Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan (died 1339), initially Hasan Kaithali,[1] also known as Jalal al-Din Ahsan Shah,[2] was the first SultanofMadurai Sultanate and father-in-law of the great traveller Ibn Battuta.
His original name was Sayyid Hasan Kaithali or Kithli, the nisba 'Kaithali' distinguishing his origin from the village of Kaithal, HaryanainNorthern India.[3]
In 1335, Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, the Muslim Governor of Madurai, declared his independence and established the independent sultanate of Madurai.[4] As a response to his rebellion, the Sultan of Delhi punished the Sayyid and other Indian Muslim inhabitants of Kaithal out of spite for Ahsan Khan as he belonged to Kaithal.[5] He claimed the whole of the Delhi Sultanate province of Ma'bar which included a small part of the ancient Tamil country.[4] However, he scarcely had any authority beyond the realm of the Pandyas and the territory to the north of the river Kaveri was largely independent under the Cholas and the Hoysalas.[6]
Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan took over as the independent sultan of Madurai in 1335.[7]Ferishta, however, gives a date of 1341 for his assumption of the sultanate.[8] Ferishta refers to Ahsan Khan as Syed, Hasan and Husun.[8] Ahsan Khan was also the father-in-law of the Moorish traveller Ibn Battuta.[8] Immediately, Muhammad bin Tughluq sent an army to reassert his control over the region. But Ahsan Khan easily defeated this army.[8] Tughluq took his revenge by killing Ahsan Khan's son Ibrahim who was the purse-bearer of the Emperor. Ahsan Khan was killed in 1340 by one of his nobles after having ruled for a brief span of 5 years.
^Qanungo (1960). Historical Essays. p. 142. Sayyid Hassan Kaithali...half a dozen Hasans, each distinguished from the other by an epithet indicative either of domicile or of birth
