Alauddin Husain Shah

Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ (1494–1519) was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal after assassinating the Abyssinian Sultan, Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah, whom he had served under as wazir. After his death in 1519, his son Nusrat Shah succeeded him. The reigns of Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the "golden age" of the Bengal sultanate. Alauddin Husain Shah had Sayyid of Arab or Afghan ancestry. The Riyaz-us-Salatin mentions Husain's father Sayyid Ashraf Al-Husaini later inhabiting Termez (in Turkestan) for a long period before settling in the Chandpur mouza of Rarh (western Bengal). Husain and his elder brother, Yusuf, spent their childhood studying under the local Qadi, who later married his daughter to Husain due to his noble background. Chandpur is often equated to the village of Chandpara in Murshidabad district, where a number of inscriptions can be founded during the early part of Husain's reign. Husain had also constructed the Kherur Mosque in Chandpara in the first year of his reign in 1494. A lake in this village, called Shaikher Dighi, is also associated with Husain. Krishnadasa Kaviraja, a Vaishnavist author born during Husain's reign, claims that Husain worked for Subuddhi Rai, a revenue officer in the erstwhile Bengali capital Gaur, and was severely whipped during the excavation of a lake. Local traditions in Murshidabad also claim that Husain was the rakhal (cow-keeper) for a Brahmin in Chandpara. On the other hand, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's writings make mention of a manuscript found in the former Bengali capital Pandua which labels Husain as a native of a village named Devnagar in Rangpur who seized an opportunity to redeem the throne of Bengal that his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, had held seventy years prior. There are local traditions in Rangpur which claim that he was indeed a native of that area. It is said that it was Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah who had ousted his grandfather Sultan Ibrahim, and as a result, Husain's father and family migrated to Kamata.