Ruler · 1751 to 1799

Tipu Sultan

Ruler of Mysore who fought the East India Company in three wars, using iron-cased rockets that the British later copied. He died fighting at the walls of his capital in 1799.

At a glance

Lived: 1751 to 1799
Role: Ruler
Era: Three gunpowder empires
Chapter: 4. Al-Andalus and the Subcontinent

Battles

1799
Siege of Seringapatam
British victory. Tipu Sultan died fighting at the walls of his capital, and Mysore, the strongest kingdom resisting the Company in the south, fell.

Tipu Sultan's world

1683: Three gunpowder empires

Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453. Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517 and the caliphate passed to the Ottomans. Suleiman won at Mohacs in 1526, and a second siege of Vienna failed in 1683. Further east, Safavid Iran and the Mughals of India ruled at the same time.

See the 1683 map Read chapter 4

People of the same era

Babur Akbar Aurangzeb Alamgir Osman I Mehmed II, the Conqueror Selim I Suleiman the Magnificent Hayreddin Barbarossa

Dates for early figures are often approximate. Spotted a mistake? Tell us