Introduction:

Delhi is the capital of India and hence it is politically the most important city in India.

But Delhi was like any other non-descript city till twelfth century.

It was only in the twelfth century, that Delhi became an important city.

Right from the days of the Rajput rulers; Delhi gradually grew in political importance in India.

During the Mughal rule, it reached its pinnacle of political importance.

The upcoming city: Delhi:

Delhi first became the capital of a kingdom only under the Tomaras who were a part of the Rajput dynasties.

The Tomara Rajputs were defeated in the mid-twelfth century by the Chauhans.

Delhi became an important commercial centre under the Tomaras and Chauhans.

Many rich Jaina merchants lived in Delhi and they constructed several temples.

There was a wide circulation of the coins minted here, called dehliwal.

The Delhi Sultanate began in the early thirteenth century.

This marked the transformation of Delhi into a capital that controlled many areas of the subcontinent.

The Delhi Sultanate was composed of five dynasties which ruled during different periods.

The Delhi Sultans built many cities in the area that is known today as Delhi.

These are Dehli-i-Kuhna, Jahanpanah, Siri, and Firuzabad; to name a few.

The Delhi Sultans:

Tawarikh:

You have read that coins, inscriptions and architecture are rich source of information for historians.

But gradually, ‘histories’ became somewhat more valuable sources of information.

Chronicles written by scribes were called tarikh (singular)/tawarikh (plural) during this period.

Tawarikh were written in Persian. It was the language of administration in the Delhi Sultanate. The authors of tawarikh were learned men- secretaries, administrators, poets and courtiers.

They recounted events and advised rulers on governance, emphasizing the significance of just rule. They lived in cities (mainly in Delhi) and rarely lived in villages.

They wrote histories for the Sultans; expecting rich rewards in return.

They advised rulers on the need to preserve and ideal social order.

According to them, an ideal social order was based on birthright and gender distinctions.

The Circle of Justice: 

Fakhr-I Mudabbir: He was an important scribe.

He wrote about a circle of justice wherein the survival of kings, soldiers and peasants are in interconnected.

According to him; a king cannot survive without soldiers and a soldier cannot survive without salary.

Revenue from peasants was the source of soldiers’ salary.

A peasant needed to be prosperous and happy to be able to pay revenue.

Hence, a king needed to provide just rule and honest governance to ensure prosperity of peasants.

Gender Distinction: 

These refer to the social and biological differences between men and women.

These also refer to the bias in the society wherein men are considered superior to women.

Raziya Sultan:

Raziya became the Sultan in 1236. She was the daughter of Iltutmish.

But most of the people could not accept a woman as a ruler.

Most of the nobles in the Sultanate were not happy at her attempts to rule independently.

As a result, she could remain the ruler only for about four years and was removed from the throne in 1240.

Rudramadevi:

Rudramadevi (1262 – 1289) belonged to the Kakatiya dynasty of Warangal (Andhra Pradesh).

She avoided gender discrimination by changing her name on inscriptions and pretended to be a man.

Another queen who ruled Kashmir during 980 – 1003, was addressed as ‘Didda’ instead of ‘didi’ (elder sister). This also shows the biases which people had about women.

Delhi sultanate expansion:

In the thirteenth century, the control of regions by the Delhi Sultans rarely went beyond garrison towns.

A garrison town is a fortified settlement with soldiers.

The Sultans seldom controlled the hinterland of the cities.

Due to this, they were dependent on trade, tribute and plunder for supplies.

Expansion of Delhi Sultanate:

Rebellion, war and bad weather would snap the fragile communication routes.

Consequently, it was very difficult to control garrison towns in Bengal and Sindh from Delhi.

The attacks by Mongols of Afghanistan and the governors who rebelled at the slightest sign of weakness of the Sultan were a challenge for the sultans.

The Sultanate hardly survived these challenges.

The main expansion of the Sultanate took place during the reigns of Ghiyasuddin Balban, Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq.

The campaigns of expansion were along the internal frontier and external frontier.

Campaigns along the internal frontier: 

These aimed at consolidating the garrison towns of hinterlands.

These included clearing of forests in the Ganga-Yamuna doab and expulsion of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists from their habitats.

These lands were given to peasants to encouraging agriculture.

The trade routes were protected and regional trade was promoted by establishing new fortresses and towns.

Campaigns along the external frontier:

Military expeditions into southern India that started during the reign of Alauddin Khalji culminated during the reign of Muhammad Tughluq.

In their campaigns; elephants, horses and slaves were captured and precious metals were plundered by the Sultanate armies.

The armies of the Delhi Sultanate had conquered a large part of the subcontinent by the end of Muhammad Tughluq’s reign.

They succeeded in defeating their rivals and seizing many cities.

The sultanate collected taxes from the peasantry and also dispensed justice in its realm.

Administration and consolidation by Khaljis and Tughluqs:

Reliable governors and administrators were needed for the vast kingdom of the Delhi Sultanate.

The early Delhi Sultans chose to employ special slaves (whom they had purchased for military service) as governors, instead of employing aristocrats and landed chieftains.

Especially, Iltutmish employed the slaves as mentioned above. These slaves were called bandagan in Persian.

They were trained well to man some of the important political offices of the kingdom and their total dependence on the master ensured their reliability and dependability.

People of humble birth were also raised to high political positions by the Tughluqs and Khaljis.

These people were often their clients (i.e. someone who is under another person’s protection or is dependent on another person).

These people were appointed as governors and generals.

But this also led to some political instability creeping in.

The slaves and clients were very loyal to their masters and patron. But they were not loyal to their heirs.

New Sultans had their own servants and hence often there was conflict between the old and new nobility whenever there was an accession.

The authors of the Persian tawarikh criticized the appointment of the ‘low and base-born’ to high offices.

Appointment of governors: 

Military commanders were appointed as governors of different-sized territories by the Khalji and Tughluq monarchs.

These territories were called iqta and their holder was called iqtadar or muqti.

The muqtis performed the duty of leading military campaigns and maintaining law and order in their iqta.

They collected revenues of their assignments as salary. Soldiers of the muqtis were also paid from this revenue.

The following were the ways to keep effective control over muqtis:

By keeping the post as inheritable and

Assigning the iqtas for a short period before being shifted

The above mentioned harsh service conditions were imposed by Muhammad Tughluq and Alauddin Khalji.

Appointment of accountants: 

They were appointed by the state to check the amount of revenue collected by the muqtis.

There was proper control regarding the muqti collecting only the taxes prescribed by the state and that he kept the required number of soldiers.

Impact of Delhi Sultans:

They forced the landed chieftains- the samanta aristocrats and the rich landlords to accept their authority when they brought the hinterlands of the cities under their control.

Under Alauddin Khalji’s reign:

The assessment and collection of land revenue was brought under the state’s control.

The local chieftains no longer had the right to levy taxes and they were forced to pay taxes.

Sultan’s administrators measured the land and kept accounts very carefully.

The service of revenue collection and assessment for the Sultanate was done by some of the old chieftains and landlords.

Types of Taxes – There were three types of taxes i.e. taxes on:

1. Cultivation: It was called kharaj and it amounted to about 50 per cent of the peasant’s produce.
2. Cattle
3. Houses
4. Regions outside Delhi
5. Mongol Attack

Large part of the subcontinent remained outside the control of the Delhi Sultans since it was difficult to control distant provinces of Bengal from Delhi and soon after annexing the southern part of India, the entire region became independent.

The forested areas of Gangetic plains were untouched by them.

These areas were ruled by the local chieftains.

Even if the rulers like Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq exerted control over these areas, it was for a short duration only.

The Mongols:

The north-eastern part of Iran, Transoxiana was invaded by the Mongols in the year 1219.

Soon after, they attacked the Delhi Sultanate.

During the reign of Alauddin Khalji and the early reigning period of Muhammad Tughluq, there was an increase in the attack of the Delhi Sultanate.

Consequently, they had to mobilize a large standing army in Delhi which posed a huge administrative challenge.

Particulars	Alauddin Khalji	Muhammad Tughluq
Period of attack	Twice in 1299/1300 and 1302-1303. He raised a long standing army	In the early years of his reign. He defeated the Mongols. He raised a long standing army. He was confident about the strength of his army and his resources to plan an attack on Transoxiana.
How they dealt with it	He constructed a new garrison town named Siri for his soldiers.	Soldiers garrisoned in the oldest of the four cities of Delhi named Dehli-I Kuhna after emptying it of its residents. The residents were sent to the new capital of Daulatabad in the south.
Food	Soldiers were fed using the produce collected as tax from lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. Tax was fixed at 50 per cent of the peasant’s yield.	Produce from the same area was collected as tax for feeding the army. Additional taxes were also levied to meet the expenses of maintaining such a large number of soldiers. This coincided with famine in the area.
Money	He paid the soldiers in cash rather than iqtas. He controlled the prices of goods in Delhi to prevent the merchants from inflating them due to the dependence of the soldiers on them for supplies.	He also paid the soldiers in cash. He used a ‘token’ currency made out of cheap metals. But these coins were not trusted by the people of the fourteenth century. It could be counterfeited easily and also people saved their gold and silver coins and paid their taxes using token currency.
Administration	He had a successful administration and gained praise from chroniclers for cheap prices and efficient supplies of goods in the market. He withstood the threat of Mongol invasions.	His administrative methods were a failure. His campaign into Kashmir was a disaster after which he decided not to invade Transoxiana and disbanded his large army.

Though Tughluq was considered to be a failure in administration he was the first Delhi Sultan in the history of the Sultanate to plan an attack on the Mongols.

His approach was offensive rather than defensive; unlike the approach of Khalji.

Decline of Delhi Sultans:

Until 1526 the Tughluqs, Lodhis and Sayyid dynasties ruled Delhi and Agra.

By then there were independent rulers in the following regions which became prosperous under them: Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Entire south India.

New ruling groups like Afghans and Rajputs also emerged during this period.

Some of the states established during the period were small in size but very powerful and well-administered.

The Suri dynasty:

This dynasty ruled only for fifteen years i.e. from 1540 to 1555.

Their administrative measure had borrowed aspects of Alauddin Khalji.

He made the administration more efficient than Khalji’s.

Sher Shah Suri started his career as a manager of a small territory for his uncle in Bihar.

He eventually challenged and defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun.

His reign was from the year 1540 to 1545.

He established his own dynasty after capturing Delhi.

The great emperor Akbar (1556-1605) in the course of consolidation of the Mughal Empire followed the model of administration set by him.

Ibn Batuta:

The fourteenth century traveller Ibn Batuta from Morocco Africa explained that chieftains sometimes fortified themselves in mountains, rocky and uneven places as well as in bamboo groves.

The bamboos in India are big and so intertwined that even fire cannot affect them.

The chieftains lived inside these and had their cattle and crops also inside these.

Water was also available for them in the form of collected rain water.

Hence it was very tough to subdue them except by strong armies who cut these bamboos on entering these forests.

The Three Orders:

The idea of the ‘Three Orders’ was initiated in France in the early eleventh century. It divided the society into three classes which are:

1. Those who prayed
2. Those who fought
3. Those who tilled the land

This idea of division was supported by the Church which supported the new warrior group called Knights. The Church used them to propagate the idea of ‘Peace of God’.

The attempt was to direct warriors away from conflict among themselves and sends them on a campaign against the Muslims who had captured Jerusalem.

This led to a series of campaigns known as the Crusades.

This completely altered the status of Knights who originally did not belong to the class of nobles.

Over the years in France and Germany the humble origins of the warriors were forgotten and by the twelfth century, the nobles also wanted to be known as Knights.

The Masjid:

It is the Arabic word for mosque and is the place of worship for Muslims.

In a ‘congregational mosque’ (masjid-i-jami or jama masjid), as the name suggests, Muslims read their prayers (namaz) in groups.

It is led by the most learned male called the imam who also delivers the sermon during the Friday prayer.Muslims stand facing the Mecca during prayer. In India, it is to the west and this is called qibla.

Several mosques were built by the Delhi Sultans in cities all over the subcontinent.

This proved their claim to be protectors of Islam and Muslims.

Mosques also gave a sense of belonging and community to people who shared a belief system. This idea of community was necessary because Muslims came from a variety of backgrounds.

Some of the mosques built during the period are as under:

Qawwat al-Islam mosque and minaret: 

Built during the last decade of the twelfth century by Qutbuddin Aybak and Iltutmish.

It was the congregational mosque of the first city built by the Delhi Sultans, described in the chronicles as Dehli-i-Kuhna (the old city).

It was enlarged by Iltutmish and Alauddin Khalji.

Begumpuri mosque: 

It was built in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq.

It was the main mosque of Jahanpanah, the ‘Sanctuary of the world’.

Moth ki Masjid: 

This was built in the reign of Sikandar Lodhi by his minister.

Mosque of Jamali Kamali: 

This was built in the late 1520s.

These masjids or mosques showed an evolution of architectural tradition which culminated in Shah Jahan’s mosque in Delhi.