Introduction

The Arab invasions led to the establishment of the Delhi sultanate. This flourished for about three centuries. The Delhi sultanate consisted of: Aibak (Slave), Khilji, Tuglaq, Sayyids, and the Lodis.

Slave dynasty:

Qutubuddin Aibak was a slave of Mahmud Ghuri who made him the governor of Indian provinces. His military capital was Delhi. He established his dominance over Northern India. He established Turkish rule in India.

After Ghuri’s death, he declared himself the sultan and cut all ties with Ghuri’s Empire. His capital now shifted to Lahore. He started the construction of Qutub Minar in memory of Saint Qutubuddin Bhaktiyar. He didn’t issue any coins in his name. He was succeeded by his son Iltutmish. He died while playing polo.

Iltutmish: he was sold as a slave to Qutubuddin Aibak. He defeated Aibak’s son and claimed the throne. He shifted his capital to Delhi. The initial years of his kingdom were spent securing his throne. The Mongol king Chengiz khan invaded Khwarizam and the ruler fled to India. But Iltutmish denied him asylum. Hence he saved India from the wrath of the Mongol king.

Iltutmish marched against Bengal and Bihar. He annexed Sind and Punjab. His Malwa campaign was however unsuccessful.

He was acknowledged as the legal sovereign of India. He was a patron of literature and received many scholars. He introduced Arab coinage in India. The silver tanka was minted by him. He nominated his daughter Razia as the successor.

Razia: she was nominated by Iltutmish but her nobles refused to accept this and gave the throne to a male. The governor of Multan revolted and Razia used this opportunity to capture the throne.

Razia would hold the court with her face unveiled, she would also go hunting and lead the army. This angered the Turkish nobles.

Altunia the governor of Bhatinda revolted Razia went to suppress the revolt personally. The nobles put Iltutmish’s son on the throne. Altunia had captured Razia but she won him over and married him. Together they marched to Delhi but were defeated.

Balban: Balban successfully restored the son of Iltutmish to the throne after Razia died. He was the Sultan’s noble. He also married his daughter. When the sultan died Balban acceded to the throne.

Balban knew that the threat to his power was the powerful nobles of the court. He then succeeded in eliminating those who challenged him and kept a few loyal ones alive. He focused more on the restoration of law and order than on expanding his kingdom. Robbers were persecuted and killed. He also established a separate military department.

Amir Khusrau, Parrot of India, famous poet during Balban’s time.

The Mongol invasion forced him to send his son but the prince was killed. This dealt a mortal blow to Balban. He died soon after. Balban enhanced the power of the sultanate but due to a weak successor the slave dynasty ended and the Khilji dynasty began.

Khilji dynasty:

Jalaluddin Khilji was the founder of the Khilji dynasty. He was lenient and kind. He was murdered treacherously by son in law Aladdin Khilji.

Aladdin Khilji: Aladdin Khilji was an able commander with political insight. He knew that rebellion would be possible because of the powerful nobles, they are inter marriage and consumption of intoxicants. He made regulations to prevent these. Thus his reign was free from rebellion.

Reforms:

1. He maintained a large standing army. He carried out their reviews periodically to maintain efficiency.
2. Markets were established and regulated. The prices of essential commodities were controlled.
3. He also reformed the land revenue system. The land was measured and the tax was imposed. Even zamindars couldn’t escape from taxation. This system was continued even by Sher Shah and Akbar.
4. He ignored the Ulema and didn’t allow their interference in administration.

Military achievements:

1. The army could defend against Mongol invasions. The Mongols invaded 6 times but were defeated and numerous were killed.
2. To protect against future invasions a warden was appointed in the northwest frontier.
3. Aladdin Khilji led successful invasions against the Rajputs and captured many forts. Unfortunately, the women had to commit self-immolation to escape.
4. He also was the first to invade South India. His Empire reached Madurai. All-powerful kings of south India were defeated by him.
   

The architecture of the Khilji dynasty was built using red sandstones everywhere. The Khilji successors were weak and the dynasty ended and was succeeded by the Tuglaq.

Tuglaq Dynasty:

The founder is Ghaiyasuddin Tuglaq. The next ruler was Muhammad bin Tuglaq who had treacherously killed his father.

Muhammad bin Tuglaq:

His novel ideas and experiments were far ahead of time but ended in failure. He was tolerant of religious matters. He maintained diplomatic relations with foreign Egypt, china. He was the only Delhi sultan who received a political education.

Reforms: 

1. Shifting of the capital from Delhi to Devgiri. He renamed Devgiri to Daulatabad. He forced people to cover the 1500 km distance in summer. Many died on this journey but after 2 years he changed his decision and moved the capital back to Devgiri.

2. He introduced copper coins instead of silver tanka. But goldsmiths started minting this currency on large scale. The value fell and it wasn’t accepted in the markets. He announced the exchange of copper coins with silver but this made the treasury empty.

3. Due to the above measures, the need for revenue increased. Tuglaq increased taxation in the doab region. This led to revolts as the famine was going on at that time.

4. His next experiment was agriculture loans for farmers to buy seeds. He even created a separate department for this and built a model farm.

5. He had to face many rebellions by provincial governors. The rebels founded independent kingdoms like Vijayanagar and bahamani kingdoms.

6. First sultan to raise an army for the offensive against the Mongols.
   

Firoz Tuglaq:

He was chosen by the nobles to lead the sultanate. He focused on reasserting the authority over north India instead of focusing on Deccan and south India. He couldn’t conquer Bengal but subdued rebellion in Orissa, Nagarkot and Sind.

Reforms: 

1. He followed the advice of Ulema’s in administration. He allowed them hereditary succession on titles. He also ran the kingdom as per Islamic laws and imposed Jiziya on non-Muslims.

2. He was a patron of construction and architecture. He built 300 towns, and canals for irrigation. He also repaired old monuments like mosques and Minar.

3. He was intolerant of religious matters and discriminated against shies, Sufi’s and Hindus.

 His successors had to face the rebellion of the nobles. They also had to deal with Timur’s invasion. The invasion dealt a deadly blow to the Tuqlaqs and ended their dynasty.

Timor Invasion (1398):

1. He was attracted by India’s wealth and wanted to spread Islam in India.

2.  Looted Russia, and India up to Delhi to conquer more lands.

3.  He sent his grandson Pir Muhammad to India and later joined him.

4.  Took a large number of artists with him and Indian art reached central Asia.

5. Killed many Hindus and this created resentment against foreign rulers.

Sayyid’s Dynasty:

Timor appointed Khisir Khan as the Governor of Multan. But the king had to face rebellion from nobles. Finally, Bahdol Lodi was handed over to the kingdom by the king and he retired to Badaun.

Lodi dynasty:

The Lodis were Afghans and their kingdom lasted for 75 years.

Bahdol Lodi [Founder] was followed by his son Sikandar Shah. Sikandar Shah was a great and powerful sultan. He improved the sultanate by military conquest of Rajputs, Bihar. He also founded the city of Agra. Even though he was an able commander he was a bigot. He killed many Hindu kings and ruined many temples.

He was followed by Ibrahim Lodi. Ibrahim Lodi was ignorant. He used to constantly insult his nobles. Due to his attitude, the governor of Punjab Daulat Khan Lodi invited Babur to invade India. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat in 1526.

The concept of the double dome was introduced by Lodi’s.

This was the end of the Delhi sultanate and the beginning of the Mughal Empire. The Turkish rulers brought to India the Dome, Arch, Lofty towers, vault, and use of mortar and concrete.

The downfall of the Sultanate

• • No individual can be held responsible for the downfall of the sultanate. Regional factors also led to disintegration. There was numerous chief who had clan following of their own and had strong links in particular areas. They were ready to rebel when they found any weakness in the central government. The Turkish sultans tried to counter the rebellion by keeping corpe of slaves and nobles completely depending on the sultan.

• • However, the nobles would become ambitious and tried to assert their authority especially when the successor was weak. This would also lead to problems.

• • The sultans were cut off from central and Western Asia and could no longer recruit soldiers from Afghanistan or Turkey. They depended on local warrior clans, convert Muslims, etc for their army. However, this system also proved weak as each of these categories was antagonistic to the other.

• • Finally in the absence of a rule of succession. The descendants would quarrel and this would lead to the loss of lives and precious resources giving an opportunity to nobles to interfere.

Administration of the Sultanate

• • The administration was mainly concerned with collecting land revenue and administration of law and order. This they achieved using the iqta system.

• • Iqta was a system of land grants to officials. Under this system, a vassal would get administrative rights over the land and this was required to be maintained by the vassal for the king. The vassal would collect taxes and maintain troops. The portion of the taxes would be kept by him and also used to maintain the army. he had to give the rest to the royal treasury. In areas that were not given as iqta the officials of the king directly collected taxes for the royal treasury.

• • The Ghorians conquered and divided their territories amongst the commanders. These commanders maintained their territories by loot or plunder.

• • Illtutmish onwards these iqtas would be transferred from one person to another. The owner of the iqta also called muqti was free to assign his own subiqtas to the people. The excess revenue from the iqtas would be sent to the central treasury. However, the sultan appointed an accountant to verify the actual amount collected as tax and the excess left. Sultan illtutmish also paid iqtas to his cavalry by assigning them revenue rights over villages.

• • Major changes occurred during the reign of Allauddin Khilji. The system of paying sultans cavalry troops with the assignment of villages was abolished and now they were paid in cash. Iqtas was given to only the commanders and in lieu of salaries. The agrarian tax assessment system was also changed. The bulk of the lands was as iqtas under the control of commanders. Revenue from each iqta was decided by the department of revenue and the commander was allowed to keep a portion of the revenue for his own salary and for payment of salary to the troops. The remaining total income was to be given to the treasury. Thus the commanders were tempted to understate the revenue to the Sultan. However, Allauddin khilji gave harsh punishments to revenue officials for misappropriations of small amounts.

• • This system continued with minor changes till the Lodi dynasty. The Lodis organized the province into sarkars and each sarkar now had a number of Parganas. Each sarkar was assigned a JAMA or estimated revenue whose purpose could only be to lay down to some extent the military and other obligations of the nobles holding the sarkar assignment. The basic unit of administration was a village and it had three officials headman, an accountant, and mushrif. At the court the wazir supervised the collection of revenue, checking of accounts, and regulation of expenditure. The chief qazi was a religious judge whose work was to advise on religious matters.

Economy

• • There were hardly any elements of change in the rural economy during the sultanate period except under the rule of Muhammad bin tuglaq and Firoz tuglaq there was a marked improvement in the development of gardens. There was an improvement in fruit production and garden development due to this. Fruits produced in towns were meant mainly for the consumption of the wealthy and townspeople. They may have produced some revenue and increased trade.

• • Regarding implements of agriculture, there was no change in them till the 19th century. Productivity of soil may have been higher due to extensive manuring by cattle which were plentiful. Peasants had more land per head and forests were also extensive and plentiful. Most of the lands were rainfed and there was the digging of wells and making bunds for storing water for irrigation. The state took an active part in building and maintaining them. An extensive system of canals was set up for the first time under Firoz tuglaq and they benefitted the areas around Hissar, Haryana.

• • Nonagricultural activities too were practiced and were textiles, leather works, metallurgy, etc.

• • Textile was the biggest industry in India and this goes back to ancient times. Of course, cotton cloth to fine muslin from Dacca and the Deccan all was manufactured in that period. Various varieties of cloth were both painted and printed by wooden blocks. A device introduced during those days was the dhunia which sped up the process of separating cotton from seeds. Silk was imported from Bengal where silkworms were reared. However, a great supply of silk yarn including raw silk was imported from Iran and Afghanistan. The shawl industry of Kashmir was well established. Carpet weaving was developed under the patronage of the sultans with many Iranian and central Asian designs being imported.

• • The high quality of sultanate coinage is evidence of the skill of the Indian metalworkers. Indian swords and daggers were famous all over the world. Even gold and silversmiths were known for their jewelry making.

• • Turkish sultans introduced a new style of the dome, arch, vault, and mortar. Lime was used for making cement. As more people started living in stone and brick houses the demand and production of bricks increased. Enamelled tiles were introduced in India. The woodwork of excellent quality was carried out and also in stone sculptures Indians were unmatched.

• • Papermaking started in China in 100 AD and the earliest evidence of it in India is in Gujarat during the 13th century. Paper production signals an increase in the production of books.

• • Leather making, salt making, quarrying for stones, mining copper and iron ore, diamond, and diving for pearls in the sea were the other occupations.
  • Ivory working also existed in those days.