The Delhi Sultanate

PAX MONGOLICA : THE STEPPE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS HIST 1301 | History The Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate (in modern-day India) and Mamluk Egypt have numerous similarities. The people that now make up Afghanistan founded the Delhi Sultanate, which was commanded by Muhammad of Ghur, who overthrew the sultanate that Mahmud of Ghazna had founded in the latter half of the twelfth century. The sultanate was under the control of a dynasty of former mamluks, led by Quṭb al-Din Aybak, who had taken over following Muhammad's death in 1206, when the Mongols came upon it. Izz al-Din Aybak, a mamluk general who spearheaded the fall of Egypt's Ayyubid dynasty over fifty years later, may have been inspired by his actions. Frequent civil wars over succession were a trait shared by the Delhi Sultanate with both its Mongol neighbours and the subsequent Egyptian Mamluk kingdom. After falling from a horse in 1210, Aybak suffered an injury that ultimately claimed his life. His son-in-law Iltutmish was left in charge of maintaining the sultanate. Iltutmish performed admirably, establishing dominance over other Mamluk army leaders. However, decentralisation and unrest ruled for sixty years following his death in 1236. There were eleven sultans throughout the period, and only one of them passed away naturally. During these protracted battles for leadership, the populace endured the interruption of economic activity as well as the devastation of commodities, crops, and production facilities. The struggle following Iltutmish's death predicted the upheaval of the Mamluks' overthrow of the Ayyubids and the important role that powerful and gifted Muslim women played in each of these instances. Shajar al-Durr, the widow of al-Salih who survived, was one of the Mamluks. Raziya, Iltutmish's daughter, was the one he thought had the most potential to lead the Delhi Sultanate. With assistance from groups hesitant to recognise a female sultan, a half-brother took over the throne. Raziya, who had taken charge of Delhi during her father's absence on a campaign, cleverly avoided her half-brother by making a direct appeal to the Delhite community. Her debauched and inept brother was overthrown by the army when they realised the people supported her. Raziya was a skillful administrator who oversaw several successful military battles during her four years as sultana. Politically astute, she overcame nobles' protests by winning the favour of her people on the whole. She disregarded Islamic tradition by dressing like a male, going without a veil, wearing trousers and cutting her hair short. For several Muslims in the sultanate, this was too much. Taking advantage of their unhappiness, another half-brother raised a military unit insurrection that forced Raziya into hiding. She was shrewd, though, and after being apprehended by a general, she wed him. It's unclear if this union was motivated by love or by political expediency. The pair was ultimately vanquished and slain. The later Delhi sultans instituted a number of authoritarian practices in an effort to quell revolt and internal power conflicts. For instance, to keep an eye on military leaders and civilian administrators, a covert police network was created. Because of the tight regulations, sultans forbade these elites from attending festive get-togethers with their peers out of concern that coups would be plotted there. Alcohol was formally forbidden, at least inside the administrative region of Delhi, even though the Quran previously forbade it. In an attempt to quell uprisings, peasants were mainly protected, while other classes lost their financial autonomy and came under government authority. Condemned land was handed to veterans and war widows, while the pay of officials was maintained low. High taxes hindered the accumulation of significant sums of private capital, while price regulations restricted the possible profit margins for retailers. By depriving subjects of their money, all these measures allowed the sultan to control the populace by severing their sources of income and enabling rebellions. The Delhi Sultanate fared successfully against foreign enemies and grew significantly in the century following Iltutmish's tenure, despite periodic domestic unrest. The sultanate ruled over the region from the Himalayas to the Ganges River basin to the Narmada River at the northern tip of the Deccan Plateau until he passed away in 1236. It also controlled nearly all of the subcontinent's area by the time Muhammad Bin Tughlaq's conquests ended in 1336. This growth not only increased the area that Muslims governed from Delhi, but it also made it easier for a larger portion of the Indian populace to convert to Islam. Hindus were subject to a per-person tax that varied in rate according to income. The Brahmans and the Pariah, who represented the extremes of riches and poverty, were mainly exempt. Moreover, no ruler enforced sharia, which probably led to animosity. Converting to Islam was an easy way for those like the Pariah and Sudra, who felt discriminated against due to their caste, to find a place and rise in society, and many of them did. Repelling Mongol assaults was another skill of the Delhi Sultanate. Both the Il-Khanate and the Chagatai Khanate, despite their own internal strife and struggle with neighbouring Mongol khanates, sometimes undertook expeditions against it for loot, even though Chinggis Khan had avoided it in his fight against the Khwarazmians. The first of several efforts by Chagatai Khan Duwa to not only loot but also to capture portions of the Delhi Sultanate did not occur until the 1290s. Due of his involvement with the Yuan dynasty for the majority of this time, Duwa never took the lead in these endeavours. But in large part because Duwa decided to strike at the time when the sultanate had one of its most skilled rulers, Alauddin Khilji, at least six assaults between 1296 and 1306 failed. In 1327, Tarmashirin launched the Chagatai Khanate's last assault on the Delhi Sultanate. As Tarmashirin struggled to take the throne of the Chagatai Khanate, he took advantage of Sultan Tughlaq's decision to move his capital and the majority of his soldiers south to the centre of his expanding realm and besieged Delhi. Tarmashirin withdrew his soldiers after extracting a substantial amount of tribute from Sultan Tughlaq, which let him raise an army to finish his own rise to power at home. According to some academics, he then converted to Islam in an effort to lessen the likelihood that the sultanate would launch a significant counterattack. In any case, any significant Mongol attempts to subjugate the Delhi Sultanate were thwarted by the disintegration of the Chagatai Khanate following Tarmashirin's death.