Born Chapu in the Ethiopian highlands, Malik Ambar traveled halfway across the world to the Indian Deccan, where he rose to kingmaker and served as the Peshwa of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. He joined hands with Maratha leaders, using alliances, jagirs and military innovations. The alliance formed the basis of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s strategy against Mughal rule.
“India and Ethiopia share warmth, both in climate and in spirit. Nearly 2,000 years ago, our ancestors built connections across the great waters. Across the Indian Ocean, merchants sailed with spices and gold, but they traded more than goods; they exchanged ideas and a way of life. Ports like Addis and Dholera were not just centers of trade, but bridges between civilizations. In modern times, our relationship enters a new era, as Indian soldiers fought alongside Ethiopians to liberate Ethiopia in 1941,” Prime Minister Modi said on Wednesday.
HOW MALIK AMBAR, ADDICT, CONVERSE TO ISLAM, REACHED INDIA
Born Chapu in 1548 in Harar, present-day Ethiopia, Malik Ambar belonged to an ethnic group associated with the Oromo or now extinct Mayan tribe.
Chapu was captured as a boy during conflicts in the region and sold for 20 ducats to Arab traders in Yemen, the Deccan Heritage Foundation says. He was then transported to Baghdad, converted to Islam and renamed “Ambar” by his owner, Mir Qasim al-Baghdadi, who recognized his intelligence.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s it was purchased by Changiz Khan, a former “Habshi” who had been enslaved in India. This trade marked Ambar’s arrival in the Indian Deccan.
“Chengiz Khan was the regent minister to the Sultan of Nizam Shai in Ahmadnagar. For twenty years, the Ethiopian, now Muslim, loyally served Khan, an Ethiopian like him who converted to Islam but, unlike Ambar, was no longer enslaved,” said Omar H Ali, associate professor of African-American and diaspora studies, in his research paper.
MALIK AMBAR: RISE FROM A SLAVE TO SOLDIER, THEN A PESHWA
“During this period, Ambar took on increasing responsibility at the Nizam’s court, where he observed and learned diplomacy, military strategy and organizational experiences that he carried with him into the next long period of his life as a free man,” Omar H Ali added.
After the death of his master around 1575, Ambar was freed by the former’s widow, whom he later married.
He began his military career with the Bijapur Sultanate, earning the title “Malik” for bravery, before defecting to the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in 1595. By 1600, amid Mughal invasions, he became regent and Peshwa under regional puppet sultans, building a militia of over 50,000 including “Habshis” and local Deccanis.
“It was precisely in this context of a Mughal military presence in the northern Deccan, and of sharply contrasting visions of socio-political solidarity represented by the two parties, that Malik Ambar came to prominence,” noted scholars Indrani Chaterjee and Richard Maxwell in their 2006 book, Slavery & South Asian History.
HOW ETHIOPIAN AMBAR BROUGHT TIES WITH SHIVAJI’S FATHER
Ambar then forged alliances with Maratha leaders such as Chatrapati Shivaji’s grandfather, Maloji Bhosale, and his father, Shahaji Bhosale, and united the Deccan forces against the “invaders” from Delhi.
Malik Ambar’s legacy “was continued by Shivaji and his successors and shaped the Marathas’ ongoing struggle for independence against Mughal rule,” said Azhar Mallick and Mohd Alfaz Ali, doctoral researchers at Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi.
“Are [Malik Ambar’s] innovations became the basis of Shivaji’s military strategy, allowing the Marathas to effectively resist Mughal expansion for generations… Ambar’s influence on the Maratha movement is clearly evident in his relationship with Shahaji Bhonsale, Shivaji’s father. Shahaji was deeply influenced by his military strategies and administrative principles. Further, Ambar strengthened Maratha influence by awarding land holdings (jagirs) to Maloji Bhosale, Shivaji’s grandfather, including the crucial Pune jagir, which later became an important territorial base for the Marathas,” wrote Azhar Mallick and Mohd Alfaz Ali in their March 2025 piece in The Indian Express.
“The military techniques used by Ambar against the Mughals – fort-based defense, economic disruption of enemy supply lines and decentralized administration – were later perfected by Shivaji and his successors,” they wrote.
HOW MALIK AMBAR USED GUERRILLA WAR TO AGAINST MUGHLS
Malik Ambar’s marriage alliance with the Nizam Shahi royal family and appointment as Peshwa further strengthened his position within the elite circles of Deccan society, Chaterjee and Maxwell outlined.
Ambar pioneered guerrilla tactics that repeatedly frustrated the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir. Between 1600 and 1626 he retook the fort of Ahmadnagar, repelled Mughal generals, and even aided Prince Khurram (later Shah Jahan) in the Mughal succession struggle in the early 1620s.
“Ambar refused to engage in pitched battles against the Mughals’ imposing facade of artillery, infantry and heavy cavalry, conducting surprise night attacks, harassing enemy supply lines and drawing Mughal forces into forested hills and rugged ravines where they could be cut to pieces by his light cavalry,” Chaterjee and Maxwell wrote.
JAHANGIR’S RACIAL PREFERENCE AND SHAH JAHAN’S DEFEAT OF MALIK AMBAR
Jahangir, the Mughal emperor, often thought of Malik Ambar in terms of ‘darkness’ or the black color of his skin. This wasn’t just about their political rivalry. It also reflected a deeper bias. Jahangir, who had a light complexion due to his ethnic roots, considered himself superior, according to Chaterjee and Maxwell. He associated Deccanis with dark skin and “Habshis”, such as Malik Ambar, with negativity.
Jahangir famously commissioned a painting depicting himself shooting arrows at Ambar’s severed head. However, Robert Skelton, a New York-based art historian, suggested that it was painted on the occasion of Ambar’s death in 1626.
After years of inflicting a series of setbacks on the Mughal forces, even defeating large combined armies, Malik Ambar also suffered losses. He was defeated by Mughal forces of Shah Jahan, whom he once helped conquer the throne of Hindustan. This weakened his hold on the forts of Ahmadnagar.
Despite the setbacks, he continued to oppose Mughal expansion until his death. In 1626, at the age of about 77, Malik Ambar died in battle and was buried in a tomb he had built at Khuldabad (in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra), near the shrine of the Sufi saint Zar Zari Baksh.
After his death, his son Fateh Khan could not maintain his father’s influence, and within ten years the weakened Nizam Shahi state fell to the Mughals, marking the end of Ambar’s resistance.
The journey of Malik Ambar, from his birth in Ethiopia, enslaved and taken by Baghdad, to his rise as a military genius and kingmaker in India, is one of the stories of the ties between the two countries. Ambar not only ruled in India but remained here forever.
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