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The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="brt">Delhi Sultanate, Encyclopædia Britannica</ref><ref>A. Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Leiden, 1980</ref> The sultanate was established around Template:Circa in the former Ghurid territories in India. The sultanate's history is generally divided into five periods: Mamluk (1206–1290), Khalji (1290–1320), Tughlaq (1320–1414), Sayyid (1414–1451), and Lodi (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as some parts of southern Nepal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The foundation of the Sultanate was established by the Ghurid conqueror Muhammad Ghori, who routed the Rajput Confederacy, led by Ajmer ruler Prithviraj Chauhan, in 1192 near Tarain in a reversal of an earlier battle.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a successor to the Ghurid dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate was originally one of 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Khalji and Tughlaq rule ushered a new wave of rapid and continual Muslim conquests deep into South India.<ref name="Mahajan 121">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 Empire and Kingdom of Mewar asserting independence, and new Muslim sultanates such as the Bengal and Bahmani Sultanates breaking off.<ref>Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India, 3rd ed., Routledge, 1998, Template:ISBN, pp. 187–190.</ref>Template:Sfn 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,Template:Sfn as seen concretely in the development of the Hindustani language<ref name="brown2008" /> and Indo-Islamic architecture.<ref>A. Welch, "Architectural Patronage and the Past: The Tughluq Sultans of India", Muqarnas 10, 1993, Brill Publishers, pp. 311–322.</ref><ref>J. A. Page, Guide to the Qutb, Delhi, Calcutta, 1927, pp. 2–7.</ref> It was also one of the few powers to repel attacks by the Mongols (from the Chagatai Khanate)<ref>Pradeep Barua The State at War in South Asia, Template:ISBN, pp. 29–30.</ref> and saw the enthronement of one of the few female rulers in Islamic history, Razia Sultana, who reigned from 1236 to 1240.<ref>Bowering et al., The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, Template:ISBN, Princeton University Press</ref> During the sultanate's rule, there was no mass forcible conversion of Hindus, Buddhists, and other dharmic faiths, and Hindu officials and vassals were readily accepted.<ref name="Britannica"/> However, there were cases like Bakhtiyar Khalji's annexations, which involved a large-scale desecration of Hindu and Buddhist temples and the destruction of universities and libraries.<ref name="gk">Gul and Khan (2008)"Growth and Development of Oriental Libraries in India", Library Philosophy and Practice, University of Nebraska–Lincoln</ref><ref name="Britannica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="regbook">Richard Eaton, Template:Google books, (2004)</ref><ref name="re2000">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
NameEdit
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.Template:Sfn
HistoryEdit
BackgroundEdit
Template:See also 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.Template:Sfn
Template:South Asia in 1175 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.<ref>Richard M. Frye, "Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Cultures in Central Asia", in Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective, ed. Robert L. Canfield (Cambridge U. Press c. 1991), 35–53.</ref>
By 962 AD, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia faced a series of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.<ref name="mrpislam">See:
- M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, Template:ISBN, 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, Template:ISBN, Brill Academic; see discussion of earliest raids in Gujarat</ref> Among them was Mahmud of Ghazni, the son of a Turkic Mamluk military slave,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retreated each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The series of raids on northern and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>MUHAMMAD B. SAM Mu'izz AL-DIN, T.W. Haig, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. VII, ed. C.E.Bosworth, E.van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs and C. Pellat, (Brill, 1993)</ref> He sought to carve out a principality for himself and expand the Islamic world.Template:Sfn<ref>C.E. Bosworth, Tidge History of Iran, Vol. 5, ed. J. A. Boyle, John Andrew Boyle, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp 161–170</ref> 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.Template:Sfn Some historians chronicle the Delhi Sultanate from 1192 due to the presence and geographical claims of Muhammad Ghori in South Asia by that time.<ref>History of South Asia: A Chronological Outline Columbia University (2010)</ref>
Muhammad Ghori was assassinated in 1206, by Ismāʿīlī Shia Muslims.<ref>Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām Encyclopædia Britannica (2011)</ref> After the assassination, one of Ghori's slaves (or Mamluks), the Turkic Qutb al-Din Aibak, assumed power, becoming the first Sultan of Delhi.Template:Sfn
DynastiesEdit
Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290)Edit
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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.<ref>Jackson P. (1990), The Mamlūk institution in early Muslim India, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (New Series), 122(02), pp. 340–358.</ref> 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 (provider of lakhs).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>C.E. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Columbia University Press (1996)</ref> 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.<ref>Barnett & Haig (1926), A review of History of Mediaeval India, from ad 647 to the Mughal Conquest – Ishwari Prasad, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (New Series), 58(04), pp 780–783</ref>
His rule was challenged several times, such as by Qubacha, and this led to a series of wars.Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="cads">Anzalone, Christopher (2008), "Delhi Sultanate", in Ackermann, M. E. etc. (Editors), Encyclopedia of World History 2, Template:ISBN</ref> Iltutmish's rule lasted until 1236. Following his death, the Delhi Sultanate saw a succession of weak rulers, disputing Muslim nobility, assassinations, and 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.Template:Sfn<ref name=cads/> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Quwwat-ul-Islam (Might of Islam) Mosque was built by Aibak, now a UNESCO world heritage site.<ref name="unescoaqm" /> The Qutub Minar Complex was expanded by Iltutmish, and later by Ala ud-Din Khalji in the early 14th century.<ref name="unescoaqm">Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi UNESCO</ref>Template:NoteTag During the Mamluk dynasty, many nobles from Afghanistan and Persia migrated and settled in India, as West Asia came under Mongol siege.<ref name="awhc">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Khalji dynasty (1290–1320)Edit
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The Khalji dynasty was of Turko-Afghan heritage.<ref name="Khan">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Parmar">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Asim">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Singh">Template:Cite book</ref> They were originally Turkic, but due to their long presence in Afghanistan, they were treated by others as Afghan as they adopted Afghan habits and customs.<ref name="Chaurasia">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Cavendish">Template:Cite book</ref>
The first ruler of the Khalji dynasty was Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji. He was around 70 years old at the time of his ascension and was known as a mild-mannered, humble and kind monarch to the general public.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Jalal ud-Din Firuz ruled for 6 years before he was murdered in 1296 by Muhammad Salim of Samana, on the orders of his nephew and son-in-law Juna Muhammad Khalji,<ref name=holt913/> who later came to be known as Ala ud-Din Khalji.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Ala ud-Din began his military career as governor of Kara province, from where he led two raids on the Kingdom of Malwa (1292) and Devagiri (1294) for plunder and loot. After he acceded to the throne, expansions towards these kingdoms were renewed including Gujarat which was conquered by the Grand Vizier Nusrat Khan Jalesari,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Yasin Mazhar Siddiqi 1972 194">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the kingdom of Malwa by Ainul Mulk Multani,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> as well as Rajputana.<ref>Alexander Mikaberidze, Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, Template:ISBN, pp. 62–63</ref> However, these victories were cut short because of Mongol attacks and plunder raids from the northwest. The Mongols withdrew after plundering and stopped raiding northwest parts of the Delhi Sultanate.<ref>Rene Grousset – Empire of steppes, Chagatai Khanate; Rutgers Univ Press, New Jersey, 1988 Template:ISBN</ref>
After the Mongols withdrew, Ala ud-Din Khalji continued to expand the Delhi Sultanate into southern India with the help of Indian slave generals such as Malik Kafur and Khusro Khan. They collected much war booty (anwatan) from those they defeated.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Frank Fanselow (1989), Muslim society in Tamil Nadu (India): a historical perspective, Journal Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 10(1), pp 264–289</ref> His commanders collected war spoils and paid ghanima (Arabic: الْغَنيمَة, a tax on spoils of war), which helped strengthen the Khalji rule. Among the spoils was the Warangal loot that included the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond.<ref>Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India, 3rd ed., Routledge, 1998, Template:ISBN</ref>
Template:Continental Asia in 1310 CE
Ala ud-Din Khalji changed tax policies, raising agriculture taxes from 20% to 50% (payable in grain and agricultural produce), eliminating payments and commissions on taxes collected by local chiefs, banning socialization among his officials as well as inter-marriage between noble families to help prevent any opposition forming against him, and he cut salaries of officials, poets, scholars.<ref name="holt913" /> These tax policies and spending controls strengthened his treasury to pay the keep of his growing army; he also introduced price controls on all agricultural produce and goods in the kingdom, as well as controls on where, how, by whom these goods could be sold. Markets called "shahana-i-mandi" were created.<ref name="als156">Template:Harvnb</ref> Muslim merchants were granted exclusive permits and monopoly in these "mandis" to buy and resell at official prices. No one other than these merchants could buy from farmers or sell in cities. Those found violating these "mandi" rules were severely punished, often by mutilation.<ref>M.A. Farooqi (1991), The economic policy of the Sultans of Delhi, Konark publishers, Template:ISBN</ref>Template:Sfn Taxes collected in the form of grain were stored in the kingdom's storage. During famines that followed, these granaries ensured sufficient food for the army.<ref name="holt913" />
Historians note Ala ud-Din Khalji as being a tyrant. Anyone Ala ud-Din suspected of being a threat to this power was killed along with the men, women, and children of that family. He grew to eventually distrust the majority of his nobles and favoured only a handful of his slaves and family. In 1298, between 15,000 and 30,000 Mongols near Delhi, who had recently converted to Islam, were slaughtered in a single day, due to a mutiny during an invasion of Gujarat.Template:Sfn He is also known for his cruelty against kingdoms he defeated in battle.
After Ala ud-Din died in 1316 by assassination through his nobles, his general Malik Kafur, who was born to a Hindu family but converted to Islam, assumed de facto power and was supported by non-Khalji nobles like Kamal al-Din Gurg. However, he lacked the support of the majority of Khalji's nobles who had him assassinated, hoping to take power for themselves.<ref name="holt913">Holt et al., The Cambridge History of Islam – The Indian sub-continent, south-east Asia, Africa and the Muslim west, Template:ISBN, pp 9–13</ref> However, the new ruler had the killers of Kafur executed.
The last Khalji ruler was Ala ud-Din Khalji's 18-year-old son Qutb ud-Din Mubarak Shah Khalji, who ruled for four years before he was killed by Khusro Khan, another slave-general with Hindu origins, who reverted from Islam and favoured his Hindu Baradu military clan in the nobility. Khusro Khan's reign lasted only a few months, when Ghazi Malik, later to be called Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq, defeated and killed him and assumed power in 1320, thus ending the Khalji dynasty and starting the Tughlaq dynasty.<ref name=awhc/>Template:Sfn
Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1413)Edit
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The Tughlaq dynasty was a Turko-Mongol<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> or Turkic<ref name="malik">Template:Cite book</ref> Muslim dynasty, which lasted from 1320 to 1413. The first ruler was Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq. Ghiyath al-Din ruled for five years and built a town near Delhi named Tughlaqabad.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His son Juna Khan and general Ainul Mulk Multani conquered Warangal in south India.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to some historians such as Vincent Smith,Template:Sfn he was killed by his son Juna Khan, who then assumed power in 1325.
Juna Khan renamed himself as Muhammad bin Tughlaq and ruled for 26 years.<ref>Elliot and Dowson, Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháhí of Ziauddin Barani, The History of India as Told by Its Historians. The Muhammadan Period (Vol 3), London, Trübner & Co</ref> During his rule, the Delhi Sultanate reached its peak in terms of geographical reach, covering most of the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="ebmit">Muḥammad ibn Tughluq Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>
Muhammad bin Tughlaq was an intellectual, with extensive knowledge of the Quran, Fiqh, poetry and other fields. He was also deeply suspicious of his kinsmen and wazirs (ministers), extremely severe with his opponents, and took decisions that caused economic upheaval. For example, he ordered the minting of coins from base metals with face value of silver coins – a decision that failed because ordinary people minted counterfeit coins from base metal they had in their houses and used them to pay taxes and jizya.<ref name=ebmit/>Template:Sfn
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Muhammad bin Tughlaq chose the city of Deogiri in the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra (renaming it Daulatabad), as the second administrative capital of the Delhi Sultanate.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "The Sultan created Daulatabad as the second administrative centre. A contemporary writer has written that the Empire had two capitals –Delhi and Daulatabad."</ref> He ordered a forced migration of the Muslim population of Delhi, including his royal family, the nobles, Syeds, Sheikhs and 'Ulema to settle in Daulatabad. The purpose of transferring the entire Muslim elite to Daulatabad was to enrol them in his mission of world conquest. He saw their role as propagandists who would adapt Islamic religious symbolism to the rhetoric of empire, and that the Sufis could by persuasion bring many of the inhabitants of the Deccan to become Muslim.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Tughluq cruelly punished the nobles who were unwilling to move to Daulatabad seeing their non-compliance with his order as equivalent to rebellion. According to Ferishta, when the Mongols arrived in Punjab, the Sultan returned the elite to Delhi, although Daulatabad remained an administrative centre.Template:Sfn One result of the transfer of the elite to Daulatabad was the hatred of the nobility to the Sultan, which remained in their minds for a long time.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "The primary result of the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad was the hatred of the people towards the Sultan."</ref> The other result was that he managed to create a stable Muslim elite and result in the growth of the Muslim population of Daulatabad who did not return to Delhi,<ref name=ebmit/> without which the rise of the Bahmanid kingdom to challenge the Vijayanagara kingdom would not have been possible.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Muhammad bin Tughlaq's adventures in the Deccan region also marked campaigns of destruction and desecration temples, for example, the Svayambhu Shiva Temple and the Thousand Pillar Temple in Warangal.<ref name=regbook/>
Revolts against Muhammad bin Tughlaq began in 1327, continued over his reign, and over time the geographical reach of the Sultanate shrunk. The Vijayanagara Empire originated in southern India as a direct response to attacks from the Delhi Sultanate,<ref>Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India, (Routledge, 1986), 188.</ref> and liberated south India from the Delhi Sultanate's rule.<ref>Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India by Jl Mehta p. 97</ref> In the 1330s, Muhammad bin Tughlaq ordered an invasion of China, sending part of his forces over the Himalayas. However, they were defeated by the Kangra State.<ref>Chandra, Satish (1997). Medieval India: From Sultanate to the Mughals. New Delhi, India: Har-Anand Publications. pp. 101–102. Template:ISBN.</ref> During his reign, state revenues collapsed from his policies such as the base metal coins from 1329 to 1332. Famines, widespread poverty, and rebellion grew across the kingdom. In 1338 his nephew rebelled in Malwa, whom he attacked, caught, flayed alive, and killed ultimately.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By 1339, the eastern regions under local Muslim governors and southern parts led by Hindu kings had revolted and declared independence from the Delhi Sultanate. Muhammad bin Tughlaq did not have the resources or support to respond to the shrinking kingdom.Template:Sfn The historian Walford chronicled that Delhi and most of India faced severe famines during Muhammad bin Tughlaq's rule in the years after the base metal coin experiment.<ref>Cornelius Walford (1878), Template:Google books, pp 9–10</ref><ref>Judith Walsh, A Brief History of India, Template:ISBN, pp 70–72; Quote: "In 1335–42, during a severe famine and death in the Delhi region, the Sultanate offered no help to the starving residents."</ref> In 1335, Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, a Sayyid native of Kaithal in North India, revolted and founded the Madurai Sultanate in South India.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By 1347, the Bahmani Sultanate had become independent through the rebellion of Ismail Mukh. It became a competing Muslim kingdom in the Deccan region of South Asia, founded by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah.<ref name=mrpislam/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Muhammad bin Tughlaq died in 1351 while trying to chase and punish people in Gujarat who were rebelling against the Delhi Sultanate.Template:Sfn He was succeeded by Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351–1388), who tried to regain the old kingdom, boundary by waging a war with Bengal for 11 months in 1359. However, Bengal did not fall. Firuz Shah ruled for 37 years. His reign was marked with prosperity much of which was due to the wise and capable Grand Vizier, Khan-i-Jahan Maqbul, a South Indian Telugu Muslim.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His reign attempted to stabilize the food supply and reduce famines by commissioning an irrigation canal from the Yamuna river. An educated sultan, Firuz Shah left a memoir.<ref>Firoz Shah Tughlak, Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi – Memoirs of Firoz Shah Tughlak, Translated in 1871 by Elliot and Dawson, Volume 3 – The History of India, Cornell University Archives</ref> In it he wrote that he banned the practice of torture, such as amputations, tearing out of eyes, sawing people alive, crushing people's bones as punishment, pouring molten lead into throats, setting people on fire, driving nails into hands and feet, among others.Template:Sfn He also wrote that he did not tolerate attempts by Rafawiz Shia Muslim and Mahdi sects from proselytizing people into their faith, nor did he tolerate Hindus who tried to rebuild temples that his armies had destroyed.<ref name="fst377381">Firoz Shah Tughlak, Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi – Autobiographical memoirs, Translated in 1871 by Elliot and Dawson, Volume 3 –The History of India, Cornell University Archives, pp 377–381.</ref> Firuz Shah Tughlaq also lists his accomplishments to include converting Hindus to Sunni Islam by announcing an exemption from taxes and jizya for those who convert, and by lavishing new converts with presents and honours.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="firoz374383">Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi Simultaneously, he raised taxes and jizya, assessing it at three levels, and stopping the practice of his predecessors who had historically exempted all Hindu Brahmins from the jizya.</ref><ref>Annemarie Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Template:ISBN, Brill Academic, pp 20–23</ref> He also vastly expanded the number of slaves in his service and those of Muslim nobles, who were converted to Islam, taught to read and memorize the Quran, and employed in many offices especially in the military, out of which he was able to amass a large army.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> These slaves were known as the Ghulaman-i-Firuz Shahi formed an elite guard which later became influential in the state.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq was marked by reduction in extreme forms of torture, elimination of favours to select parts of society, but also increased intolerance and persecution of targeted groups,Template:Sfn the latter of which resulting in conversion of significant parts of the population to Islam.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The death of Firuz Shah Tughlaq created anarchy and disintegration of the kingdom. Firuz Shah's successor, Ghiyath-ud-Din Shah II was young and inexperienced and gave himself up to wine and pleasure. The nobles rose against him killed the Sultan and his vizier, and installed Abu Bakr Shah on the throne.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the old Ghulaman-i-Firuz Shahi turned against Abu Bakr, who fled, and on their invitation Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Shah was installed on the throne.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The anamalous institution of the Ghulaman-i-Firuz Shahi became a corrupting influence on the successive Sultans following Firuz Shah.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The last rulers of this dynasty both called themselves Sultan from 1394 to 1397: Nasir ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughlaq, the grandson of Firuz Shah Tughlaq who ruled from Delhi, and Nasir ud-Din Nusrat Shah Tughlaq, another relative of Firuz Shah Tughlaq who ruled from Firozabad, which was a few miles from Delhi.Template:Sfn The battle between the two relatives continued until Timur's invasion in 1398. Timur, also known as Tamerlane in Western scholarly literature, was the Turkicized Mongol ruler of the Timurid Empire. He became aware of the weakness and quarrelling of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, so he marched with his army to Delhi, plundering and killing all the way.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Estimates for the massacre by Timur in Delhi range from 100,000 to 200,000 people.<ref>Lionel Trotter (1906), History of India: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Gorham Publishers London/New York, p. 74</ref><ref>Annemarie Schimmel (1997), Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Brill Academic, Template:ISBN, pp 36–37; Also see: Elliot, Studies in Indian History, 2nd ed., pp 98–101</ref> Timur had no intention of staying in or ruling India. He looted the lands he crossed, then plundered and burnt Delhi. Over fifteen days, Timur and his army raged a massacre.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Then he collected wealth, captured women and men and children, and enslaved people (particularly skilled artisans), and returning with this loot to Samarkand. The people and lands within the Delhi Sultanate were left in a state of anarchy, chaos, and pestilence.Template:Sfn Nasir ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughlaq, who had fled to Gujarat during Timur's invasion, returned and nominally ruled as the last ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty, as a puppet of the various factions at the court.<ref name="aschi">Annemarie Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Template:ISBN, Brill Academic, Chapter 2</ref>
Sayyid dynasty (1414–1450)Edit
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The Sayyid dynasty was founded by Khizr Khan and it ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1415 to 1451.<ref name=mrpislam/> Members of the dynasty derived their title, Sayyid, or the descendants of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, based on the claim that they belonged to his lineage through his daughter Fatima.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Abraham Eraly thinks his forebears were likely that Khizr Khan's ancestors were likely descendants of an Arab family who had long ago settled in the region of Multan during the early Tughluq period, but he doubts his Sayyid lineage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A.L. Srivastava shares a similar viewpoint.Template:Sfn According to Richard M. Eaton and Simon Digby, Khizr Khan was a Punjabi chieftain from Khokhar clan.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Sfn The Timurid invasion and plunder had left the Delhi Sultanate in shambles, and little is known about the rule by the Sayyid dynasty. Annemarie Schimmel notes the first ruler of the dynasty as Khizr Khan, who assumed power as a vassal of the Timurid Empire. His successor was Mubarak Khan, who renamed himself Mubarak Shah, discontinued his father's nominal allegiance to Timur and unsuccessfully tried to regain lost territories in Punjab from Khokhar warlords.<ref name=aschi/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
With the power of the Sayyid dynasty faltering, Islam's history on the Indian subcontinent underwent a profound change, according to Schimmel.<ref name=aschi/> The previously dominant Sunni sect of Islam became diluted, alternate Muslim sects such as Shia rose, and new competing centres of Islamic culture took roots beyond Delhi.
In the course of the late Sayyid dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate shrank until it became a minor power. By the time of the last Sayyid ruler, Alam Shah (whose name translated to "king of the world"), this resulted in a common northern Indian witticism, according to which the "kingdom of the king of the world extends from Delhi to Palam", i.e. merely Template:Convert. Historian Richard M. Eaton noted that this saying showcased how the "once-mighty empire had become a joke".Template:Sfn The Sayyid dynasty was displaced by the Lodi dynasty in 1451, however, resulting in a resurgence of the Delhi Sultanate.Template:Sfn
Lodi dynasty (1451–1526)Edit
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The Lodi dynasty was an Afghan, or Turco-Afghan dynasty,Template:Efn related to the Pashtun (Afghan) Lodi tribe.<ref>Judith Walsh, A Brief History of India, Template:ISBN, p. 81; Quote: "The last dynasty was founded by a Sayyid provincial governor, Buhlul Lodi (r. 1451–89). The Lodis were descended from Afghans, and under their rule, Afghans eclipsed Turks in court patronage."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The founder of the dynasty, Bahlul Khan Lodi, was a Khalji of the Lodi clan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He started his reign by attacking the Muslim Jaunpur Sultanate to expand the influence of the Delhi Sultanate and was partially successful through a treaty. Thereafter, the region from Delhi to Varanasi (then at the border of Bengal province), was back under the influence of the Delhi Sultanate.
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After Bahlul Lodi died, his son Nizam Khan assumed power, renamed himself Sikandar Lodi and ruled from 1489 to 1517.<ref>Digby, S. (1975), The Tomb of Buhlūl Lōdī, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 38(03), pp. 550–561</ref> One of the better-known rulers of the dynasty, Sikandar Lodi expelled his brother Barbak Shah from Jaunpur, installed his son Jalal Khan as the ruler, then proceeded east to make claims on Bihar. The Muslim governors of Bihar agreed to pay tribute and taxes but operated independently of the Delhi Sultanate. Sikandar Lodi led a campaign of destruction of temples, particularly around Mathura. He also moved his capital and court from Delhi to Agra,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> an ancient Hindu city that had been destroyed during the plunder and attacks of the early Delhi Sultanate period. Sikandar thus erected buildings with Indo-Islamic architecture in Agra during his rule, and the growth of Agra continued during the Mughal Empire, after the end of the Delhi Sultanate.Template:Sfn<ref>Andrew Petersen, Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, Routledge, Template:ISBN, p. 7</ref>
Sikandar Lodi died a natural death in 1517, and his second son Ibrahim Lodi assumed power. Ibrahim did not enjoy the support of Afghan and Persian nobles or regional chiefs.<ref>Richards, John (1965), The Economic History of the Lodi Period: 1451–1526, Journal de l'histoire economique et sociale de l'Orient, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp 47–67</ref> Ibrahim attacked and killed his elder brother Jalal Khan, who was installed as the governor of Jaunpur by his father and had the support of the amirs and chiefs.Template:Sfn Ibrahim Lodi was unable to consolidate his power, and after Jalal Khan's death, the governor of Punjab, Daulat Khan Lodi, reached out to the Mughal Babur and invited him to attack the Delhi Sultanate.<ref name="eblodi">Lodi Dynasty Encyclopædia Britannica (2009)</ref> Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in the Battle of Panipat in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and the Mughal Empire replaced it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Government and politicsEdit
The historian Peter Jackson explains in The New Cambridge History of Islam: "The elite of the early Delhi sultanate comprised overwhelmingly first-generation immigrants from Iran and Central Asia: Persians, Turks, Ghūrīs, Khalaj from the hot regions (garmsīr) of modern Afghanistan".<ref>Template:New Cambridge History of Islam</ref>
Political systemEdit
Template:Delhi Sultanate Medieval scholars such as Isami and Barani suggested that the prehistory of the Delhi Sultanate lay in the Ghaznavid state and that its ruler, Mahmud Ghaznavi, provided the foundation and inspiration integral in the making of the Delhi regime. The Mongol and Hindu monarchies were the great "Others" in these narratives and the Persianate and class-conscious, aristocratic virtues of the ideal state were creatively memorialized in the Ghaznavid state, now the templates for the Delhi Sultanate. Cast within a historical narrative it allowed for a more self-reflective, linear rooting of the Sultanate in the great traditions of Muslim statecraft.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Over time, successive Muslim dynasties created a "centralized structure in the Persian tradition whose task was to mobilize human and material resources for the ongoing armed struggle against both Mongol and Hindu monarchies".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The monarch was not the Sultan of the Hindus or of, say, the people of Haryana, rather in the eyes of the Sultanate's chroniclers, the Muslims constituted what in more recent times would be termed a "Staatsvolk". For many Muslim observers, the ultimate justification for any ruler within the Islamic world was the protection and advancement of the faith. For the Sultans, as for their Ghaznavid and Ghurid predecessors, this entailed the suppression of heterodox Muslims, and Firuz Shah attached some importance to the fact that he had acted against the ashab-i had-u ibadat (deviators and latitudinarians). It also involved plundering and extorting tribute from, independent Hindu principalities.Template:Sfn Firuz Shah, who believed that India was changed into a Muslim nation,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> declared that "no zimmi living in a Musalman country might dare to act".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Hindu kingdoms who submitted to Islamic rule qualified as "protected peoples" according to the wide spectrum of the educated Muslim community within the subcontinent. The balance of the evidence is that in the latter half of the fourteenth century, if not before, the jizyah was levied as a discriminatory tax on non-Muslims, although even then it is difficult to see how such a measure could have been enforced outside the principal centres of Muslim authority.Template:Sfn The Delhi Sultanate also continued the governmental conventions of the previous Hindu polities, claiming paramountcy of some of its subjects rather than exclusive supreme control. Accordingly, it did not interfere with the autonomy and military of certain conquered Hindu rulers and freely included Hindu vassals and officials.<ref name=brt/>
Economic policy and administrationEdit
The economic policy of the Delhi Sultanate was characterized by greater government involvement in the economy relative to the Classical Hindu dynasties, and increased penalties for private businesses that broke government regulations. Alauddin Khalji replaced the private markets with four centralized government-run markets, appointed a "market controller", and implemented strict price controlsTemplate:Sfn on all kinds of goods, "from caps to socks; from combs to pins; from vegetables to soups, from sweetmeats to chapatis" (according to Ziauddin Barani [c. 1357]Template:Sfn). The price controls were inflexible even during droughts.Template:Sfn Capitalist investors were completely banned from participating in the horse trade,Template:Sfn animal and slave brokers were forbidden from collecting commissions,Template:Sfn and private merchants were eliminated from all animal and slave markets.Template:Sfn Bans were instituted against hoardingTemplate:Sfn and regrating,Template:Sfn granaries were nationalizedTemplate:Sfn and limits were placed on the amount of grain that could be used by cultivators for personal use.Template:Sfn
Various licensing rules were imposed. Registration of merchants was required,Template:Sfn and expensive goods such as certain fabrics were deemed "unnecessary" for the general public and required a permit from the state to be purchased. These licenses were issued to amirs, maliks, and other important persons in government.Template:Sfn Agricultural taxes were raised to 50%.
Traders regarded the regulations as burdensome, and violations were severely punished, leading to further resentment among the traders.Template:Sfn A network of spies was instituted to ensure the implementation of the system; even after price controls were lifted after Khalji's death, Barani claims that the fear of his spies remained and that people continued to avoid trading in expensive commodities.Template:Sfn
Social policiesEdit
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The sultanate enforced Islamic religious prohibitions on anthropomorphic representations in art.<ref>Architecture under the Sultanate of Delhi</ref>
MilitaryEdit
The army of the Delhi sultans initially consisted of nomadic Turkic Mamluk military slaves belonging to Muhammad of Ghor.
The nucleus of this Southeast Asian sultanate military were the Turco-Afghani regular units named Wajih, which were composed of elite household cavalry archers who came from slave backgrounds.<ref name="Boot, Hooves and Wheels">Template:Cite book</ref> A major military contribution of the Delhi Sultanate was their successful campaigns repelling the Mongol Empire's invasions of India, which could have been devastating for the Indian subcontinent, like the Mongol invasions of China, Persia and Europe. Were it not for the Delhi Sultanate, the Mongol Empire may have been successful in invading India.Template:Sfn
The strength of the armies changes according to time. Historians state the Delhi sultanate during the Khalji dynasty maintained 300,000–400,000 horse cavalry and 2500–3000 war elephant as a standing army.<ref name="History of Kanauj To the Moslem Conquest">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="War-horse and Elephant in the Dehli Sultanate; Simon Digby">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Islamic Arms and Armour of Muslim India">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="A Description of Indian and Oriental Armour Illustrated from the Collection Formerly in the India Office, Now Exhibited at South Kensington, and the Author's Private Collection, with a Map, Twenty-three Full-page Plates (two Coloured), and Numerous Woodcuts, with an Introductory Sketch of the Military History of India">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Warfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CE">Template:Cite book</ref> Its successor state, the Tughlaq dynasty further expanded into 500,000 horse cavalry in their force.<ref name="War-horse and Elephant in the Dehli Sultanate; Simon Digby" />
EconomyEdit
Some historians argue that the Delhi Sultanate was responsible for making India more multicultural and cosmopolitan. The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in India has been compared to the expansion of the Mongol Empire and called "part of a larger trend occurring throughout much of Eurasia, in which nomadic people migrated from the steppes of Inner Asia and became politically dominant".Template:Sfn
According to Angus Maddison, between the years 1000 and 1500, India's GDP, of which the sultanates represented a significant part, grew nearly 8% to $60.5 billion in 1500. Though the overall the percentage of the GDP share reduced from 33% to 22% <ref name="maddison379">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Maddison's estimates, India's population grew from 85 million in 1200 to 101 million in 1500 AD in the period.<ref name="ggdc.net">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Continental Asia in 1500 CE The Delhi Sultanate period coincided with more use of mechanical technology in the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Pacey">Template:Cite book</ref> India previously already had highly sophisticated agriculture, food crops, textiles, medicine, minerals, and metals.<ref name="Pacey" /> Water wheels also previously existed in India, as described by various Chinese monks and Arab travellers and writers in their books.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="siddiqui">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:NoteTag During the Delhi Sultanate, various mechanical devices were introduced from the Islamic world to India, such as geared water-raising wheels and other machines with gears, pulleys, cams, and cranks.<ref name="Pacey" /> Later, Mughal emperor Babur provided a description on the use of water wheels in the Delhi Sultanate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to historians Arnold Pacey and Irfan Habib, the spinning wheel was introduced to India from Iran during the Delhi Sultanate.Template:Sfn Smith and Cothren suggested that it was invented in India during the latter half of the first millennium,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but Pacey and Habib said these early references to cotton spinning do not identify a wheel, but more likely refer to hand spinning.Template:Sfn The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350.Template:Sfn The worm gear roller cotton gin was invented in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries; Habib states that the development may likely occurred in peninsular India, before becoming more widespread across India during the Mughal era.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin may have appeared sometime during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire.Template:Sfn
India and China have connections throughout the thousands of years of history. Paper had already reached some parts of India as early as the 6th or 7th century,<ref name=":0">Harrison, Frederick. A Book about Books. London: John Murray, 1943. p. 79. Mandl, George. "Paper Chase: A Millennium in the Production and Use of Paper". Myers, Robin & Michael Harris (eds). A Millennium of the Book: Production, Design & Illustration in Manuscript & Print, 900–1900. Winchester: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1994. p. 182. Mann, George. Print: A Manual for Librarians and Students Describing in Detail the History, Methods, and Applications of Printing and Paper Making. London: Grafton & Co., 1952. p. 79. McMurtrie, Douglas C. The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking. London: Oxford University Press, 1943. p. 63.</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> initially through Chinese travellers and the ancient silk road which India was very well connected with. Earlier some historians believed that paper failed to catch on as palmyra leaves and birch bark remained far more popular but this theory was discredited later on.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On the other hand, the paper may have arrived in Bengal from a separate route, as 15th-century Chinese traveller Ma Huan remarked that Bengali paper was white and made from "bark of a tree" similar to the Chinese method of papermaking (as opposed to the Middle-Eastern method of using rags and waste material), suggesting a direct route from China for the arrival of paper in Bengal and paper was already very well established and widespread in that part of the subcontinent.Template:Sfn
FactorsEdit
DemographicsEdit
According to one set of very uncertain estimates by modern historians, the total Indian population had largely been stagnant at 75 million during the Middle Kingdoms era from 1 AD to 1000 AD. During the Medieval Delhi Sultanate era from 1000 to 1500, India as a whole experienced lasting population growth for the first time in a thousand years, with its population increasing nearly 50% to 110 million by 1500 AD.<ref name="maddison">Angus Maddison (2001), The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, pages 241–242 Template:Webarchive, OECD Development Centre</ref><ref name="maddison236">Angus Maddison (2001), The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, page 236 Template:Webarchive, OECD Development Centre</ref>
CultureEdit
While the Indian subcontinent has had invaders from Central Asia since ancient times, what made the Muslim invasions different is that unlike the preceding invaders who assimilated into the prevalent social system, the successful Muslim conquerors retained their Islamic identity and created new legal and administrative systems that challenged and usually in many cases superseded the existing systems of social conduct and ethics, even influencing the non-Muslim rivals and common masses to a large extent, though the non-Muslim population was left to their laws and customs.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Citation</ref> They also introduced new cultural codes that in some ways were very different from the existing cultural codes. This led to the rise of a new Indian culture that was mixed in nature, different from ancient Indian culture. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in India were Indian natives converted to Islam. This factor also played an important role in the synthesis of cultures.<ref>Eaton, Richard M.'The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1993 1993, accessed on 1 May 2007</ref>
The Hindustani language (Hindi) began to emerge in the Delhi Sultanate period, developed from the Middle Indo-Aryan apabhramsha vernaculars of North India. Amir Khusrau, who lived in the 13th century CE during the Delhi Sultanate period in North India, used a form of Hindustani, which was the lingua franca of the period, in his writings and referred to it as Hindavi.<ref name="brown2008">Template:Citation</ref>
The officers, the Sultans, Khans, Maliks and the soldiers wore the Islamic qabas dress in the style of Khwarezm, which were tucked in the middle of the body, while the turban and kullah were common headwear. The turbans were wrapped around the kullah (caps), and the feet were covered with red boots. The Wazirs and Katibs also dressed like the soldiers, except they did not use belts, and often let down a piece of cloth in front of them in the manner of the Sufis. The judges and the learned men wore ample gowns (farajiyat) and an Arabic garment (durra).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ArchitectureEdit
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The start of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 under Qutb al-Din Aibak introduced a large Islamic state to India, using Central Asian styles.<ref>Harle, 423–424</ref> The types and forms of large buildings required by Muslim elites, with mosques and tombs much the most common, were very different from those previously built in India. The exteriors of both were very often topped by large domes and made extensive use of arches. Both of these features were hardly used in Hindu temple architecture and other indigenous Indian styles. Both types of building essentially consist of a single large space under a high dome, and completely avoid the figurative sculpture so important to Hindu temple architecture.Template:Sfnm
The important Qutb Minar complex in Delhi was begun under Muhammad of Ghor, by 1199, and continued under Qutb al-Din Aibak and later sultans. The Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, now a ruin, was the first structure. Like other early Islamic buildings, it re-used elements such as columns from destroyed Hindu and Jain temples, including one on the same site whose platform was reused. The style was Iranian, but the arches were still corbelled in the traditional Indian way.Template:Sfnm
Beside it is the extremely tall Qutb Minar, a minaret or victory tower, whose original four stages reach 73 meters (with a final stage added later). Its closest comparator is the 62-metre all-brick Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, of Template:Circa, a decade or so before the probable start of the Delhi tower.Template:NoteTag The surfaces of both are elaborately decorated with inscriptions and geometric patterns; in Delhi the shaft is fluted with "superb stalactite bracketing under the balconies" at the top of each stage.Template:Sfnm In general minarets were slow to be used in India, and are often detached from the main mosque where they exist.<ref>Harle, 429.</ref>
The Tomb of Iltutmish was added by 1236; its dome, the squinches again corbelled, and is now missing, and the intricate carving has been described as having an "angular harshness", from carvers working in an unfamiliar tradition.Template:Sfnm Other elements were added to the complex over the next two centuries.
Another very early mosque, begun in the 1190s, is the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra in Ajmer, Rajasthan, built for the same Delhi rulers, again with corbelled arches and domes. Here Hindu temple columns (and possibly some new ones) are piled up in threes to achieve extra height. Both mosques had large detached screens with pointed corbelled arches added in front of them, probably under Iltutmish a couple of decades later. In these, the central arch is taller, in imitation of an iwan. At Ajmer, the smaller screen arches are tentatively cusped, for the first time in India.Template:Sfnm
By around 1300 true domes and arches with voussoirs were being built; the ruined Tomb of Balban (d. 1287) in Delhi may be the earliest survival.Template:Sfn The Alai Darwaza gatehouse at the Qutb complex, from 1311, still shows a cautious approach to the new technology, with very thick walls and a shallow dome, only visible from a certain distance or height. Bold contrasting colours of masonry, with red sandstone and white marble, introduce what was to become a common feature of Indo-Islamic architecture, substituting for the polychrome tiles used in Persia and Central Asia. The pointed arches come together slightly at their base, giving a mild horseshoe arch effect, and their internal edges are not cusped but lined with conventionalized "spearhead" projections, possibly representing lotus buds. Jali, stone openwork screens, are introduced here; they already had been long used in temples.Template:Sfn
Tughlaq architectureEdit
The tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam (built 1320 to 1324) in Multan, Pakistan is a large octagonal brick-built mausoleum with polychrome glazed decoration that remains much closer to the styles of Iran and Afghanistan. Timber is also used internally. This was the earliest major monument of the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1413), built during the unsustainable expansion of its massive territory. It was built for a Sufi saint rather than a sultan, and most of the many Tughlaq tombs are much less exuberant. The tomb of the founder of the dynasty, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (d. 1325) is more austere, but impressive; like a Hindu temple, it is topped with a small amalaka and a round finial like a kalasha. Unlike the buildings mentioned previously, it completely lacks carved texts and sits in a compound with high walls and battlements. Both these tombs have external walls sloping slightly inwards, by 25° in the Delhi tomb, like many fortifications including the ruined Tughlaqabad Fort opposite the tomb, intended as the new capital.Template:Sfnm
The Tughlaqs had a corps of government architects and builders, and in this and other roles employed many Hindus. They left many buildings and a standardized dynastic style.Template:Sfn The third sultan, Firuz Shah (r. 1351–88) is said to have designed buildings himself and was the longest ruler and greatest builder of the dynasty. His Firoz Shah Palace Complex (started 1354) at Hisar, Haryana is a ruin, but parts are in fair condition.Template:Sfnm Some buildings from his reign take forms that had been rare or unknown in Islamic buildings.Template:Sfn He was buried in the large Hauz Khas Complex in Delhi, with many other buildings from his period and the later Sultanate, including several small domed pavilions supported only by columns.Template:Sfnm
By this time Islamic architecture in India had adopted some features of earlier Indian architecture, such as the use of a high plinth,Template:Sfn and often mouldings around its edges, as well as columns and brackets and hypostyle halls.Template:Sfn After the death of Firoz the Tughlaqs declined, and the following Delhi dynasties were weak. Most of the monumental buildings constructed were tombs, although the impressive Lodi Gardens in Delhi (adorned with fountains, charbagh gardens, ponds, tombs and mosques) were constructed by the late Lodi dynasty. The architecture of other regional Muslim states was often more impressive.Template:Sfnm
- Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra (literally "shed of 2½ days").jpg
Screen of the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque, Ajmer, Template:Circa; Corbel arches, some cusped.
- Tomb of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and side tomb (3319047170).jpg
Tomb of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (d. 1325), Delhi
- Balban Khan's Tomb 029.jpg
Possibly the first "true" arches in India; Tomb of Balban (d. 1287) in Delhi
- The tomb of Ferozshah ii ag61.jpg
Pavilions in the Hauz Khas Complex, Delhi
- The Tomb of Sikander Lodi, seen from the Sheesh Gumbad.JPG
The Shish Gumbad in the Lodi Gardens, Delhi
- Tomb of Sikandar Lodi in Lodi Garden 08.jpg
Tomb of Sikandar Lodi in the Lodi Gardens, Delhi
List of rulersEdit
DownfallEdit
CitiesEdit
While the sacking of cities was not uncommon in medieval warfare, the army of the Delhi Sultanate also often destroyed cities in their military expeditions. According to Jain chronicler Jinaprabha Suri, Nusrat Khan's conquests destroyed hundreds of towns including Ashapalli (modern-day Ahmedabad), Anhilvad (modern-day Patan), Vanthali and Surat in Gujarat.Template:Sfn This account is corroborated by Ziauddin Barani.Template:Sfn
Battles and massacresEdit
- Ghiyas ud din Balban wiped out the Rajputs of Mewar and Awadh, killing approximately 100,000 people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Alauddin Khalji ordered the killing of 30,000 people at Chittor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Alauddin Khalji ordered the killing Brahmins during his raid on Devagiri.Template:Sfn
- According to a hymn, Muhammad bin Tughlaq is said to have killed 12,000 Hindu ascetics during the sacking of Srirangam.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Firuz Shah Tughlaq killed 180,000 people during his invasion of Odisha.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
DesecrationEdit
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Historian Richard Eaton has tabulated a campaign of destruction of idols and temples by Delhi Sultans, intermixed with certain years where the temples were protected from desecration.<ref name="re2000" /><ref>Richard M. Eaton, Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States, Part II, Frontline, 5 January 2001, 70–77. [1]</ref><ref>Richard M. Eaton, Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States, Part I, Frontline, 22 December 2000, 62–70.[2]</ref> In his paper, he has listed 37 instances of Hindu temples being desecrated or destroyed in India during the Delhi Sultanate, from 1234 to 1518, for which reasonable evidences are available.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Annemarie Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Template:ISBN, Brill Academic, pp. 7–10.</ref><ref>James Brown (1949), The History of Islam in India, The Muslim World, 39(1), 11–25</ref> He notes that this was not unusual in medieval India, as there were numerous recorded instances of temple desecration by Hindu and Buddhist kings against rival Indian kingdoms between 642 and 1520, involving conflict between devotees of different Hindu deities, as well as between Hindus, Buddhists and Jains at small scales.<ref name="Eaton-dec">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Eaton-sep">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Eaton-2004">Template:Cite book</ref> He also noted there were also many instances of Delhi sultans, who often had Hindu ministers, ordering the protection, maintenance and repairing of temples, according to both Muslim and Hindu sources. For example, a Sanskrit inscription notes that Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq repaired a Shiva and Parvati temple in Bidar after his Deccan conquest. There was often a pattern of Delhi sultans plundering or damaging temples during the conquest and then patronizing or repairing temples after the conquest. This pattern came to an end with the Mughal Empire, where Akbar's chief minister Abu'l-Fazl criticized the excesses of earlier sultans such as Mahmud of Ghazni.<ref name="auto" />
In the majority of cases, the demolished remains, rocks and broken statue pieces of temples destroyed by Delhi sultans were reused to build mosques and other buildings. For example, the Qutb complex in Delhi was built from stones from 27 demolished Hindu and Jain temples by some accounts.<ref>Welch, Anthony (1993), Architectural patronage and the past: The Tughluq sultans of India, Muqarnas, Vol. 10, 311–322</ref> Similarly, the Muslim mosque in Khanapur, Maharashtra was built from the looted parts and demolished remains of Hindu temples.<ref name="awhc" /> Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji destroyed Buddhist Religious Centres such as Odantapuri & Vikramshila in 1193 at the beginning of the Delhi Sultanate.<ref name="regbook" /><ref name="gk" />
The first historical record of a campaign of destruction of temples and defacement of faces or heads of Hindu idols lasted from 1193 to 1194 in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh under the command of Ghuri. Under the Mamluks and Khaljis, the campaign of temple desecration expanded to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and continued through the late 13th century.<ref name=re2000/> The campaign extended to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu under Malik Kafur and Ulugh Khan in the 14th century, and by the Bahmanis in the 15th century.<ref name=regbook/>Template:Failed verification Orissa temples were destroyed in the 14th century under the Tughlaqs.
Beyond destruction and desecration, the sultans of the Delhi Sultanate in some cases had forbidden the reconstruction or repair of damaged Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples. In certain cases, the Sultanate would grant a permit for repairs and construction of temples if the patron or religious community paid jizya (fee, tax). For example, a proposal by the Chinese to repair Himalayan Buddhist temples destroyed by the Sultanate army was refused, because such temple repairs were only allowed if the Chinese agreed to pay jizya tax to the treasury of the Sultanate.Template:Sfn<ref>R Islam (2002), Theory and Practice of Jizyah in the Delhi Sultanate (14th Century), Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 50, pp. 7–18</ref>Template:Sfn According to Eva De Clercq, an expert in the study of Jainism, the Delhi Sultans did not strictly prohibit construction of new temples in the sultanate, Islamic law notwithstanding.<ref>Eva De Clercq (2010), ON JAINA APABHRAṂŚA PRAŚASTIS, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Volume 63 (3), pp 275–287</ref> In his memoirs, Firoz Shah Tughlaq describes how he destroyed temples and built mosques instead and killed those who dared build new temples.<ref name="fst377381" /> Other historical records from wazirs, amirs and the court historians of various Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate describe the grandeur of idols and temples they witnessed in their campaigns and how these were destroyed and desecrated.<ref>Hasan Nizami et al., Taju-l Ma-asir & Appendix, Translated in 1871 by Elliot and Dawson, Volume 2 – The History of India, Cornell University Archives, pp 22, 219, 398, 471</ref>
- Iconoclasm under the Delhi Sultanate
- Somnath temple ruins (1869).jpg
The Somnath Temple in Gujarat was repeatedly destroyed by Delhi Sultanate armies and rebuilt by Chaulukya armies. It was destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate's army in 1299 and was rebuilt afterwards.<ref name="eaton200080">Eaton (2000), Temple desecration in pre-modern India Frontline, p. 73, item 16 of the Table, Archived by Columbia University</ref>
- 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 Varanasi.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Temple de Mînâkshî01.jpg
The armies of the Delhi Sultanate led by their Delhi Sultanate commander Malik Kafur demolished and plundered the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai and looted it of all its wealth.<ref name="Ernst2004p109">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Eraly2015chid">Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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.<ref name="re2000" />
- 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 Aibak between 1200 and 1210, and again by the Allauddin Khalji in 1298.Template:Sfn
- Elevation of Kirtistambh Rudramahalaya Sidhpur Gujarat India.jpg
Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambha at Rudra Mahalaya Temple. The temple was destroyed by Alauddin Khalji.<ref name="Burgess1874">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Exteriors Carvings of Shantaleshwara Shrine 02.jpg
Exterior wall reliefs at Hoysaleshvara Temple. The temple was twice sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate.<ref name="Bradnock2000p959">Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Mongol invasions of India
- Delhi Sultanate literature
- Iconoclasm
- Ibrahim Lodi's Tomb
- Persianate states
- Tomb of Bahlol Lodi
- Turkish slaves in the Delhi Sultanate
- Islam in South Asia
NotesEdit
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ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
SourcesEdit
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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 readingEdit
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External linksEdit
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