Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

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Portrait of Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (1580-1612 A.D.) was the fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in south India. He founded the city of Hyderabad, India and built its architectural centrepiece, the Charminar. He was an able administrator and his reign is considered one of the better periods of Qutb Shahi rule.

[edit] Hyderabad city

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah was the son of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded of the city of Hyderabad as an urban center in the vicinity of his capital, the fort of Golconda. The city was built on the southern bank of the Musi River. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah sent for architects from Iran to lay out the city, which was built on a grid plan. In 1652, the French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier compared Hyderabad to Orleans, "well built and opened out," and in 1672, Abbe Carre was much impressed by the city and termed it the center of all trade in the East.

The city of Hyderabad, or Bhagyanagar, was named after a local Telugu dancer named Bhagmati who lived in a cottage in the village of Chichlam, where the great edifice of Charminar stands. Legend has it that the young Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah loved Bhagmati dearly, and once rode out from the Golconda Fort to meet his beloved, braving the flood waters of the Musi River. He gave his paramour the name "Hyder Mahal," and named the city after her. This story may be apocryphal; however, Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah is recorded as having married a Telugu woman named Bhagmati.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah constructed the Charminar (literally "four towers") in 1591. The structure comprises of four tall and massive minarets connected to each other by four high arches and this resembles the archetypical triumphal arch. The Charminar stands at the crossroads of two broad intersecting streets; the location defined the center of the old city built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. A mosque stands on the wide floor created above the arches. Legend has it that Muhammad built the Charminar to commemorate the end of a plague epidemic. He is said to have prayed for the end of a plague that was ravaging his city and vowed to build a mosque at the very place where he was praying. The epidemic ended soon afterwards and Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah ordered the construction of the mosque which stands on the upper level of the Charminar.

[edit] Patronage of literature

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah was a scholar of Arabic and Persian. He wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian. His poetry has been compiled into a dewan or volume entitled "Quliyat Quli." Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah had the distinction of being the first Saheb-e-dewan Urdu poet and is credited with introducing a new sensibility into prevailing genres of Persian/Urdu poetry. It is said that the Urdu language acquired the status of a literary language due to his contributions.

Like his father, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah also supported Sanskrit and Telugu literature. It is not a surprise that Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah was able to speak Telugu and write poetry in Telugu, being the son of Bhageeradhi and husband of Bhagmati, both Telugu women. Unfortunately, his Telugu writings have been lost.