the smallest of the five Deccan sultanates. The Sultanate was founded by Qasim Barid I, who was Georgian enslaved by Turks. He joined the service of Bahmani ruler Mahmud Shah Bahmani () as a sar-naubat (commander), and later became a mir-jumla (governor) of the Bahmani Sultanate. In 1492, he became de facto ruler of Bahmani, although Sultan Mahmud Shah Bahmani remained as the nominal ruler. After Mahmud Shah Bahmani's death in 1504, his son Amir Barid controlled the administration of the Bahmani Sultanate. In 1528, with the flight of the last Bahmani ruler, Kalimullah, from Bidar, Amir Barid became practically an independent ruler. Amir Barid was succeeded by his son Ali Barid, who was the first to assume the title of shah. Ali Barid participated in the Battle of Talikota and was fond of poetry and calligraphy. The last ruler of the Bidar Sultanate, Amir Barid Shah III, was defeated in 1619, and the sultanate was annexed to the Bijapur Sultanate. Rulers Qasim Barid I (1492–1504) Amir Barid I (1504–1542) Ali Barid Shah I (1542–1580) Ibrahim Barid Shah (1580–1587) Qasim Barid Shah II (1587–1591) Ali Barid Shah II (1591) Amir Barid Shah II (1591–1600) Mirza Ali Barid Shah III (1600–1609) Amir Barid Shah III (1609–1619) Bijapur Sultanate Located in southwestern India, straddling the Western Ghats range of southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, the Bijapur Sultanate was ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty from 1490 to 1686. The founder of the dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah, may have been a Georgian slave who was purchased by Mahmud Gawan from Iran. The Adil Shahis were originally provincial governors of the Bahmani Sultanate; but with the break-up of the Bahmani state after 1518, Ismail Adil Shah established an independent sultanate. Ismail Adil Shah and his successors embellished the capital at Bijapur with numerous monuments. Ibrahim Adil Shah I switched to a Deccani Muslim identity, and converted strongly to Sunni Islam, the religion of the Deccani Muslims. He deviated from the traditions of his predecessor and introduced many innovations in the political and religious policies, discontinuing previous Shia practices and restoring the exercise of the Sunni Islamic practices. He degraded most of the afaqi(foreign) faction (with a few exceptions), and in their place enrolled the Deccani Muslims to services. Consequently, he brought Sunni Muslims to power and ended Shia domination by dismissing them from their posts The Adil Shahis fought the Vijayanagara Empire, which lay