Malik Ayāz (d. c.928/1522) served in the Gujarat sultanate (c.810-981/1407-1573) as a royal slave (ghulām-i sulṭānī or ghulām-i khāṣṣ) . After Malik Ayāz's key role in a battle against the Rajput chiefs of Champaner in 889/1484, the Gujarat sultan Maḥmūd Begaŕ̲h̲ā (r. 862-917/1458-1511) manumitted him and awarded him the governorship of Junagadh and Diu. Malik Ayāz soon transformed Diu, a port city on the coast of peninsular Gujarat, into a key entrepôt in the commercial network