Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi; ur, سلطنت دہلی). The Delhi Sultanate was also known as the "Empire of Hindustan", a name that gained currency during the period. see was a late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, for 320 years (1206–1526).Delhi Sultanate
Encyclopædia Britannica Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.

The foundation of the Sultanate was laid by the Ghurid conqueror Muhammad Ghori who routed the Rajput Confederacy led by Ajmer ruler Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 near Tarain, after suffering a reverse against them earlier. As a successor to the Ghurid dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate was originally one among several principalities ruled by the Turkic slave-generals of Muhammad Ghori, including Taj al-Din Yildiz, Qutb ud-Din Aibak, Bahauddin Tughril and Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, that had inherited and divided the Ghurid territories amongst themselves. Khalji and Tughlaq rule ushered a new wave of rapid and ceaseless Muslim conquests deep into South India. The sultanate finally reached the peak of its geographical reach during the Tughlaq dynasty, occupying most of the Indian subcontinent under Muhammad bin Tughluq. A major political transformation occurred across North India, triggered by the Central Asian king Timur's devastating raid on Delhi in 1398, followed soon afterwards by the re-emergence of rival Hindu powers such as Vijayanagara and Mewar asserting independence, and new Muslim sultanates such as the Bengal and Bahmani Sultanates breaking off. In 1526, Timurid ruler Babur invaded northern India and conquered the Sultanate, leading to its succession by the Mughal Empire.

The establishment of the Sultanate drew the Indian subcontinent more closely into international and multicultural Islamic social and economic networks, as seen concretely in the development of the Hindustani language and Indo-Islamic architecture. It was also one of the few powers to repel attacks by the Mongols (from the Chagatai Khanate) and saw the enthronement of one of the few female rulers in Islamic history, Razia Sultana, who reigned from 1236 to 1240. Their treatment of Hindus, Buddhists, and other dharmic faiths are generally perceived to be unfavorable, as mass forcible conversions were popular during the sultanate's rule and large-scale desecrations of Hindu and Buddhist temples, including universities and libraries took place.Gul and Khan (200
"Growth and Development of Oriental Libraries in India"
''Library Philosophy and Practice'', University of Nebraska–LincolnRichard Eaton, , (2004) Mongolian raids on West and Central Asia set the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, intelligentsia, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from those regions into the subcontinent, thereby establishing Islamic culture there.

Name

Although conventionally named after its principal capital city, Delhi, the terminology applied to domains under Delhi Sultanate was often unspecified. It was called as "Empire of Delhi" ''( Persian: Mamalik-i-Delhi)'' by Juzjani and Barani while Ibn Battuta called the empire under Muhammad bin Tughlaq as " Hind and Sind". The Delhi Sultanate was also known as the "Empire of Hindustan" ''( Persian: Mamalik-i-Hindustan)'', a name that gained currency during the period.

History

Background

The rise of the Delhi Sultanate in India was part of a wider trend affecting much of the Asian continent, including the whole of southern and western Asia: the influx of nomadic Turkic peoples from the Central Asian steppes. This can be traced back to the 9th century when the Islamic Caliphate began fragmenting in the Middle East, where Muslim rulers in rival states began enslaving non-Muslim nomadic Turks from the Central Asian steppes and raising many of them to become loyal army slaves called Mamluks. Soon, Turks were migrating to Muslim lands and becoming Islamicized. Many of the Turkic Mamluk slaves eventually rose to become rulers and conquered large parts of the Muslim world, establishing Mamluk Sultanates from Egypt to present-day Afghanistan, before turning their attention to the Indian subcontinent.

It is also part of a longer trend predating the spread of Islam. Like other settled, agrarian societies in history, those in the Indian subcontinent have been attacked by nomadic tribes throughout its long history. In evaluating the impact of Islam on the subcontinent, one must note that the northwestern subcontinent was a frequent target of tribes raiding from Central Asia in the pre-Islamic era. In that sense, the Muslim intrusions and later Muslim invasions were not dissimilar to those of the earlier invasions during the 1st millennium.

By 962 AD, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia faced a series of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.See:
* M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, , Brill
* The Islamic frontier in the East: Expansion into South Asia, Journal of South Asian Studies, 4(1), pp. 91–109
* Sookoohy M., Bhadreswar – Oldest Islamic Monuments in India, , Brill Academic; see discussion of earliest raids in Gujarat Among them was Mahmud of Ghazni, the son of a Turkic Mamluk military slave, who raided and plundered kingdoms in northern India from east of the Indus river to west of the Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030. Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retreated each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.

The series of raids on northern and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni. The raids did not establish or extend the permanent boundaries of the Islamic kingdoms. In contrast, the Ghurid Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad Ghori (commonly known as Muhammad of Ghor) began a systematic war of expansion into northern India in 1173. He sought to carve out a principality for himself and expand the Islamic world. Muhammad of Ghor created a Sunni Islamic kingdom of his own extending east of the Indus river, and he thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom called the Delhi Sultanate. Some historians chronicle the Delhi Sultanate from 1192 due to the presence and geographical claims of Muhammad Ghori in South Asia by that time.

Ghori was assassinated in 1206, by Ismāʿīlī Shia Muslims. After the assassination, one of Ghori's slaves (or Mamluks), the Turkic Qutb al-Din Aibak, assumed power, becoming the first Sultan of Delhi.

Dynasties

Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290)

Qutb al-Din Aibak, a former slave of Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad Ghori, was the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. Aibak was of Turkic Cuman- Kipchak origin, and due to his lineage, his dynasty is known as the Mamluk dynasty. Aibak reigned as the Sultan of Delhi for four years, from 1206 to 1210. Aibak was praised by the contemporary and later accounts for his generosity and due to this was called with the sobriquet of ''Lakhbaksh''. (giver of lakhs)

After Aibak died, Aram Shah assumed power in 1210, but he was assassinated in 1211 by Aibak's son-in-law, Shams ud-Din Iltutmish. Iltutmish's power was precarious, and several Muslim amirs (nobles) challenged his authority as they had been supporters of Qutb al-Din Aibak. After a series of conquests and brutal executions of opposition, Iltutmish consolidated his power.

His rule was challenged several times, such as by Qubacha, and this led to a series of wars. Iltutmish conquered Multan and Bengal from contesting Muslim rulers, as well as Ranthambore and Sivalik from the Hindu rulers. He also attacked, defeated, executed Taj al-Din Yildiz, who asserted his rights as heir to Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad Ghori.Anzalone, Christopher (2008), "Delhi Sultanate", in Ackermann, M. E. etc. (Editors), Encyclopedia of World History 2, Iltutmish's rule lasted until 1236. Following his death, the Delhi Sultanate saw a succession of weak rulers, disputing Muslim nobility, assassinations, short-lived tenures. Power shifted from Rukn ud-Din Firuz to Razia Sultana and others, until Ghiyas ud-Din Balban came to power and ruled from 1266 to 1287. Ghiyasuddin Balban destroyed the power of the Corps of Forty, a council of 40 Turkic slaves who had played a role as kingmakers and had been independent of the Sultan. He was succeeded by 17-year-old Muiz ud-Din Qaiqabad, who appointed Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji as the commander of the army. Khalji assassinated Qaiqabad and assumed power in the Khalji Revolution, thus ending the Mamluk dynasty and starting the Khalji dynasty.

Qutb al-Din Aibak initiated the construction of the Qutb Minar but died before it was completed. It was later completed by his son-in-law, Iltutmish. The Quwwat-ul-Islam (Might of Islam) Mosque was built by Aibak, now a UNESCO world heritage site. The Qutub Minar Complex was expanded by Iltutmish, and later by Ala ud-Din Khalji in the early 14th century.Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi
UNESCO During the Mamluk dynasty, many nobles from Afghanistan and Persia migrated and settled in India, as West Asia came under Mongol siege.

Khalji dynasty (1290–1320)

The Khalji dynasty under the Delhi Sultanate">
File:Somnath temple ruins (1869).jpg, The Somnath Temple in Gujarat was repeatedly destroyed by Muslim armies and rebuilt by Hindus. It was destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate's army in 1299.Eaton (2000)
Temple desecration in pre-modern India
Frontline, p. 73, item 16 of the Table, Archived by Columbia University
File:Benares- The Golden Temple, India, ca. 1915 (IMP-CSCNWW33-OS14-66).jpg, The Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed by Muhammad of Ghor along with thousand other temples in Benaras
File:Temple de Mînâkshî01.jpg, The armies of the Delhi Sultanate led by Muslim Commander Malik Kafur plundered the Meenakshi Temple and looted it of its valuables.
File:Warangal fort.jpg, Kakatiya Kala Thoranam (Warangal Gate) built by the Kakatiya dynasty in ruins; one of the many temple complexes destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate.
File:Rani ki vav1.jpg, Rani ki vav is a stepwell, built by the Chaulukya dynasty, located in Patan; the city was sacked by Sultan of Delhi Qutb-ud-din Aybak between 1200 and 1210, and again by the Allauddin Khalji in 1298.
File:Elevation of Kirtistambh Rudramahalaya Sidhpur Gujarat India.jpg, Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambh at Rudra Mahalaya Temple. The temple was destroyed by Alauddin Khalji.
File:Exteriors Carvings of Shantaleshwara Shrine 02.jpg, Exterior wall reliefs at Hoysaleswara Temple. The temple was twice sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate.

See also

* Mongol invasions of India
* Delhi Sultanate literature
* Iconoclasm
* Ibrahim Lodhi's Tomb
* Persianate states
* Tomb of Bahlul Lodi
* Turkish slaves in the Delhi Sultanate
* Islam in South Asia

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

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* Majumdar, R. C., Raychaudhuri, H., & Datta, K. (1951). An advanced history of India: 2. London: Macmillan.
* Majumdar, R. C., & Munshi, K. M. (1990). The Delhi Sultanate. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

* Prasad, Pushpa (1990). ''Sanskrit Inscriptions of Delhi Sultanate 1191-1526''. Oxford University Press.

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Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

States and territories established in 1206
Empires and kingdoms of India
Former sultanates
Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent
1206 establishments in Asia
13th-century establishments in India
1526 disestablishments in India
States and territories disestablished in 1526