Merchant, minister, builder
Gawan came from Gilan, on the Caspian, as a trader. He rose to become the effective head of the Bahmani administration, reformed its revenue and provincial structure, and corresponded across the Persian-speaking world.
The madrasa he founded at Bidar in 1472 was built on the model of the great Timurid colleges of Samarkand and Khurasan — tiled, three-storeyed, with a library. Much of it still stands, damaged by an explosion in later centuries.
The Afaqi–Deccani quarrel, fatally
As the most prominent Afaqi at court he was the natural target of the opposing faction. He was executed in 1481 on the strength of a letter that appears to have been forged. The state did not recover its cohesion, and fragmentation followed within a generation.