Malik Ambar -- Ethiopia
Malik Ambar was an Ethiopian born in Harar, He was 
among the tens of thousands people captured in Africa, the Middle East and India then sold into slavery over nine centuries. Given his humble beginnings rose to the level of Prime Minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in India. On arrival in India he continued his education and given opportunities but he remained a slave, nevertheless in time he created an independent army. This army resided in the Deccan region and was hired by many local kings. He also founded the city of Aurangabad Maharashtra on the site of a previous village. He became a very popular Prime Minister of Ahmadnagar, showing his administrative acumen in various fields.
He is credited with having carried out a systematic revenue settlement of major portions of the Deccan, which formed the basis for many subsequent settlements. He is a figure of veneration to the Siddis of Gujarat and he humbled the the Mughals, and Adil Shah of Bijapur and he raised the falling status of the Nizam Shah.
Malik Ambar was born in the city of Alhura in a Habshi tribe of Maya, the capital of the Adal Sultanate, in modern eastern Ethiopia. Enslaved and on route to India he was sent to Baghdad, where he was educated before being sent to India to serve Chengiz Khan, the Regent Minister of the Sultan of Nizam Shahi in Ahmadnagar. The Ethiopian, now a Muslim, loyally served Khan, an Ethiopian like himself who converted to Islam, but unlike Ambar, was no longer enslaved. Ambar assumed increasing responsibility in the Nizam’s court where he learned diplomacy, military strategy, and political organisation, crucial training for later in his life.
After Chengiz Khan's death, Ambar became a free man and soon launched one of the most formidable careers in the political history of the Deccan. By 1595, he commanded a cavalry force of 150 men, and began organising a rebel army that grew into the thousands. By 1600 Malik Ambar, was a mercenary general, and emerged as the leading force in the resistance against the spread of the Mughal Empire into the Deccan. Defeating in battle the armies of two Mughal emperors, Akbar and Jahangir, for a quarter of a century Ambar’s armies were the inspiration for those resisting the attempted Mughal occupation of southern India.
Malik Ambar was the regent of the Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmednagar from 1607 to 1626. During this period he increased the strength and power of Murtaza Nizam Shah and raised a large army of fifty thousand men, forty thousand Marathas (Hindu warriors) and ten thousand Habshi (Africans). Ambar also forged alliances along India’s western coast with the African descended sailors then rulers of Janjira Island. His innovative techniques in guerilla warfare, prevented the Mughals from occupying the southern half of India, endlessly frustrating the empire’s rulers, who referred to their indomitable foe as the “rebel of black fortune.” Ambar was a great statesman and soldier.
Malik was the first in the world to use rockets as a military weapon in the war against Jahangir the Mughal Emperor, he humbled the Mughal and Adil Shah of Bijapur and raised the falling status of the Nizam Shah, and although eventually defeated by the Mughals he was never cowed.
He changed the capital from Paranda to Junar and founded a new city, Khadki, (Aurangabad), he built several palaces, developed an aqueduct irrigation system, the rendering of which to this day is a marvel.
Malik built the first column structure building in India the Baharkul Gate, Patronised Hindu, Muslim craftsmen and artists (including the great portrait artist Hashim), Ambar married his children into the families of Indian nobility thus integrating Africans into elite South Asian society.
He was known across the Deccan as one of the greatest leaders of the region, he had two sons, Fatteh Khan and Changiz Khan, Fatteh Khan succeeded his father as the regent of Nizam Shah, Malik Ambar died in 1626 at the age of 80.
Historian Dr. Beni Prasad notes: The chief importance of the Deccan campaigns of the Mughals lies in the opportunities of military training and political power which they afforded to the Marathas. Malik Ambar, who was a great master of the art of guerilla warfare as Shivaji himself, stands as the head of the builders of the Maratha nationality. His primary object was to serve the interest of his own master, but unconsciously he nourished into strength a power which more than avenged the injuries of the South on the Northern power
He founded/inhabited Aurangabad on the site of the Khirki/Khadke("Big Rock") village in 1610. After his death in 1626, the name was change to Fatehpur by his son Fatehkhan. When Aurangzeb, the mughal emperor invaded Deccan in the year 1653, he made Fatehpur his capital and renamed it as Aurangabad, since then it is known as Aurangabad. Two capital cities Viz. ‘Pratisthan’ (Paithan) i.e. the capital of Satavahanas (2nd B. C. to 3rd A. D.) and Devagiri - Daulatabad the capital of Yadavas and Muhammad bin Tughluq are located within the limits of Aurangabad.