Gulbarga — officially renamed Kalaburagi in 2014, though most people still use the old name — is a city in the arid northern reaches of Karnataka, close to the borders with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. It is not on most tourists' itineraries, but for anyone interested in medieval Islamic architecture in India it is unexpectedly rewarding.
The city was the first capital of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Muslim kingdom that dominated the Deccan from the 14th to 15th centuries before fracturing into smaller states. The monuments from that period are the reason to come: the Gulbarga Fort contains the Jama Masjid, reputedly designed by a Moorish architect from Spain on the model of the great mosque at Córdoba — a claim that sounds improbable until you see the unusual vaulted interior with its 75 domes. The Haft Gumbaz, a group of seven domed tombs of Bahmani rulers, stands nearby, and the shrine of Khwaja Bande Nawaz is an important Sufi site that draws pilgrims year-round.
Gulbarga is otherwise a working city serving the agricultural hinterland, hot and dusty for much of the year. Getting there is straightforward: it sits on the main Mumbai–Chennai rail line, and trains from Hyderabad (around 5 hours) and Bangalore (10–12 hours) are the most practical approaches. Day trips to Bidar, 110 km northeast, and Bijapur, 150 km southwest, are possible for those making a circuit of Deccan Sultanate monuments.