The Fārūqīs ruled the small sultanate of Khandesh, in the northwestern Deccan, from 772/1370 to 1009/1601. The Fārūqīs briefly claimed independence but were compelled to recognise that they could not wield as great a sovereignty as their neighbours. They employed the title Khān, which did not denote independent sovereignty, rather than Sulṭān, which did. Khandesh was an interstitial principality that took shape during the fragmentation of the Delhi Sultanate, after the death of Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq (r. 752-90/1351-88). It occupied the interstices between more powerful