A governor who stopped answering
Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk held Berar as a Bahmani provincial governor and, on Ferishta’s account, was urged by Malik Ahmad of Ahmadnagar to follow his example and have the khutba read in his own name. Whether that amounts to a declaration is precisely the question the archive’s fragmentation essay leaves open: Sherwani holds that none of the fiefholders really declared independence, and that the later dynastic panegyrists needed a founding secession more than the events supplied one.
Berar is also the state the sources are thinnest on. Ferishta himself prints a disclaimer that he could procure no written accounts of the Imad Shahi, Qutb Shahi or Barid Shahi dynasties and filled the pages with oral tradition — a warning that governs every date attached to this house.