Introduction and Identification of Guilani immigrants to India Focusing on Deccan 1400-1700 AD

In the time period between 15th and 18th centuries AD, different groups of Iranian poets, Sufis, scholars and scientists moved to India and became sources of prominent services to the Iranian history and culture in the Indian Subcontinent. Political changes of Guilan in the Safavid period, especially in the time of Shah Tahmasb and Shah Abbas I, made some groups of this region’s great figures set off for the land of maharajahs. Along with brief identification of 37 Guilani immigrants to northern India, this survey tries to introduce 15 Guilani immigrants, especially Mahmud Gavan, the strong Shiite vizier of Bahmanid period. It also tries to study the roles of these immigrants in the Persian-speaking Muslim kingdoms of Deccan. This study is based on the researchers’ visit to southern India and their making use of qualitativequantitative method as well as making use of documents and proofs as fundamental principles of this study. The achieved information shows that presence of Mahmud Gavan Guilani in the court of Bahmanids and in the courts of kings such as Ahmad Shah Bahmani, Muhammad Qutub Shah and Ali Adil Shah has had great role in absorption of these immigrants to Deccan.