Delhi Sultanate I — Slave (Mamluk) & Khalji Dynasties

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter covers the first ninety years of the Delhi Sultanate, from Qutb-ud-din Aibak's accession in 1206 to the fall of the Khaljis in 1320. SSC and RRB exams treat this stretch as one of the richest single sources of factual questions in the whole medieval syllabus. Expect 2 to 4 questions from this chapter alone in a typical SSC CGL or CHSL General Awareness section, and at least 1 to 2 in RRB NTPC. The Sultanate era as a whole (this chapter plus Chapter 4) regularly contributes 5 to 8 questions across a full paper.

The sub-topics that repeat year after year are Razia Sultana's status as the only woman ruler of Delhi, Balban's theory of kingship and his "blood and iron" policy, and Alauddin Khalji's market control reforms with their specific department names. Questions on "who built which monument" (Qutb Minar, Alai Darwaza), "who was the first/only" (first Turkish Sultan, only woman Sultan), and "match the ruler with his title or policy" are asked so often that coaching institutes call this the highest-yield block in Sultanate history. Read the tables carefully; a large share of the marks in this chapter come from exact matching, not from narrative understanding.

1. Background: From Ghor's Conquests to an Independent Sultanate

Muhammad of Ghor defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192, opening North India to Turkish rule. He left his Indian conquests under his trusted slave-general Qutb-ud-din Aibak, based at Delhi. When Muhammad of Ghor was assassinated in 1206 on the Indus near Dhamiak (in present Pakistan), Aibak declared himself independent ruler at Lahore in 1206. This event is taken as the founding of the Delhi Sultanate, though Aibak was crowned formally at Lahore, not Delhi.

Because Aibak and his immediate successors had all begun their careers as enslaved soldiers who rose through merit, historians call this line the Slave Dynasty, also known as the Mamluk Dynasty (mamluk is Arabic for "owned" or "slave"). Slavery in this Turkish military system did not mean menial labour; capable slaves were trained as soldiers and administrators and could rise to become Sultans themselves. This dynasty ruled from 1206 to 1290.

2. Qutb-ud-din Aibak (1206–1210)

Aibak ruled for barely four years but set the pattern for the Sultanate. He was a Turkish slave purchased in his youth by Muhammad of Ghor, and he had already led the conquest campaigns of Delhi, Ajmer, Kannauj and Varanasi under his master before 1206.

Key facts:

• He started the construction of the Qutb Minar at Delhi in honour of the Sufi saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki. He completed only the first storey; his son-in-law Iltutmish completed the rest.
• He built the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque in Delhi (the earliest surviving mosque built by the Turks in India) and the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra mosque in Ajmer, both raised over demolished temple structures.
• He was known as Lakh Baksh ("giver of lakhs") for his generosity to scholars, poets and the poor.
• He died in 1210 at Lahore after falling from his horse while playing chaugan (an early form of polo). He is buried in Lahore.
• He never took the title of Sultan on coins; he ruled more as a Ghorid governor turned independent chief.

Aibak's short-lived successor Aram Shah was weak and was removed within a year by nobles who invited Iltutmish, Aibak's son-in-law and governor of Badaun, to take the throne in 1210.

3. Shams-ud-din Iltutmish (1210–1236)

Iltutmish is regarded as the true organiser of the Delhi Sultanate. Like Aibak, he began life as a slave (of Ilbari Turk stock) and was bought by Aibak, who valued him enough to marry him to his daughter.

His major achievements:

• He shifted the capital from Lahore to Delhi, making Delhi the political centre of the Sultanate for the first time in a lasting way.
• He defeated rival claimants including Yalduz and Qubacha and firmly established Delhi's authority over North India.
• He completed the Qutb Minar, adding storeys above Aibak's base.
• He introduced two standard Sultanate coins: the silver tanka and the copper jital, which became the base units of the Sultanate monetary system.
• He organised the Iqta system on a wider scale, assigning land revenue units (iqtas) to nobles in place of cash salaries; this became the backbone of Sultanate administration (detailed in Chapter 5).
• He created the Chahalgani or Turkan-i-Chahalgani, a group of forty powerful Turkish nobles who advised the Sultan; this group later became a source of factional trouble.
• Crucially, he faced Chinggis Khan's (Genghis Khan's) Mongol forces reaching the Indus around 1221 while chasing the fleeing Khwarazmian prince Jalaluddin Mangburni. Iltutmish wisely refused Jalaluddin refuge in Delhi, avoiding a direct Mongol confrontation that could have destroyed the young Sultanate.
• He received formal recognition from the Caliph of Baghdad in 1229, which gave his rule legitimacy in the eyes of the wider Islamic world.
• Breaking convention, he nominated his able daughter Raziya as his successor over his surviving sons, whom he judged unfit to rule.

4. Razia Sultana (1236–1240)

Razia (correct historical spelling; often written Raziya) holds a fixed place in exam questions as the only woman ever to rule the Delhi Sultanate throne, and one of very few female Muslim sovereigns in South Asian history.

Facts to fix firmly:

• Full title: Razia-ud-din, but popularly called Razia Sultana or Sultana Raziya.
• She dropped the female form of dress and public veil in some accounts, appeared in court in male attire, and rode out on elephants and horses to lead armies personally, unusual for the time.
• She depended on Turkish nobles for power but alienated many of them by promoting Malik Yaqut, an Abyssinian (Habshi) noble, to high office, which the Turkish nobility, protective of their monopoly on power, resented.
• She was defeated and imprisoned by rebellious nobles in 1240. She later married one of her captors, Altunia, and tried to reclaim the throne, but both were killed in 1240 near Kaithal while fleeing after a lost battle.
• Her four-year reign shows how the Chahalgani nobles could make or unmake a Sultan, a pattern that recurs through Slave Dynasty history.

After Razia, a rapid succession of weak rulers (Bahram Shah, Masud Shah, and Nasiruddin Mahmud) held the throne through the 1240s and 1250s while real power increasingly lay with an ambitious noble named Ghiyasuddin Balban.

5. Ghiyasuddin Balban (1266–1287)

Balban, born Baha-ud-din, was another Ilbari Turk slave who rose to become the most powerful of the forty Chahalgani nobles under Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud, serving as his chief minister (Naib) before becoming Sultan himself in 1266 after Mahmud's death.

Balban's rule is remembered for a deliberate theory of absolute kingship:

• He called himself the "shadow of God on earth" (zill-i-ilahi), claiming that royal authority came directly from God, a Persian concept of divine kingship he imported to strengthen the throne after decades of noble interference.
• He introduced strict court ceremonial: the practice of sijda (prostration) and paibos (kissing the Sultan's feet) before the throne, to overawe nobles and visitors.
• He crushed the power of the Chahalgani nobles who had destabilised earlier reigns, executing or removing rivals systematically. This earned him the reputation of a "blood and iron" policy, a phrase used often in exam material to describe his ruthless style of centralising authority.
• He reorganised the military department, the Diwan-i-Arz, to maintain a strong standing army capable of suppressing revolts and defending against Mongol raids on the northwestern frontier, which intensified during his reign.
• He crushed a major revolt in the Doab region and dealt harshly with robber and rebel elements around Delhi and Awadh to make roads safe.
• His favourite son and heir-apparent, Prince Muhammad (known as the "Martyr Prince"), governor of Multan and Sindh, was killed fighting the Mongols in 1285, a personal and political blow from which Balban never fully recovered.
• Balban died in 1287. His chosen heir being already dead, his weak grandson Kaiqubad took the throne, and the dynasty declined quickly into confusion, ending when a Khalji noble, Jalaluddin Khalji, seized power in 1290.

6. The "Khalji Revolution" and the Transition of Power (1290)

The overthrow of the last Slave dynasty ruler in 1290 by Jalaluddin Khalji is often called the "Khalji Revolution" in exam material, not because it changed the social system, but because it broke the near-monopoly that Turkish nobles had held over the Sultanate throne since 1206. The Khaljis were of Turko-Afghan stock but had lived in Afghanistan long enough to be viewed as culturally distinct from the "pure" Turks of Delhi's old nobility, and their rise opened high office to non-Turkish elements including Afghans and Indian Muslims, a real shift in the Sultanate's ruling class.

7. Jalaluddin Khalji (1290–1296)

Jalaluddin founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290 at an advanced age, and is remembered as a mild, cautious ruler unusual for the period.

• He was notably lenient towards rebels and rivals, reportedly reluctant to execute conspirators, a trait that some contemporaries saw as weakness rather than mercy.
• He successfully repelled a major Mongol invasion in 1292 during his reign and even allowed some defeated Mongols who converted to Islam to settle near Delhi; their locality came to be called Mughalpura.
• His ambitious nephew and son-in-law, Alauddin Khalji, was made governor of Kara (near Awadh). Alauddin raided Devagiri (the Yadava kingdom in the Deccan) around 1296 and returned with enormous plunder, which he used to win over the army's loyalty.
• Jalaluddin, trusting his nephew, went to meet him at Kara in 1296 and was treacherously murdered by Alauddin's men. Alauddin then seized the throne, beginning the most important reign of the Khalji dynasty.

8. Alauddin Khalji (1296–1316)

Alauddin Khalji is, after Balban, the second most heavily tested ruler of this chapter, and arguably the most important ruler of the entire Delhi Sultanate period for exam purposes because of his market reforms and Deccan expansion.

8.1 Conquests and Military Achievements

• Northern and Central India: He annexed Gujarat (1299, where his general Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan defeated the Vaghela ruler), Ranthambore (1301), Mewar/Chittor (1303, associated in popular tradition with the legend of Rani Padmini, which most historians treat as a later literary embellishment rather than settled fact; exam material typically notes the conquest year and leaves the legend aside), Malwa (1305), and Jalore (1311).
• Deccan and South India: Through his brilliant general Malik Kafur, Alauddin's forces defeated the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Kakatiyas of Warangal, the Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra, and reached as far south as the Pandya kingdom of Madurai between roughly 1307 and 1311, extracting tribute and plunder rather than direct annexation in most of the far south.
• Mongol defence: Alauddin's reign faced repeated and serious Mongol invasions (multiple attempts between 1298 and 1306). He defended Delhi successfully every time, strengthened frontier forts, kept a large standing army, and had captured Mongols settled or executed after major incursions. His successful, sustained defence against the Mongols is one of the most important achievements of his reign and is frequently tested.

8.2 Market Control Reforms

This is the single most exam-heavy topic in the whole chapter. Alauddin needed to maintain a huge standing army on fixed, modest cash salaries, which required him to keep the prices of goods in Delhi artificially low and stable. He built an elaborate market control system:

• Sarai Adl: a special state-controlled market in Delhi for cloth and expensive goods.
• Diwan-i-Riyasat: the department (and its head, the "Shahna-i-Mandi") that regulated and supervised market prices.
• He fixed prices for food grains, cloth, horses, cattle and slaves, and enforced them with strict, even harsh, punishments for hoarding or overcharging.
• He built state granaries and ensured regulated grain supply to keep prices from spiking, especially during famine or war.
• He linked land revenue demand directly to the state (increased it to reportedly around half the produce in some core areas) to weaken the independent economic power of local chiefs and to fund his large army and market controls.
• Spies and market inspectors reported directly to the Sultan to prevent corruption in these controls.

Coaching material stresses this every year: no other Sultanate ruler attempted market regulation on this scale, so any question describing price control, Sarai Adl, or the grain-supply system almost always points to Alauddin Khalji.

8.3 Administrative and Military Reforms

• He introduced the Dagh (branding of horses) and Chehra (descriptive roll of soldiers) systems to prevent fraud in the army, ensuring soldiers could not present substandard horses or send substitutes for muster.
• He tried to reduce the political power of the nobility and the ulema (religious scholars) in state affairs, keeping authority centred firmly on himself.
• He built the Alai Darwaza, the ornamental gateway to the Qutb complex, and founded the fortified city of Siri, the second of the historic "seven cities of Delhi."
• He is also credited with commissioning or patronising the poet Amir Khusrau, who served at his court and wrote extensively about his campaigns.

8.4 Decline and Succession

Alauddin's final years (after around 1312) saw ill health and growing dependence on his general Malik Kafur, whose ambition caused instability. Alauddin died in 1316. Malik Kafur briefly controlled succession before being killed, and Alauddin's sons ruled in quick, chaotic succession. The last, weak Khalji ruler was Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji (1316–1320), who was eventually murdered by his own favourite and general, Khusrau Khan, in 1320. Khusrau Khan's brief and unstable rule ended the same year when he himself was overthrown and killed by Ghazi Malik, who founded the next dynasty as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq in 1320, closing the Khalji period. The Tughlaq dynasty is covered fully in Chapter 4.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Qutb-ud-din Aibak declared independence at Lahore in 1206, founding the Slave (Mamluk) Dynasty.
• Aibak started the Qutb Minar and built the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque in Delhi and Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra in Ajmer.
• Aibak died in 1210 in Lahore from a fall while playing chaugan (polo).
• Iltutmish shifted the Sultanate capital from Lahore to Delhi.
• Iltutmish completed the Qutb Minar and introduced the tanka (silver) and jital (copper) coins.
• Iltutmish organised the Chahalgani, the group of forty powerful Turkish nobles.
• Iltutmish avoided a direct clash with the Mongols under Chinggis Khan around 1221 by refusing shelter to Jalaluddin Mangburni.
• Iltutmish received recognition from the Caliph of Baghdad in 1229.
• Razia Sultana (1236–1240) was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate.
• Razia's promotion of Malik Yaqut angered the Turkish nobility and led to her downfall.
• Razia was killed in 1240 near Kaithal along with her husband Altunia.
• Balban called himself "zill-i-ilahi" (shadow of God) to strengthen the throne.
• Balban introduced sijda and paibos as court ceremonial to overawe nobles.
• Balban's "blood and iron" policy crushed the Chahalgani nobles' power.
• Balban's son Prince Muhammad, the "Martyr Prince," died fighting the Mongols in 1285.
• Jalaluddin Khalji founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290, ending the Slave Dynasty.
• Jalaluddin repelled a Mongol invasion in 1292; converted Mongol settlers were housed at Mughalpura.
• Alauddin Khalji murdered his uncle Jalaluddin in 1296 at Kara and seized the throne.
• Alauddin annexed Gujarat (1299), Ranthambore (1301), Chittor (1303), Malwa (1305) and Jalore (1311).
• Alauddin's general Malik Kafur led Deccan campaigns against Devagiri, Warangal, Dwarasamudra and Madurai (1307–1311).
• Alauddin successfully defended Delhi against repeated Mongol invasions between 1298 and 1306.
• Alauddin's Sarai Adl was the state-controlled market for cloth and costly goods in Delhi.
• The Diwan-i-Riyasat supervised market price controls under Alauddin.
• Alauddin introduced the Dagh (horse branding) and Chehra (soldier's descriptive roll) systems.
• Alauddin built the Alai Darwaza and founded the city of Siri.
• Poet Amir Khusrau was patronised at Alauddin Khalji's court.
• Alauddin Khalji died in 1316; Malik Kafur briefly controlled succession afterward.
• Khusrau Khan murdered the last Khalji Sultan, Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah, in 1320.
• Ghazi Malik overthrew Khusrau Khan in 1320 and founded the Tughlaq dynasty as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq.
• The Slave Dynasty ruled 1206 to 1290; the Khalji dynasty ruled 1290 to 1320.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Rulers, Reign Years and Key Association

Ruler	Reign	Key Association
Qutb-ud-din Aibak	1206–1210	Founder of Slave Dynasty; started Qutb Minar; died playing chaugan
Aram Shah	1210–1210	Weak; removed by nobles within a year
Iltutmish	1210–1236	Shifted capital to Delhi; introduced tanka/jital; formed Chahalgani
Razia Sultana	1236–1240	Only woman ruler of Delhi Sultanate
Bahram Shah / Masud Shah / Nasiruddin Mahmud	1240–1266	Weak rulers; real power with noble Balban
Ghiyasuddin Balban	1266–1287	"Zill-i-ilahi"; blood-and-iron policy; sijda/paibos
Kaiqubad	1287–1290	Weak grandson of Balban; dynasty ends
Jalaluddin Khalji	1290–1296	Founder of Khalji dynasty; lenient ruler; repelled Mongols 1292
Alauddin Khalji	1296–1316	Market reforms; Deccan conquests via Malik Kafur; defeated Mongols repeatedly
Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji	1316–1320	Last Khalji ruler; murdered by Khusrau Khan
Khusrau Khan	1320	Usurper; overthrown by Ghazi Malik (Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq)

Table 2: Institutions and Reforms Introduced

Institution / Reform	Introduced By	Purpose
Tanka (silver coin) and Jital (copper coin)	Iltutmish	Standard Sultanate currency
Chahalgani (Forty Nobles)	Iltutmish	Advisory group of powerful Turkish nobles
Zill-i-ilahi concept, sijda, paibos	Balban	Strengthen and glorify royal authority
Diwan-i-Arz (reorganised)	Balban	Efficient military recruitment and control
Sarai Adl and Diwan-i-Riyasat	Alauddin Khalji	State market control and price fixing
Dagh and Chehra system	Alauddin Khalji	Prevent fraud in army horses and troop rolls

Table 3: Monuments and Builders

Monument	Built/Started By	Notes
Qutb Minar (base storey)	Qutb-ud-din Aibak	In honour of Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki
Qutb Minar (upper storeys)	Iltutmish	Completed the tower
Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque	Qutb-ud-din Aibak	Earliest surviving mosque built by Turks in Delhi
Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra	Qutb-ud-din Aibak	Mosque at Ajmer
Alai Darwaza	Alauddin Khalji	Gateway to Qutb complex
City of Siri	Alauddin Khalji	Second of the "seven cities of Delhi"

Practice MCQs

Q1. Who founded the Delhi Sultanate by declaring independence at Lahore in 1206? (a) Muhammad of Ghor (b) Qutb-ud-din Aibak (c) Iltutmish (d) Balban

Q2. Qutb-ud-din Aibak died after a fall from his horse while playing which sport? (a) Chaugan (b) Kabaddi (c) Archery (d) Wrestling

Q3. Who shifted the capital of the Delhi Sultanate from Lahore to Delhi? (a) Aibak (b) Iltutmish (c) Razia Sultana (d) Balban

Q4. Which two coins did Iltutmish introduce as the standard currency of the Sultanate? (a) Dinar and Dirham (b) Tanka and Jital (c) Rupiya and Mohur (d) Tola and Ashrafi

Q5. Who among the following was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate? (a) Nur Jahan (b) Chand Bibi (c) Razia Sultana (d) Rani Padmini

Q6. Razia Sultana's downfall is most closely linked with her promotion of which noble? (a) Malik Kafur (b) Malik Yaqut (c) Ulugh Khan (d) Nusrat Khan

Q7. Which Sultan described himself as "zill-i-ilahi" (the shadow of God on earth)? (a) Iltutmish (b) Balban (c) Jalaluddin Khalji (d) Alauddin Khalji

Q8. Balban's ruthless policy of crushing noble factions to centralise power is commonly known as: (a) Market control policy (b) Blood and iron policy (c) Din-i-Ilahi policy (d) Ashtapradhan policy

Q9. Who founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290 after overthrowing the last Slave Dynasty ruler? (a) Alauddin Khalji (b) Jalaluddin Khalji (c) Malik Kafur (d) Ghazi Malik

Q10. Alauddin Khalji seized the throne in 1296 after murdering which relative? (a) His father (b) His uncle Jalaluddin (c) His brother (d) His father-in-law

Q11. Which market established by Alauddin Khalji specifically regulated the price of cloth and costly goods in Delhi? (a) Diwan-i-Riyasat (b) Sarai Adl (c) Diwan-i-Arz (d) Mandi-i-Khas

Q12. Which general led Alauddin Khalji's major campaigns into the Deccan and far south, including against Devagiri and Madurai? (a) Ulugh Khan (b) Malik Kafur (c) Zafar Khan (d) Nusrat Khan

Q13. Arrange the following in correct chronological order: 1. Alauddin Khalji's accession 2. Balban's accession 3. Razia Sultana's accession 4. Foundation of Delhi Sultanate by Aibak (a) 4-3-2-1 (b) 4-2-3-1 (c) 3-4-2-1 (d) 4-1-2-3

Q14. Which of the following pairs is correctly matched? (a) Iltutmish — Alai Darwaza (b) Balban — Sarai Adl (c) Alauddin Khalji — Dagh and Chehra system (d) Jalaluddin Khalji — Qutb Minar

Q15. Which Turkish dynasty finally overthrew the Khaljis in 1320 after Khusrau Khan's brief usurpation? (a) Sayyid dynasty (b) Lodi dynasty (c) Tughlaq dynasty (d) Suri dynasty

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
Q1	(b)	Qutb-ud-din Aibak declared independence at Lahore in 1206, founding the Slave Dynasty.
Q2	(a)	Aibak died in 1210 in Lahore after a fall while playing chaugan (polo).
Q3	(b)	Iltutmish shifted the Sultanate's capital from Lahore to Delhi.
Q4	(b)	Iltutmish introduced the silver tanka and copper jital as standard coins.
Q5	(c)	Razia Sultana (1236–1240) was the only woman ruler of the Delhi Sultanate.
Q6	(b)	Razia's promotion of Malik Yaqut angered Turkish nobles and led to her downfall.
Q7	(b)	Balban used the title "zill-i-ilahi" to project divine, absolute kingship.
Q8	(b)	Balban's harsh suppression of rebellious nobles is called the blood and iron policy.
Q9	(b)	Jalaluddin Khalji founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290, ending the Slave Dynasty.
Q10	(b)	Alauddin Khalji had his uncle and father-in-law Jalaluddin murdered at Kara in 1296.
Q11	(b)	Sarai Adl was Alauddin's state-controlled market for cloth and costly goods.
Q12	(b)	Malik Kafur led Alauddin's Deccan and South Indian campaigns from 1307 to 1311.
Q13	(a)	Correct order: Aibak (1206) then Razia (1236) then Balban (1266) then Alauddin (1296), i.e. 4-3-2-1.
Q14	(c)	Alauddin Khalji introduced the Dagh (horse branding) and Chehra (soldier roll) systems.
Q15	(c)	Ghazi Malik founded the Tughlaq dynasty in 1320 after defeating Khusrau Khan.