Dehli Sultanate (Medieval India History) Notes
Introduction
Due to lack of political unity, in India during 10th and 11th century, India was unable to stop attack from invaders.
Turks attacked India from all sides, got quick victories. Established their empire in 13th century.
The period between 1206 to 1526 when 5 successive dynasties ruled over Delhi is known as period of Delhi Sultanate. Rulers who ruled Delhi were called Sultans.
Dynasties & Rulers
Khijli Dynasty (1290)
Tughlaq Dynasty (1320)
Slave Dynasty (1206)
Sayyid Dynasty (1414)
Lodi Dynasty (1451-1526)
Qutub-ud-din Aibak
Alauddin Khilji
Mohammad bin Tughlaq
Slave Dynasty
His son (Aram Shah), succeeded him, but was overthrown by Aibak's son-in-law, Iltumish.
Chenghez Khan had driven out his enemy, Jalaluddin. Iltumish did not give refuge to Jalaluddin (he didn't want Mongols to invade India).
Qutub-ud-din Aibak founded Slave dynasty (also called Mamluk Sultans). He built two mosques (Quwat-ul-Islam and Ajmer Mosque).
He formed Turkan-i-Chalisa (group of forty nobles) who ruled during the period. Silver and copper coins were introduced by him.
After victory of Muhammad Ghori, before leaving for Afghanistan, a slave general Qutub-ud-din Aibak was left as the viceroy of India.
Iltumish did not think his sons were capable rulers. He nominated his daughter, Razia Sultan as his successor. She proved to be an able and brave ruler, though she faced many challenges.
Khilji/Khalji Dynasty
Alauddin's military commander (Malik Kafur), captured many territories and collected immense booty (elephants, horses, jewels, gold) for the Sultan.
Alauddin had to face rebellion of Mongols, but he killed most of them near Delhi. He captured Malwa, Gujarat, Chittor, Ranthambhor
After controlling most of Northern India, Alauddin brought many changes like market regulations (fixed prices of commodities), helped soldiers and common men build markets.
After six years (1296), Jalaluddin was killed by his nephew and son-in-law Alauddin Khilji, who proclaimed himself as Sultan.
After murdering the last slave (King Kaikubad Balban), Jalaluddin Khilji founded the Khilji Dynasty in 1290.
Alauddin also brought measures against nobles (spy systems, restrictions), military reforms (imported horses), revenue reforms, and conducted Deccan expedition (conquered Yadavas, Kakatiyas, etc. but did not annex them).
Tughlaq Dynasty
About
Important Events
In 1320, Ghazi Malik ended Khilji dynasty, established Tughlaq dynasty. His son, Juan Khan, succeeded him (got title of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq).
Transfer of Capital: Transferred his capital to Daulatabad, to have better control. Then, he shifted back to Delhi. This made people suffer a lot and caused loss of lives and resources.
Token Currency: Tried to introduce bronze coins, due to shortage of silver. Due to severe problem of fake coins, he withdrew bronze coins as people started manufacturing coins at their home. This severely affected trade and business.
Taxation in Doab: He asked people of Doab (between rivers Ganaga and Yamuna) to pay heavy taxes in order to raise bigger army. Unfortunately, severe famine occured in region, so cultivators were not in position to pay taxes. However, Sultan's officers insisted them to pay taxes. People used loans given by Sultan to meet their needs (but the whole scheme resulted in heavy losses.
Inscriptions and Monuments
Many inscriptions were found on coins, monuments, milestones and tombstones. Most of them were in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, and other languages (some had a combination used as well).
Inscriptions gave a lot of information regarding politics, society, culture, religion and administration during the period.
The Pehowa inscription suggests that Delhi was founded in 736 CE by Tamara's (Rajputs) and they ruled over Haryana region with Dhillika (Delhi) as their capital.
Saran inscription (in South Delhi) gives information about Delhi during the rule of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
The rulers of Delhi Sultanate built many monuments in India. The style that the Turks brought in India consisted of: domes, minarets, arches and propped roofs.
Examples of monuments they built include Alai Darwaza, Delhi and Qutub Minor (which has verses of Quran inscribed).
Later Tughlaqs
Jauna had no male successor, so he was succeeded by his cousin (Firoz Shah Tughlaq). He started Karkhanas, constructed canals and irrigation canals, and gave lot of help to the poor.
The Sultanate became weak after his death. Timur Lang (a Mongol ruler), invaded India and ended Tughlaq dynasty.
Administration
The minister in charge of the army was called 'Ariz-i-Mumalik'. Diwan was the finance minister, and Qazi was the chief.
Sultanate was divided into provinces called as iotas. These were headed by governors who maintained huge armies to provide any help to the Sultan.
Sultan was the supreme executive, legislative, judicial, and military authority. He was assisted by number of ministers (chief prime minister -Wazir- supervised other ministers).
Provinces were further divided into Shiqs (headed by Shiqdars), and shiqs were further divided into Parganas. Each village had a revenue officer (called as Patwari).
Delhi Sultanate was a Muslim state (followed the Theocracy system, in which Sultan ruled in name of God and Islam was the religion of the country.
Sources of revenue included land tax, booty captured, other forms of tax (grazing tax, import tax, house tax, religious tax referred to as Zakat for Muslims, and poll tax known as Jiziya collected from non-Muslims).