Ahmedabad is the largest city in the state of Gujarat. It is located in western India on the banks of the River Sabarmati. The city served as political as well as economical capital of the region since its establishment. The earliest settlement can be recorded around the 12th century under Chaulukya dynasty rule. The present city was founded on 26 February 1411 and announced as the capital on 4 March 1411 by Ahmed Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate as a new capital. Under the rule of sultanate (1411–1511) the city prospered followed by decline (1511–1572) when the capital was transferred to Champaner. For next 135 years (1572–1707), the city renewed greatness under the early rulers of Mughal Empire. The city suffered due to political instability (1707–1817) under late Mughal rulers followed by joint rule between Maratha and Mughal. The city further suffered following joint Maratha rule. The city again progressed when politically stabilized when British East India Company established the rule in the city (1818–1857). The city further renewed growth when it gain political freedom by establishment of municipality and opening of railway under British crown rule (1857–1947). Following arrival of Mahatma Gandhi in 1915, the city became centre stage of Indian independence movement. Many activists like Sardar Patel served the municipality of the city before taking part in the movement. After independence, the city was a part of Bombay state. When Gujarat was carved out in 1960, it again became the capital of the state until establishment of Gandhinagar in 1965. Ahmedabad is also the cultural and economical centre of Gujarat and the seventh largest city of India.
Early history
Chaulukya dynasty Al-Bīrūnī mentions Asāval as a trading town on the route from Anhilvada Patan to Cambay. In the eleventh century, Karṇa of Caulukya dynasty ruling from Anhilwad Patan (1072–1094) defeated and killed Āśā, the Bhil chieftain of Āśāpallī, near modern Ahmedabad. He then established a temple to the goddess Kocharabā and a temple to the goddess Jayantī at Āśāpallī. He also founded the nearby city of Karṇavatī where he reigned, erected a temple to Karṇeśvara, and excavated a tank called Karṇasāgara. None of these temples have survived to the present-day.
In 1053, the Kaach Masjid mosque was erected in the Tajpur quarter of modern Ahmedabad, only about twenty years after Mahmud of Ghazni's invasion of Gujarat.
Delhi Sultanate rule According to Jinaprabhā Sūri, there was a battle near Āśāpalli in 1299 between Karṇa of the Vaghela dynasty and Ullu Khāna (Ulugh Khān), general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler 'Alā ud-Dīn, which resulted in Karṇa's defeat and the end of his reign.
Gujarat Sultanate rule (1411–1572)
Zafar Khan Muzaffar (later Muzaffar Shah I) of Muzaffarid dynasty was appointed as governor of Gujarat by Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad bin Tughluq IV in 1391. Zafar Khan's father Sadharan, were Tāṅks converted to Islam, adopted the name Wajih-ul-Mulk, and had given his sister in marriage to Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Zafar Khan defeated Farhat-ul-Mulk near Anhilwad Patan and made the city his capital. When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. He declared himself independent in 1407 and founded the Gujarat Sultanate.
The next sultan, his grandson Ahmad Shah I defeated a Bhil or Koli chief of Ashaval, and founded the new city.
Foundation Date Ahmad Shah I laid the foundation of the city on 26 February 1411 (at 1.20 pm, Thursday, the second day of Dhu al-Qi'dah, Hijri year 813) at Manek Burj. He chose it as the new capital on 4 March 1411.
Legend Ahmed Shah I, while camping on the banks of the Sabarmati River, saw a hare chasing a dog. The sultan was intrigued by this and asked his spiritual adviser for explanation. The sage pointed out unique characteristics in the land which nurtured such rare qualities which turned a timid hare to chase a ferocious dog. Impressed by this, the sultan, who had been looking for a place to build his new capital, decided to found the capital here.
Origin of name Ahmad Shah I, in honour of four Ahmads, himself, his religious teacher Shaikh Ahmad Khattu, and two others, Kazi Ahmad and Malik Ahmad, named it Ahmedabad.
The story is that the king, by the aid of the saint Shaikh Ahmad Khattu, called up the prophet Elijah or Khidr, and from him got leave to build a city if he could find four Ahmads who had never missed the afternoon prayer. A search over Gujarat yielded two, the saint was the third, and the king the fourth. The four Ahmads are said to have been helped by twelve Babas; these were Baba Khoju, Baba Laru, and Baba Karamal, buried at Dholka; Baba Ali Sher and Baba Mahmud buried at Sarkhej; a second Baba Ali Sher who used to sit stark naked; Baba Tavakkul buried in the Nasirabad suburb, Baba Lului buried in Manjhuri, Baba Ahmad Nagori buried near the Nalband mosque, Baba Ladha buried near the Halim ni Khidki, Baba Dhokal buried between the Shahpur and Delhi gates, Baba Sayyid buried in Viramgam. There is a thirteenth Baba Kamil Kirmini about whom authorities are not agreed.
1411–1511
Ahmed Shah I laid the foundation of Bhadra Fort starting from Manek Burj, the first bastion of the city in 1411 which was completed in 1413. He also established the first square of the city, Manek Chowk, both associated with the legend of Hindu saint Maneknath. Square in form, enclosing an area of about forty-three acres, and containing 162 houses, the Bhadra fort had eight gates, three large, two in the east and one in the south-west corner; three middle-sized, two in the north and one in the south; and two small, in the west. The construction of Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad completed in 1423. As the city expanded, the city wall was expanded. Ahmed Shah I died in 1443 and was succeeded by his eldest son Muizz-ud-Din Muhammad Shah (Muhammad Shah I) who expanded the kingdom to Idar and Dungarpur. He died in 1451 and was succeeded by his son Qutbuddin Ahmad Shah II who ruled for short span of seven years. After the death of Qutbuddin Ahmad Shah II in 1458, the nobles raised his uncle Daud Khan to the throne. But within a short period of seven or twenty-seven days, the nobles deposed him and set on the throne Fath Khan, son of Muhammad Shah II. Fath Khan, on his accession, adopted the title Abu-al Fath Mahmud Shah but he was popularly known as Mahmud Begada. He received the sobriquet Begada, which literally means conqueror of two forts, probably after conquering Girnar and Champaner forts. So the second fortification was carried out by Mahmud Begada in 1486, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, with an outer wall 10 km (6.2 mi) in circumference and consisting of 12 gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements as described in Mirat-i-Ahmadi. He planted its streets with trees, adorned the city and suburbs with splendid buildings, and with much care fostered its traders and craftsmen. Though Champaner became capital of the sultanate in 1484, Ahmedabad was still greater, very rich and well supplied with many orchards and gardens, walled, and embellished with good streets, squares, and houses. So closely did he look after its welfare that if he heard of an empty house or shop he ordered it to be filled. In 1509, Ahmedabad trade started to affect by entry of Portuguese. Mahmud died on 23 November 1511.
In the early years of the sultanate, the city reached from Bhadra Fort until Jama Mosque. Between the two buildings settled many merchants, especially arms dealers and luxury goods manufacturers. Eventually various amirs (nobles) set up their own suburban settlements around the city called Puras, of which eventually numbered over a hundred throughout the city's history.
1511–1572 Mahmud was succeeded by Muzaffar Shah II who ruled until 1526. He was succeeded by Bahadur Shah. During his reign, Gujarat was under pressure from the expanding Mughal Empire under emperors Babur (died 1530) and Humayun (1530–1540), and from the Portuguese, who were establishing fortified settlements on the Gujarat coast to expand their power in India from their base in Goa. He preferred Champaner to Ahmedabad and expanded his reign to central India and to South Gujarat. Bahadur Shah repelled Siege of Diu by Portuguese in 1531 with help of Ottoman Empire and signed Treaty of Bassein. For short period of 1535, Mughal emperor Humayun conquered Gujarat and appointed his brother Aaskari, the governor of Ahmedabad. Bahadur Shah allied with Portuguese and regained power in 1535 but was killed by Portuguese in February 1537. In the disorders that followed his death, the power of the Gujarat Sultans waned, their revenues fell, and the capital, its trade crippled by Portuguese competition, was impoverished and harassed by the constant quarrels of unruly nobles. The capital was shifted back to Ahmedabad in 1537. Following Siege of Diu in 1538, the Portuguese secured the greater part of the profits that formerly enriched the merchants of Ahmedabad. In 1554 the partition of Gujarat among the nobles, leaving to the nominal king Ahmad Shah II (1554–1561), only the city and neighbourhood of Ahmedabad further affected the city. It was captured by Chingiz Khan in 1571 and later by Alaf Khan. In 1571, the city had twelve wards within the walls and others outside. Its chief industries were the manufacture of silk, gold and silver thread, and lac. It yielded a yearly revenue of £155,000 (Rs. 15,50,000) as of 1860.
Social institutions to safeguard various economic interests included the mahajans, guilds of merchants, and panches, guilds for artisans. The leader of the community, who came from the Jain business elites, was known as the nagarsheth, who would resolve disputes between mahajans and individuals and who interceded with royal officials. Under the nagarsheth, the city remained free from interference from the state or other powers.Blackburn, Stuart H., and Vasudha Dalmia, editors, India's Literary History, "Chapter 11: Dalpatram and the Nature of Literary Shifts in Nineteenth-Century Ahmedabad" by Svati Joshi, pp 338–357, published by Orient Blackswan, 2004 , retrieved Google Books (partial) version, 16 December 2008
Mughal rule (1572–1707)