Alī Mubārak (), better known by his

regnal title A regnal title is the title held by a monarch while in office. Monarchs can have various titles, including king or queen, prince or princess (Sovereign Prince of Monaco), emperor or empress (Emperor of Japan, Emperor of India), or even duke or grand ...

`Alā ad-Dīn `Alī Shāh (, ; r. 1338–1342) was an independent

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

of Lakhnauti in

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. He was the foster brother of

Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was the founder of the Sultanate of Bengal and its inaugural Ilyas Shahi dynasty. The Ilyas Shahi Dynasty ruled Bengal for 145 years (1342–1487), except for a 21-year interregnum by the House of Ganesha, descendants of R ...

, the eventual founder of the

Bengal Sultanate The Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: , Classical Persian: ) was a Post-classical history, late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region in the eastern South Asia between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges- ...

History

Ali was born into a noble

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family belonging to the

Turco-Persian tradition The composite Turko-Persian, Turco-Persian,
''Turko-Persia in historical perspective'', Cambridge University Press, ...

that had expanded into

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. He worked under

Malik Firuz Jalal-ud-Din Khalji, also known as Firuz al-Din Khalji, Jalaluddin Khilji or Firuz II (Persian; جلال الدین خلجی c. 1220 – 19 July 1296, ) was the founder and first Sultan of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate of I ...

in the city of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

. Later being ousted from Delhi, Ali moved to

where he worked as the ''Ariz-i-Mumalik'' (army administrator) of Qadar Khan, the Governor of Lakhnauti. After Khan's death, Ali killed the deputy-governor and ascended to the power of Lakhnauti in 1339 by taking the opportunity of Sultan

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (; ; 1290 – 20 March 1351), or Muhammad II, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, further known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from 4 February 1 ...

's involvement in other areas of his Sultanate. Around the same time, in 1338,

Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah (, ; reigned: 1338–1349), also known simply as Fakhra, was the founder of an independent sultanate and the Mubarak Shahi Dynasty, comprising modern-day eastern and southeastern Bangladesh. His kingdom was centred in the ...

Sonargaon Sonargaon (; ; Literary translation, lit. ''Golden Hamlet (place), Hamlet'') is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division. Sonargaon is one of the old capitals of ...

and

Satgaon Saptagram (colloquially called ''Satgaon'') was an ancient major port, the chief city and sometimes capital of southern Bengal, in ancient and medieval times of Bengal, the location presently being in the Hooghly district in the Indian state of ...

, the founder of the

Ilyas Shahi dynasty The Ilyas Shahi dynasty (, ) was the first independent dynasty to set the foundations of the late medieval Sunni Muslim Sultanate of Bengal. Their rule extended from 1342 to 1487, though interrupted with interregna by their slaves as well as th ...

, who is sometimes referred to as Alauddin's foster brother, became independent as well, and thus began a tripartite power struggle in Bengal.

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

described the struggle between him and Fakhruddin Shah as a bitter one. During his rule of nearly three years, he transferred his capital from Lakhnauti to

Hazrat Pandua Pandua, also historically known as Hazrat Pandua and later Firuzabad, is a ruined city in the Malda district of the Indian state of West Bengal. It served as the capital city of the independent Sultanate of Bengal for nearly a century, until t ...

. In 1342, he was defeated and killed in a battle against

History

References

Further reading