GULBARGA (Golbarga@),city and district in the central Deccan, India. The city, located at 17° 21 ´ N and 76° 51 ´ E, belonged, prior to 1947, to the territory of the Nezáa@m of Hyderabad. It became the first capital of the Bahmanid dynasty (748-934/1347-1527; q.v.) when, in 748/1347, a rebel Tughluqid commander, perhaps a descendant of the Kakuyids of Isfahan (398-443/1008-51), was proclaimed sultan of the Deccan as ¿Ala@÷-al-Din H®asan Bahman Shah. The city, which retained the mint-name of Ahásana@ba@d, was the residence of eight sultans: Bahman Shah (748-59/1347-58), Moháammad I (759-76/1358-75), ¿Ala@÷-al-Din Moja@hed (776-80/1375-78) Da@÷ud I, (780/1378), Moháammad II (780-99/1378-97), GÚia@t¯-al-Din Taham-tan (799/1397), ˆams-al-Din Da@÷ud II (799/1397), and Ta@j-al-Din Firuz Shah (800-25/1397-1422). Firuz Shah's brother, ˆeha@b-al-Din Ahámad Shah I Wali (825-39/1422-36), around 827/1424, transferred the capital to the more salubrious and strategically superior location of Bidar/Moháammada@ba@d (q.v.). The Bahmanids of Gulbarga were celebrated as patrons of Persian culture. The poet ¿Abd-al-Malek ¿Esáa@mi (q.v.) dedicated his Fotuhá al-sala@tÂin, known as the ˆa@h-na@ma of India, to Bahman Shah. The hedonistic Moháammad I brought to Gulbarga from Delhi musicians and singers with firsthand acquaintance of the Indo-Persian musical style of Amir K¨osrow Dehlavi (q.v.), and either Moháammad I or Moháammad II may have been the Bahmanid ruler who, according to tradition, almost prevailed upon H®a@fezá to join his entourage (S®afa@, Adabiya@t IV, pp. 1069-70). Ta@j-al-Din Firuz Shah exceeded all his predecessors as a patron of those Persian exiles and adventurers, known as a@fa@qis, who formed a distinct court faction pitted against the rival Dakònis. Among the surviving Bahmanid monuments of Gulbarga, the massive citadel, built or rebuilt by Bahman Shah, contains only two surviving contemporary or near-contemporary buildings: a rectangular donjon or keep, perhaps of pre-Bahmanid date, and the Ja@me¿ Mosque, built for Moháammad I by the Persian architect, Rafi¿ b. ˆams b. Mansáur Qazvini (Haig, pp. 1-2). Unique among Indian mosques in being entirely covered, its style has reminded some observers more of Andalus or Mag@reb than of Persia. It has also been suggested that it was not originally intended as a congregational mosque, but as a multi-purpose public building (Schotten-Merklinger, p. 22). This mosque, together with the ˆa@h Ba@za@r mosque (also attributed, on stylistic grounds, to the reign of Mo-háammad I), may be said to have initiated a distinctive Deccani–Islamic architectural idiom. By contrast, the royal mausoleums of Gulbarga reflect the style of Tughluqid Delhi. Located in two distinct clusters, six stand west of the fort and include the tombs of Bahman Shah, Moháammad I, and Moháammad II. East of the fort are seven more (known locally as the Haft Gonbad), including the tombs of Moja@hed and Da@÷ud I, and the twin-domed mausoleum of Firuz Shah which marks the beginning of a distinctive Bahmanid style of architecture. Ahámad Shah erected in Gulbarga a mausoleum for his spiritual mentor, the Ùeæti shaikh Sayyed Moháammad Gisu Dera@z (q.v.), around which the present darga@h has grown up, but in transferring his capital to Bidar, he also transferred his allegiance from the Ùeætis to the Ne¿mat-Alla@his, whom he brought from Kerma@n. Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see "Short References"): J. Burton-Page, "Gulbarga@," in EI2 II, p. 1135. Z. A. Desai, "Architecture: the Bahmanis," in H. K. Sherwani and P. M. Joshi, eds., History of Medieval Deccan, Hyderabad, 1974, II, pp. 229-304. R. M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India, Princeton, 1978. ¿Abd-al-Malek Esáa@mi, Fotuhá al-sala@tÂin, ed. A. S. Usha, Madras, 1948. Fereæta, tr. Briggs, II, pp. 175-254. T. W. Haig, "Inscriptions in Gulbarga," Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica, 1907-08, pp. 1-10. S. A. Q. Husaini, Bahman Shah: The Founder of the Bahmani Kingdom, Calcutta, 1960. G. Michell and R. Eaton, Firuzabad, Palace City of the Deccan, Oxford, 1992. H. K. Sherwani, "Ta@ju'd-din Firo@z and the Synthesis of Bahmani Culture," New Indian Antiquary 6, 1943-44, pp. 75-89. Idem, "Cultural Influences under Ahámad Sha@h Wali Bahmani," Islamic Culture 18, 1944, pp. 364-76. Idem, The Bahmanis of the Deccan, Hyderabad, 1953. M. S. Siddiqi, The Bahmani Sufis, Delhi, 1989. E. E. Speight, "The Coins of the Bahmani Kings of the Deccan," Islamic Culture 9, 1935, pp. 268-307. Sayyed ¿Ali T®aba@tÂaba@÷i, Borha@n-e ma÷a@t¯er, Delhi, 1936; tr. T. S. King as "History of the Bahmani Dynasty," Indian Antiquary, 1899, pp. 119-38, 141-55, 180-92, 209-19, 235-47, 277-92, 305-23. E. Schotten-Merklinger, Indian Islamic Architecture: The Deccan 1347-1686, Warminster, 1981. Idem, "gulbarga," in G. Michell, ed., Islamic heritage of Deccan, Bombay, 1986, pp. 27-41. H. K. Sherwani and J. Burton-Page, "Bahmanis," in EI2 I, pp. 923-26. S. Toy, The Fortified Cities of India, London, 1965. G. Yazdani, "The Great Mosque of Gulbarga," Islamic Culture 2, 1928, pp. 14-21. (Gavin R. G. Hambly)