Followers

20 August 2008

Tippu Sultan - The Tiger of Mysore

Sultan Fateh Ali Tipu(November 20, 1750, Devanahalli – May 4, 1799, Srirangapattana), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Indian Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 (the time of his father's death) until his own demise in 1799. He was the first son of Haidar Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-nissa.
Tipu Sultan was a learned man and an able soldier. He was reputed to be a good poet. He was a devout Muslim but the majority of his subjects were Hindus. At the request of the French, he built a church, the first in Mysore. In alliance with the French in their struggle with the British both Tipu Sultan and Haidar Ali did not hesitate to use their French trained army against the Maharattas, Sira, Malabar, Coorg and Bednur. He was proficient in the languages he spoke . He helped his father Haidar Ali defeat the British in the Second Mysore War, and negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore with them. However, he was defeated in the Third Anglo-Mysore War and in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War by the combined forces of the English East India Company, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Mahratta Confederacy, and to a lesser extent, Travancore. Tipu Sultan died defending his capital Srirangapattana, on May 4, 1799.

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