Suri.

From there, the stereotypical character of “Sher Khan” was adopted in the English and Indian literature, cinema and Television (also later in Pakistani’s media) to portray Pashtuns in specific stereotypical roles.

Yes, also Abbas Khan Sarwani, the historian employed by Akbar, was a relative of Sher Shah Suri.

https://twitter.com/KhurramDehwar/status/1396120560678146051?s=20

Hunting and killing tigers/lions was a badge royals/princes had to earn to be recognized as brave & daring. The tiger that Farid Khan killed was however an act of spontaneous courage & skills. With that he earned himself the title of Sher Khan.

https://twitter.com/EastofAden/status/1396141562468442120?s=20

The few sources that I've seen attest the incident.

Bear in mind that some of literary/anthropological works produced during the Mughal period paint Pashtuns as a race not that good. They would taunt their language, culture, and origin - to take the pride & kill their spirits.

*to take the pride *away & kill their spirits.

In support of the above two tweets, I present this excerpt where the translator, Bahmadeva Prasad Ambhasthya, explains that Abul Fazl, the official court chronicler of Akbarnama, painted a very bad picture of Sher Shah only to look make Akbar's father good.

Munshi Syed Ahmad Murtaza, the author of the Saulat-e-Sher-Shahi, compiled his work because he was upset that the Mughal historians had deliberately painted a very inglorious picture of Sher Shah to please their masters despite the fact that Sher Shah had so much to his credit.

Roh, the ancestral village of Sher Shah Suri, called Zhaghri in Pashto and Ruhri in Seraiki. He belonged to Shere Khel sect of Sur tribe who were descendants of Sheikh Bet via Bibi Mato which makes him cousin of Bhittanis.

cc @khan_ar23, @MJKSaddozai

historyofpashtuns.blogspot.com/2015/12/ancest…

Acc. to this excerpt, Sher Shah got Roh, his ancestral village, from the Baloch chief Ismail Khan and in exchange granted him Ghakkar.

cc @KhurramDehwar (source:archive.org/details/in.ern…)

Indeed.

He had plans to extend his empire to *all of Asia, together with the Ottomans, and also wished to serve and take care of the Harmain Sharifain with them jointly. This he had told Rafiuddin Mohades , the envoy he sent to the Ottomans.

https://twitter.com/rafiullahkhans/status/1396206094817583106?s=20