Siyāsa in the Bahmani Sultanate and the Death of Maḥmūd Gāwān

Abstract This article is a contribution to the history of Islamic law in South Asia, more particularly in the Bahmani Sultanate (748–934/1347–1528), an important power in the Deccan. There is at present no body of scholarship on law and justice in the Bahmani Sultanate. This article takes up the study of the sultanate’s legal history through the topic of siyāsa , i.e. the sultanic power to judge over subjects independently and exercise discretion. Based on an analysis of Persian and Arabic sources on one outstanding siyāsa case, Muḥammad Shāh Bahmanī’s order in 886/1481 to decapitate his vizier Maḥmūd Gāwān, I argue that Bahmani siyāsa rested on the legal concept of corruption ( fasād ), concerns about social stability, and the view that officials are vicariously liable. I also discuss how historians retold the event in order to express their visions of siyāsa .