Iltutmish
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish was the third Sultan of Delhi from 1211 to 1236. He was from the Mamluk dynasty, who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus considered the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
Sold into slavery as a young boy, Iltutmish spent his early life in Bukhara and Ghazni under multiple masters. In the late 1190s, the Ghurid slave-commander Qutb ud-Din Aibak purchased him in Delhi, thus making him the slave of a slave. Iltutmish rose to prominence in Aibak's service, and was granted the important iqta' of Badaun. His military actions against the Khokhar rebels in 1205–1206 gained attention of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor, who manumitted him even before his master Aibak was manumitted.
After Muhammad of Ghor's assassination in 1206, Aibak became a practically independent ruler of the Ghurid territories in India, with his headquarters at Lahore. After Aibak's death, Iltutmish dethroned his unpopular successor Aram Shah in 1211, and set up his capital at Delhi. He then consolidated his rule by subjugating several dissidents, and fighting against other former Ghurid slaves, such as Taj al-Din Yildiz and Nasir ad-Din Qabacha. During 1225–1227, he subjugated Aibak's former subordinates who had carved out an independent kingdom headquartered at Lakhnauti in eastern India. He also asserted his authority over Ranthambore and Mandore, whose Hindu chiefs had declared independence after Aibak's death.
In the early 1220s, Iltutmish had largely stayed away from the Indus Valley region, which was embroiled in conflicts between Qabacha, the Khwarazmian dynasty, and the Mongols. In 1228, he invaded the Indus Valley region, defeated Qabacha, and annexed large parts of Punjab and Sindh to his empire. Subsequently, the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir recognized his authority in India. Over the next few years, Iltutmish suppressed a rebellion in Bengal, captured Gwalior, raided the Paramara-controlled cities of Bhilsa and Ujjain in central India, and expelled Khwarazmian subordinates in the north-west. His officers also attacked and plundered the Chandela-controlled Kalinjar area.
Iltutmish organized the administration of the Sultanate, laying the foundation for its dominance over northern India until the Mughal invasion. He introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital – the two basic coins of the Sultanate period, with a standard weight of 175 grains. He set up the Iqtadari system: division of empire into Iqtas, which were assigned to the nobles and officers in lieu of salary. He erected many buildings, including mosques, khanqahs, dargahs and a reservoir for pilgrims.
Names and titles
The name "Iltutmish" literally means "maintainer of the kingdom" in Turkic. Since vowel marks are generally omitted in the historical Persian language manuscripts, different 19th-20th century writers read Iltutmish's name variously as "Altamish", "Altamsh", "Iyaltimish", and "Iletmish". However, several verses by contemporary poets, in which the Sultan's name occurs, rhyme properly only if the name is pronounced "Iltutmish". Moreover, a 1425-1426 Tajul-Ma'asir manuscript shows the vowel "u" in the Sultan's name, which confirms that "Iltutmish" is the correct reading of the name.Iltutmish's inscriptions mention several of his grandiloquent titles, including:
- Maula muluk al-arab wa-l-ajam, a title used by earlier Muslim kings including the Ghaznavid ruler Mas'ud
- Maula muluk al-turk wa-l'ajam, Saiyid as-salatin al-turk wa-l'ajam, Riqab al-imam maula muluk al-turk wa-l-ajam
- Hindgir
- Sultan Salatin ash-Sharq
- Shah-i-Sharq
- Shahanshah, a title of the emperors of Persia
Early life
Outside India
Iltutmish was born in an affluent family: his father Ilam Khan was a leader of the Ilbari Turkic tribe. According to Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri, he was a handsome and intelligent boy, because of which his brothers grew jealous of him; these brothers sold him to a slave dealer at a horse show. Minhaj's narrative appears to be inspired by the Quranic story of Hazrat Yusuf, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.According to Minhaj, as a young boy, Iltutmish was brought to Bukhara, where he was re-sold to the local Sadr-i Jahan. There are several anecdotes about Iltutmish's childhood interest in religious mysticism. According to a story narrated by Iltutmish himself in Minhaj's book, once a family member of the Sadr-i Jahan gave him some money and asked him to bring some grapes from the market. Iltutmish lost the money on the way to the market, and started crying fearing punishment from his master. A dervish noticed him, and bought the grapes for him in exchange for a promise that he would treat religious devotees and ascetics well upon becoming powerful. The writings of Isami and some other sources suggest that Iltutmish also spent some time in Baghdad, where he met noted Sufi mystics such as Shahab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar Suhrawardi and Auhaduddin Kermani.
Minhaj states that the family of Sadr-i Jahan treated Iltutmish well, and later sold him to a merchant called Bukhara Haji. Iltutmish was subsequently sold to a merchant called Jamaluddin Muhammad Chust Qaba, who brought him to Ghazni. The arrival of a handsome and intelligent slave in the town was reported to the Ghurid king Mu'izz ad-Din, who offered 1,000 gold coins for Iltutmish and another slave named Tamghaj Aibak. When Jamaluddin refused the offer, the king banned the sale of these slaves in Ghazni. A year later, Jamaluddin went to Bukhara, and stayed there for three years with the slaves.
In Qutb al-Din's service
Subsequently, Iltutmish's master Jamaluddin returned to Ghazni, where Mu'izz ad-Din's slave-commander Qutb al-Din Aibak noticed Iltutmish. Qutb al-Din, who had just returned from a campaign in Gujarat, sought Mu'izz ad-Din's permission to purchase Iltutmish and Tamghaj. Since their sale had been banned in Ghazni, Mu'izz ad-Din directed them to be taken to Delhi. In Delhi, Jamaluddin sold Iltutmish and Tamghaj to Qutb al-Din for 100,000 jitals. Tamghaj rose to the position of the muqta of Tabarhinda, while Iltutmish became the sar-jandar.Iltutmish rose rapidly in Qutb al-Din's service, attaining the rank of Amir-i Shikar. After the Ghurid conquest of Gwalior in 1200, he was appointed the Amir of the town, and later, he was granted the iqta' of Baran. His efficient governance prompted Qutb al-Din to grant him the iqta' of Badaun, which according to Minhaj, was the most important one in the Delhi Sultanate.
In 1205–1206, Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din summoned Qutb al-Din's forces for his campaign against the Khokhar rebels. During this campaign, Iltutmish's Badaun contingent forced the Khokhars into the middle of the Jhelum river, and killed them there. Mu'izz ad-Din noticed Iltutmish, and made inquiries about him. The Sultan subsequently presented Iltutmish with a robe of honour, and asked Aibak to treat him well. Minhaj states that Mu'izz ad-Din also ordered Iltutmish's deed of manumission to be drawn on this occasion, which would mean that Iltutmish - a slave of a slave until this point - was manumitted even before his own master Aibak had been manumitted. However, Iltutmish's manumission doesn't appear to have been well-publicized because Ibn Battuta states that at the time of his ascension a few years later, an ulama deputation led by Qazi Wajihuddin Kashani waited to find if he had obtained a deed of manumission or not.
Ascension and consolidation of power
After Mu'izz ad-Din's death in 1206, Qutb al-Din became the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, which evolved independent of the former Ghurid Empire. In 1210, when Qutb al-Din Aibak died unexpectedly in Lahore, the local nobles appointed Aram Shah as his successor to prevent instability in the kingdom. However, the nobles in other parts of the Sultanate opposed this decision, and proposed Iltutmish as an alternative, because Aibak used to call him a son, and because he had a distinguished record of service. These nobles, led by the military justiciar Ali-yi Ismail, invited him to occupy the throne.Iltutmish marched to Delhi, where he seized the power, and later defeated Aram Shah's forces. Some nobles rebelled against his seizure of power, but Iltutmish subjugated them, and had many of them beheaded.
Minhaj-i-Siraj states that after Aibak's death, the former Ghurid dominions of India had been divided into four parts, centred at:
- Delhi, controlled by Iltutmish
- Sindh, controlled by Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, a former Ghurid slave, who had been muqta of Uch since 1204
- Lakhnauti, controlled by Ali Mardan Khalji, a former governor who proclaimed independence and styled himself as Sultan Ala al-Din
- Lahore, contested between Qabacha, Yildiz, and Iltutmish
Delhi's dependencies
By the time of Iltutmish's ascension, Delhi's hold over various Hindu chiefs had weakened, and some of them - such as those of Ranthambore and Jalor - had declared independence. During the first few years of his reign, Iltutmish's other preoccupations appear to have prevented him from campaigning against these chiefs. Hasan Nizami refers to an undated expedition against Jalor, which may have taken place sometime after his victory over Aram Shah.