Malik Ambar (1548 – 13 May 1626) was a military leader who served as the Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in the Deccan region of India.
Born in the Adal Sultunate, in present-day Ethiopia, Malik was sold by a slave merchant and brought to India as a slave. There he created a mercenary force numbering greater than 50,000 men. It was based in the Deccan region and was hired by local kings. Malik became a popular Prime Minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, showing administrative acumen.
He is also regarded as a pioneer in guerrilla warfare in the region. He is credited with carrying out a revenue settlement of much of the Deccan, which formed the basis for subsequent settlements. He is a figure of veneration to the Siddis of Gujarat. He challenged the might of the Mughals and Adil Shahs of Bijapur and raised the low status of the Nizam Shah.
Early life
Malik Ambar was born in 1548 in Harar as Chapu. Mir Qasim Al Baghdadi, one of his slave owners eventually converted Chapu to Islam from traditional religion and gave him the name Ambar, after recognizing his superior intellectual qualities. Ambar is believed to have been of Oromo descent While other sources claim he was from the Maya tribe.
Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the Orthodox Christian Ethiopian Empire (led by the Solomonic dynasty) and adjacent Muslim states such as the Oromos gathered many of their slaves from non-Abrahamic communities inhabiting regions like Kambata, Damot and Hadya, which were located to the south of their territory. Malik Ambar was among the people who were converted to Islam, and later dispatched abroad to serve as a warrior. According to the Futuhat-i `Adil Shahi, Malik Ambar was sold into slavery by his parents. He ended up in al-Mukha in Yemen, where he was sold again for 20 ducats and was taken to the slave market in Baghdad, where he was sold a third time to the Qadi al-Qudat of Mecca and again in Baghdad to Mir Qasim al-Baghdadi, who eventually took him to Deccan Plateau. He was described by the Dutch merchant Pieter van den Broecke as, "a black kafir from Abyssinia with a stern Roman face."
Malik Ambar was then purchased by Chengiz Khan, a former Habshi slave who served as the peshwa or chief minister of the Sultanate of Ahmadnagar.
Political Background
Ethiopian Christian slaves, known as the Habshis, were recruited in the Deccan since the rule of the Bahmanid empire, founded by North Indian Muslims known as the Deccanis. Slaves were generally recruited where hereditary authority was weak, such as in the case of the Deccan, where a deadly and violent struggle between the two dominant and antagonistic factions within the Bahmanid empire, the Deccanis (Indian Muslims) and the Westerners (Persian migrants from the Gulf), caused a chronically unstable environment which created a market for culturally alien military labor. The interdependent relationship between the Deccanis and the Habshis engendered bonds of mutual trust, as the Deccanis had both kin and inherited authority, but lacked sufficient numbers, while the Habshis were able to provide support while lacking kin and inherited authority. This explained why high ranking army commanders were willing to entrust their most important official duties to their Habshi slaves. As the Habshi slaves became freemen on the death of their masters, continuing the military careers as freelancers, they generally allied themselves politically and culturally with the Deccani class in their rivalry against the Persians, embracing the Deccani Muslim identity and language.
Career
Once his master died, Malik Ambar was freed by his master's wife. He got married, and after getting freed, Ambar briefly served the Sultan of Bijapur and gained the title "Malik" during this time. But Ambar quit this service after citing insufficient support before entering service in the Nizam Shahi Army.