Malik Ambar
The man who defied the Mughal Emperors.
The general – “as brave as the sun,” “wondrous in power,” a “man of most terrible deeds,” before whom enemies quaked in fear, “Defender of the Deccan”
This is the story of the African slave who became the hero of the Deccan. The man who defied the Mughal Emperors and the man who built the city. This is the story of Malik Ambar.
The story begins in 1540. A boy is born in Harar, Ethiopia. They named him Chapu. In those days, slavery was common in Africa.
An Arab bought him for 20 ducats and later sold him in Baghdad. The new master named him Ambar and trained him. Now he could read and write and do basic math.
In the early 1570s, fate brought Ambar to the Deccan. Chengiz Khan, the Chief Minister of the Nizam Shahi Sultanate, bought him along with a thousand other Habshis. Habshis was a term used for men from the Abyssinian highlands. Chengiz Khan himself was of African origin and made his way to the nobility.
Habshi men were often made soldiers due to their strength and loyalty. Some rose to higher ranks as officers or generals. A few even earned seats in the king’s court. Ambar’s intelligence and dignified conduct allowed him to rise through the ranks.
This rekindled the hope in Ambar. He realized that talent is valued in the mystifying lands of India, and even a slave can become a noble.
Ambar learned key skills in statecraft and generalship under Chengiz Khan’s guidance.
Unfortunately, Chengiz died in the 1570s, and Ambar was free. Gradually, he built his mercenary army. For 20 years, Ambar was a warlord who served different rulers in the Deccan with a band of fighters. Ambar’s mercenaries provided paid service to the Adilshahi for a brief period of time. Here, Ambar made a name for himself in nobility and became Malik Ambar.
In 1595, Ambar returned to Ahmadnagar. The Mughals wanted Ahmadnagar because of its key location. Controlling it would open the way into the Deccan Plateau and help them rule all of India.
His army grew to 7,000 men, with brave Marathas and tough Dakkhnis. It was a force of many races and peoples.
Later, Ambar married his daughter to the 20-year-old heir of Ahmadnagar. This made him look like the future ruler of the Nizam Shahi state.
Ambar grew to such a stature that he began to get into conflict with the Mughals themselves. The more times he defeated superior Mughal armies, the more men rallied to his side.
By 1610, he led 10,000 African troops, not to speak of 40,000 others, including Marathas. In 1610, he even managed to expel the Mughals from Ahmednagar Fort.
Malik Ambar was the first to use bargigiri, or guerrilla warfare, against the Mughals. The Marathas later made it their main weapon to rule the Deccan and then India.
After driving out the Mughals, Ambar built a new capital called Khirki (now Aurangabad). Soon, two lakh people lived there.With the help of his muscles and mind, Malik Ambar became the de facto ruler of the state. At the peak of his military success, people referred to the Nizam Shahi of the Western Deccan as Ambar’s land.
With the help of Maloji, he established a more efficient land revenue system, which was later used by Raja Shivaji.
Ambar never gave Akbar’s son the satisfaction of conquering the Deccan. Malik Ambar died when he was 80 years old. Upon his death, Emperor Jahangir’s surrogate diarist, Muttamid Khan, made an entry reporting:
“He had no equal in warfare, in command, in sound judgment, and in administration. History records no other instance of an Abyssinian slave arriving at such eminence.”
This is the story of a slave-turned-hero in the land of India.
