Delhi Sultanate

13TH & 14TH CENTURIES: THE DELHI SULTANATE

1. THE SLAVE SULTANATE (120-1290):-
• Ghori’s conquests became the nucleus of a new political entity of India – the Delhi Sultanate
• Ghori had left his Indian possession in care of his former slave, General Qutub-ud-din Aibak (1206-11), who on death of his master asserted his independence
• He was founder of the ‘Slave Dynasty’ or ‘Mamluks’
• He died as a result of a fall from his horse while playing Chaugan
• Iltumish (1211-36)
• He succeeded Aibak as Sultan
• He consolidated Ghori’s acquisition in India in to a well-knit & compact state with Delhi as its capital
• He also procured investiture from the Caliph of Bagdad in 1229 for the state
• His governing class was entirely of foreign origin. It consisted of two groups – Turkish slave & Tazik i.e. non-turkish foreigners of high lineage
• Iqtas – grant of revenue from a territory in lieu of salary
• He introduced the sliver ‘Tanka’ & copper ‘Jital’
• Gengiz Khan made numerous conquests along Indus 
• Raziya (1236-40)
• Succeeded Iltumish; his daughter
• Being a woman ruler made it even more difficult for her
• The intrigues of Turkish chief sometimes called the forty of Chahalgami increased against the monarchy. She was murdered
• Balban (1265-85)
• Was a Turkish chief & rose from the position of minister to became a sultan in 1265
• He was more successful in solving internal & external problems
• Balban broke the power of Turk Chahalgami & made the Sultan all important
• He was able to save the sultanate, but could not found a dynasty

2. THE KHILJIS (1290-1320):-
• Founder Jalaluddin Khilji (1290-96) was of Afgan origin
• He was succeeded by his nephew Alauddin (1296-1316)
• Holed – the Gangetic region & eastern Rajasthan, Malwa & Gujarat
• His famous general, Malik Kafur, led campaigns to the south – carried back large amounts of gold from various southern kingdoms – Yadavas (of Deogiri), Kakatiyas (Warangal) & Hoyasalas (Dwarsamudra) – these rulers were allowed to keep their throne provided they paid the tribute
• To prevent fraudulent musters, he began the practice of branding the horse (dagh) & of preparing descriptive rolls of soldiers (Chehra)
• For revenue, he reassessed land grants, increasing state’s share to one half of produce (land tax /Kharaj), in addition house & cattle tax were also levied
• Controlled prices, so that cost of living would not be high
• Towards end of his reign, Gujarat, Chittor & Deogiri broke away from sultanate
• Kings followed in quick succession in 4 years after his death to 1316, till Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq proclaimed himself the Sultan of Delhi in 1320

3. TUGHLAQ SULTANS (1320-1414):-
• Founder Ghiyasuddin’s campaigns to Warangal, Odisha & Bengal directed towards this end
• By 1324 Delhi sultanate reached up to Madurai
• But his economic policy was not consistent with his political ambition. Measures taken by Alauddin were either rescinded or relaxed
• Price controls were removed, land tax was lowered & iqta holders were permitted their earlier perquisites in form of a variety of taxes
• Muhmmad-bin-Tughlaq (1325-51)
• Son of Ghiyasuddin
• He has been referred as an ‘ill-starred idealist’, whose experiments generally ended in failure e.g. political ambitions of extending to Central Asia, taxation policy, attempt to popularize token currency, he also issued a new gold coin called Dinar by Ibn Batutah, moving of capital from Delhi to Deogiri (he renamed Daulatabad)
• In 1336, the kingdom of Vijayanagar & in 1347, the kingdom of Bahamanis were founded
• Simultaneously, there were rebellions in different parts of empire
• Because of his policies he lost support of the people, the nobles & the ulema
•  Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88)
• The nobles & theologians at the court selected Muhmmad’s cousin Firoz Shah as next Sultan
• He prohibited ‘siyasat’ – infliction of death penalty or torture
• But he put nothing in its place for political offenders, hence embezzlement of public revenue went unpunished
• Also declared hereditary succession to iqta
• Soldiers & military officers were paid by assignments on land revenue i.e. soldier had to either go to villages to collect his salaries, and absent himself from services or to give assignment to broker
• He extended principle of heredity to army as well
• Arz – annual review of horseman became mockery
• The soldiers were allowed to pass useless horses at the muster by bribing clerks – resulting in degeneration of once invincible army of sultanate
• Claimed himself Muslim king of Islamic state
• He established new towns such as Firozpur, Firozabad, Hissar-Firoza & Jaunpur
• Mongol raids in 1398 under leadership of Timur (Tamerlane) mercilessly sacked & plundered Delhi
• Last of Tughlaq ruler was Nasir-ud-din Mahmud

4. THE SAYYID DYNASTY (1414-1451):-
• Timur’s nominee captured Delhi & proclaimed new sultanate
• Rule was confined to 200 miles of Delhi

5. THE LODI SULTANS (1451-1526):-
• Founder Bahlul Lodi – he was of Afgan origin – established himself in Punjab after Timurid invasion
• Most important Lodi sultan was Sikander Lodi (1489-1517) who controlled Ganga Valley as far as western Bengal
• He moved capital from Delhi to Agra
• The first two kings modified autocracy of sultanate & thus made an appeal to Afgan loyalty, but last, Ibrahim asserted absolute power of sultan & did not consider tribal (Afgan) feelings
• This led to his making enemies among them
• Finally they plotted with Babar, the king of Kabul, descendent of Tamerlane & Ghengiz Khan & succeeded in overthrowing Ibrahim in 1526 at first Battle of Panipat
• Rana Sang of Mewar who dreamed of ruling from Delhi also made an alliance with Babar who however, founded his own Dynasty in India & his descendants the Mughals created their own empire in India

6. CAUSES OF THE DOWNFALL OF THE DELHI SULTANATE:-
• Regional factors of disintegration were strong
• Numerous powerful chiefs – always ready to rebel
• Recruitment of army also created problem
• Another problem facing the sultans was that of succession. There was no rule whereby the eldest son could succeed. This led to struggles for succession in which ambitious nobles found an opportunity to further their own interests

7. ADMINISTRATION OF THE SULTANATE:-
• Was concerned mainly with work of collecting & recording revenue from land & maintaining law & order
• Iqta – was a territorial assignment & its holder was designated as Mukti – had right to collect & appropriate taxes, especially, land revenue – had to maintain troops & furnish them to sultan when needed
• The area that sultan did not give in iqta was called Khalisa; here the sultan’s official (amils) collected taxes directly for royal treasury
• Fawazil – excess amounts
• Khwaja – accountant
• Major changes occurred during reign of Alauddin (1296-1316). System of paying cavalry troops by assignment of villages was abolished – troops were paid into cash – Iqtas were given only to commanders
• Diwan-I-Wizarat – finance department
• Mawajib – certain amount of pay of troops placed under muqti/wali
• Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq only moderated this changes of Alauddin
• Muhmmad-bin-Tughlaq – functions of collecting taxes & maintaining troops were separated
• Firoz-Shah-Tughlaq (1351) – concession to nobility; declared now estimate of revenue (mahsul) of sultanate; ‘Jama’ term was used first time in his reign; Khalisa was greatly reduced; reestablished paying soldiers by assigning villages as ‘wajh’ in lieu of salaries (mawajib)
• Under lodis (1451-1526), the system remained essentially similar, but a reorganization occurred
• The term Iqta now disappears from views replaced simply by sarkars or paraganas
• Each sarkar comprising no. of paraganas
• Village remained basic unit of administration
• Village had 3 main officials, the headman (muqaddam), the accountant (patwari), who kept local records & mushrif who supervised accountant & attended to the revenues when it was collected
• At court Wazir (chief minister) supervised collection
• Qazi – chief judge

8. ECONOMY:-
• SOURCE OF REVENUE
1. Agricultural Production:-
• During 14th century under Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq & Firoz Tughlaq, there was marked development of gardens. These gardens led to improvement of fruits, especially grapes
• It is said that wine used to come to Delhi from Meerut & Aligarh. Other like Dholpur, Gwalior & Jodhpur also adopted improved methods of cultivation
• Jodhpur produced good quality of pomegranates
• Extensive system of canals was set up for first time by Firoz during second half of 14th century
2. Non-agricultural Production:-
• Textile – biggest industry of India – coarse cotton cloth was manufactured in households in villages – Calico was cotton cloth of superior quality & widely used – muslin cloth was produced at Sylhet & Dacca & Deogiri – Cambay was center for manufacture of cotton stuff – Charkha was introduced in this period – Gujarat was famous for its gold & silver embroidery – Shawl of Kashmir
• Building Industry – major means of employment – Turkish introduced new style of arch, the dome & the Vault & new mortar – Lime was used for making cement – great spurt in brick making – Enameled tiles where introduced in India
• Metallurgy – high quality of sultanate coinage – Indian damascened swords & daggers were famous all over world – Vassals of bronze & copper had demand in west Asia – fine piece of jewelry
• Paper-making – new industry – earliest paper manuscript in India available is from Gujarat dating 1223-24 – other crafts widespread in India was leather working, salt making quarrying for stone & marbles – mining diamond mining in Panna
• Trade – growing nexus of towns – sale of crops was primarily the responsibility of village bania who also provided peasants with such necessities as salt & spices, raw iron – sahus, modis & sarrafs, whose trading activities were geared – Hundi system of finance was operated by modis & sarrafs
• Foreign trade – Multan was entry point of all foreigners, including traders who were called Kurasanis – Arabs were active in Gujarat & Malabar – Bengal also traded with China & south east countries – continuous export of slaves to Islamic world
• Music – Turks brought no. of new musical modes & regulations – Amir Khusaru introduced Qawali – Sufi saint, Pir Bodhan, was one of great musicians of the age – Indian classical work Rag Darpan was translated into Persian

  

9. SOURCES OF REVENUE:-
• Kharaj (land revenue) – 1/3rd of production; not paid by Muslims
• Ushraf – 1/10th of production on lands by Muslim
• Jazia – poll tax levied upon every adult Hindu. Brahmanas were exempted; except reign of Firoz Shah
• Zakat – tax raised by Muslim for needy Muslims
• Khams/Ghamnish – war booty
• Transit & Octroi – duties on income of mines
• Charai – agricultural tax