Ibrahim Adil Shah II was Sultan of the Sultanate of Bijapur and a member of the Adil Shahi dynasty. Under his reign the dynasty had its greatest period as he extended its frontier as far south as Mysore. He was a skilful administrator, artist, poet and a generous patron of the arts. He reverted to the Sunni orthodoxy of Islam, but remained tolerant of other religions, including Christianity. However, during his reign high-ranking Shiite immigrants became unwelcome and in 1590, he ordered the confinement of criers who read the khutba in the Shia form. After his reign, increasing weakness permitted Mughal encroachment and the successful revolt of the Maratha king Shivaji, who killed the Bijapur general Afzal Khan and scattered his army. The dynasty left a tradition of cosmopolitan culture and artistic patronage whose architectural remains are to be seen in the capital city of Bijapur.
A portrait of Ibrahim Adil Shah II
A Deccani courtier who may or may not be the king himself, c.1600
Ibrahim Adil Shah II
Tomb in Ibrahim Rauza, Bijapur
The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi, was a Shia, and later Sunni Muslim, dynasty founded by Yusuf Adil Shah, that ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur, centred on present-day Bijapur district, Karnataka in India, in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1489 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347–1518), and member of the Deccan Sultanates, before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518. The Bijapur Sultanate was fully absorbed into the Mughal Empire on 12 September 1686, after its conquest by the Emperor Aurangzeb.
Ibrahim Adil Shah II
Sultan Ali Adil Shah II hunting a tiger, c 1660
A painting of "The House of Bijapur" was completed in the year 1680, during the reign of Sikandar Adil Shah the last ruler of the Adil Shahi dynasty.
Chand Bibi, the regent of Bijapur (1580–90)