Sūr Dynasty

▪ Indian dynasty

      Afghān family that ruled in northern India from 1540 to 1556. Its founder, Shēr Shāh Sūr (Shēr Shāh of Sūr), was descended from an Afghān adventurer recruited by Sultan Bahlūl Lodī of Delhi during his long contest with the Sharqī sultans of Jaunpur. The Shāh's personal name was Farīd, the title of Shēr (“Tiger”) being conferred when he killed a tiger as a young man. After Bābur, founder of the Mughal dynasty, defeated the Lodīs, Shēr Shāh Sūr obtained control of the Afghān kingdoms of Bihār and Bengal and defeated the Mughal emperor Humāyūn at Chausa (1539) and Kanauj (1540). Shēr Shāh ruled the whole of North India for five years, annexing Mālwa and defeating the Rājputs. He reorganized the administration, laying foundations on which the Mughal emperor Akbar later built. He was killed by a cannon ball while besieging the fortress of Kālinjar in central India.

      Shēr Shāh's son, Islām or Salīm Shāh, was a man of ability and maintained Afghān rule despite dissensions. On his death (1553), the Sūr dynasty broke up among rival claimants. Sikandar Sūr was defeated in June 1555 by Humāyūn, who occupied Delhi in July. When Muḥammad ʿĀdil Shāh's Hindu general Hemū threw off his allegiance only to be defeated by the Mughals at Pānīpat (1556), the Sūr dynasty ended. The Sūrs' reign was a brief interlude in Mughal rule, brightened only by the brilliance of Shēr Shāh. They were the last Afghān rulers of northern India.

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