A regency, then a reign
“Ismael Adil Shah, on his accession, being too young to direct the affairs of the kingdom, the sole administration was intrusted to Kumal Khan Deccany” — a minister his dying father had enjoined “to become regent during the minority of his son”. The regency did not last; the surrounding pages of Ferishta narrate its violent end.
Ferishta’s character of him, from Sayyid Ahmad Hirvi: “just, prudent, patient, and liberal”, “an adept in the arts of painting, varnishing, making arrows, and embroidering saddle-cloths”, who “seldom made use of” the Deccani tongue, having been raised by his aunt Dilshad Agha away from the Deccanis on his father’s instruction.
Two sisters, two alliances
He gave his sister Maryam to Burhan Nizam Shah I of Ahmadnagar at Sholapur, with Sholapur promised in dower and then withheld — the origin of a war — and his sister Khadija to Alauddin Imad Shah of Berar. Both marriages are recorded in the Great Houses.
Dying on campaign before Kovilkonda, he named his eldest son Mallu to succeed “according to his birthright” though he “feared … [he] had not abilities to govern”, and left Asad Khan of Belgaum as protector. He was buried at Gogi beside his father.