A Political and Cultural History, Research by Laxmi Chander, University of Delhi
Methodology
...An attempt has been made to reconcile various conflicting dates and details of events and to assign approximate dates to them which have been assigned no date by other historians... Likewise an attempt has been made to draw a detailed picture of various cultural pursuits, such as education and learning, painting, and music to bring home the point that the kingdom had attained great heights in cultural sphere. The contribution of Bhakti saints like Ramanand and Kabir and the activities of the suffis of various orders to enrich the cultural life of the people and attempt a reformation of the social and religious outlook of the masses has been assessed.
Findings
The disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate after the death of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq in A.D. 1388 encouraged various chiefs to rebel against his weak successors. Among those who disregarded central authority at Delhi was Malik Sarwar Khwaja-i-Jahan who, being highly ambitious and powerful, informally established himself at Jaunpur as a de factor ruler in A.D. 1394. He was succeeded by Mubarak Qaranful with the royal title of Sultan Mubarak Shah Sharqi in A.D. 1400. His reign was too brief but his younger brother Sultan Ibrahim Shah, who ruled the kingdom from A.D. 1401 to A.D. 1440, proved himself to be a great ruler of the period. Being well versed in military art he not only safeguarded the kingdom from external dangers but also provided it with efficient administrative set up which created peaceful conditions at home. Though he was militarily superior to Delhi and other neighbouring principalities, he failed to occupy Delhi due to various reasons beyond his control. The rulers of Delhi on their part were never reconciled to the emergence of the independent kingdom of the Sharqis and always remained in wait for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow to it. This desire of the rulers of Delhi and Jaunpur to grab each other's territories became the root cause of enmity between them. Sultan Ibrahim succeeded in making Tirhut a tributary of Jaunpur and reducing Kalpi to vassalage. He championed the cause of Bengali Muslims at the behest of Sheikh Ashraf Jahangir Simmani. His policy with weaker states was to keep them as tributary and loyal to Jaunpur and not their annexation.
This policy was followed by his son and successor Sultan Mahmud who too ruled the kingdom efficiently for about two decades. His raid into Orissa, however, was only predatory in character. In his attempt to seize Delhi and oust Bahlul Lodi in A.D. 1452 he failed. Henceforth the relations between Jaunpur and Delhi continued to grow bitter and bitter as time rolled on. The next ruler Sultan Muhammad ruled for too brief a period to make any contribution to the Sharqi kingdom. The next and the last Sharqi ruler Sultan Hussain Shah successfully followed the policy of his grandfather Ibrahim in regard to relation with less powerful states but his extraordinary zeal to snatch Delhi out of Bahlul's hands proved disastrous to him as well as to the kingdom itself as in his attempts to conquer Delhi he lost his own kingdom. Bahlul Lodi dismembered greatly the Sharqi Kingdom in A.D. 1485 while Sikandar Lodi wiped it out completely.
The peaceful conditions inside the kingdom encouraged men of letters, art and religion to pour into the kingdom from all parts of Hindustan. The natural result of it was the emergence of Jaunpur as a great centre of education and learning and other cultural pursuits. Music, painting and architecture flourished greatly giving full opportunity to local Hindu elements to bring about a synthesis with Islamic ideas. In architecture there emerged a distinct style at Jaunpur which has its own peculiar charm and beauty. The cultivation of music produced a great master-musician of the age, namely, Sultan Hussain himself, who greatly contributed to the development of music by making inventions of new ragas and raginis etc. The broad minded outlook of the Sharqis in matters of religion and their patronage of the mashiahk and the ulama contributed greatly to the Sufi as well as to the spread of Bhakti ideology throughout the kingdom. In this way the Sharqi kingdom became a breeding ground of various cultural aspects and it soon excelled Delhi in the field of culture...
(Source: India Dissertation Abstract, April-June, 1989)