Sheikh Hamid

Sheikh Hamid Lodi/Lawi was the founder of the Lodi dynasty of Multan. He ruled the Emirate of Multan from 985 to 997.

Biography

Hamid's origins are disputed. According to some scholars, Hamid was supposedly a descendant of Sama (or Usama) Lawi who was son of Ghalib Lawi.^[1]^[2] Other sources state that he was from the Lodi tribe of Pashtuns.^[3]^[4]^[5] According to Samuel Miklos Stern, the Lodi dynasty itself might have been fabricated as its mention only starts appearing with later historians like Firishta.^[6]

According to Firishta, the Hindu Shahi king Jayapala ceded the regions of Multan and Lamghan to Hamid, after joining an alliance with him and the Muslim emir of Bhera against the raids of Sabuktigin during the reign of Alp-Tegin. Sabuktigin upon becoming amir in Ghazni broke up this alliance through diplomatic means and convinced Hamid Lodi to acknowledge his overlordship.^[7]

He ruled the Emirate of Multan after the death of the Fatimid da'i Jalam ibn Shaban around 985 AD. He was succeeded by his grandson, Fateh Daud.^[8]

Later mentions

Hamid prominently comes up in one of the poems of Ahmad Shah Durrani as he invokes the memories of past prominent Afghan rulers in India (such as Sher Shah Suri).^[9]

Hearts are filled with the blood of love for you,

On your way, youth lay down their heads.

When I come back to you my heart calms down.

Without you, my worries are like snakes on my heart.

No matter how many countries of this world become mine,

I will never forget your beautiful gardens

I forget the throne of Delhi when I remember,

The mountain tops of my beautiful Pashtunkhwa

I shall throw around the goods of my enemy's life

When the Pashtuns strike with their blades.

The times of Farid and Hamid will return

As I launch my raids in all directions.

Even if the whole world is on one side and you are on the other,

I love your barren and desolate steppes more.

Ahmad Shah will never forget your value,

Even if he conquers the countries of the whole world.^[10]

References

[1]
MacLean, Derryl N. (20 October 2023). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. BRILL. p. 533. ISBN 978-90-04-66929-1.
[2]
Seyfeydinovich, Asimov, Muhammad; Edmund, Bosworth, Clifford; UNESCO (31 December 1998). History of civilizations of Central Asia: The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century. UNESCO Publishing. p. 302-303. ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
[3]
"Lōdīs". referenceworks. Retrieved 22 May 2024. "The Lōdīs are related to a clan of the Ghilzay tribe of Afghanistān [see ghalzay] and ruled over parts of north India for 77 years. Afghāns came to the Indus plains from Rōh [q.v.] as early as 934/711-12 with the army of Muḥammad b. Ķāsim, the conqueror of Sind, and allied themselves politically with the Hindū-Shāhī [q.v.] rulers of Lahore, and receiving part of Lāmghān [see lāmghānāt ] for settlement, built a fort in the mountains of Peshawar to protect ¶ the Pandjāb from raids. During Alptigin's government at Ghazna, when his commander-in-chief Sebüktigin raided Lāmghān and Multān, the Afghans sought help from Rādjā Djaypāl who appointed their chief, Shaykh Ḥamīd Lōdī, viceroy of the wilāyats of Lamghān and Multān. Shaykh Ḥamīd appointed his own men as governors of those districts, and thereby the Afghāns gained political importance; their settlements stretched southwards from Lāmghān to Multān, incorporating the tracts of Bannū and Dērā Ismā'īl Khān. Later, a family of the Lōdī tribe settled at Multān, which was ruled in 396/1005 by Abu 'l-Fatḥ Dāwūd, a grandson of Shaykh Ḥamīd.
[4]
Lal, Kishori Saran (1969). Studies in Asian History: Proceedings of the Asian History Congress, 1961. [Published for the] Indian Council for Cultural Relations [by] Asia Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-210-22748-0.
[5]
Ahmad, Zulfiqar (1988). Notes on Punjab and Mughal India: Selections from Journal of the Punjab Historical Society. Sang-e-Meel Publications. p. 533.
[6]
Samuel Miklos Stern (October 1949). "Ismā'ili Rule and Propaganda in Sīnd". Islamic Culture. 23. Islamic Culture Board: 303.
[7]
Yogendra Mishra (1972). The Hindu Sahis of Afghanistan and the Punjab, A.D. 865-1026: A Phase of Islamic Advance Into India. Vaishali Bhavan. pp. 100–103.
[8]
N. A. Baloch; A. Q. Rafiqi (1998). "The regions of Sind, Baluchistan, Multan and Kashmir". History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume 4. UNESCO. pp. 297–298. ISBN 9789231034671.
[9]
Pelevin, Mikhail (28 July 2025). Love, Honour and God: Pashto Writings of Early Modern Times. BRILL. p. 333–334. ISBN 978-90-04-73735-8.
[10]
Pelevin 2025, p. 333.

Biography

Later mentions

References

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