Sher Shah Suri (1486 – May 22, 1545) (Pashto: فريد خان شیر شاہ سوری - Šīr Šāh Sūrī, Bengali: শের শাহ সুরি), birth name Farid Khan, also known as Sher Khan (The Lion King), was the founder of the Muslim Sur Empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi. An Afghan (Pathan) by origin, he rebelled against the Mughals and took control of India in 1540 until an accidental death in 1545 when Islam Shah Suri became his successor. He first served as a private before rising to become a commander in the Mughal Army under Babur and then as the governor of Bihar. In 1537, when Babur's son Humayun was elsewhere on an expedition, Sher Khan, power hungry turned on his true master and overran the state of Bengal and established the Sur Empire. A brilliant strategist, Sher Shah proved himself a gifted administrator as well as an able general. His reorganization of the empire laid the foundations for the later Mughal emperors, notably Akbar the Great, son of Humayun.

During his five year rule from 1540 to 1545, he set up a new template for civic and military administration, issued the first Rupee and re-organised the postal system of India. He further developed Humayun's Dina-panah city and named it Shergarh and revived the historical city of Pataliputra as Patna which had been in decline since the 7th century CE. He is also famously remembered for killing a fully grown tiger with his bare hands in a jungle of Bihar.