People in India often discuss the history of the Mughal Empire with a special focus on relations between Hindus and Muslims. While some give emphasis on liberal policies of third Mughal Emperor Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar or Akbar the Great (October 15, 1542 – October 27, 1605), others stress on the destruction of Hindu temples by sixth Mughal Emperor Muhi al-Din Muhammad (1618 – March 3, 1707), commonly known as Aurangzeb. Interestingly, when Babur (born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad; February 14, 1483 – December 26, 1530), the founder of the Mughal Empire, invaded India in 1526, his main rival and the last Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, Ibrahim Khan Lodi (1480 – April 21, 1526), too, was a follower of Islamic faith with an Afghan origin. Even before the Lodis, Muslim rulers of various dynasties had ruled India for nearly three centuries! Although the Arabs invaded Sindh in the 8th Century, they failed to penetrate deep into the Indian Subcontinent. However, people living in the western coast of India had established close trade ties with the Arabs. Even members of the Rashtrakuta Empire in the Deccan region had handed over administrative responsibilities to the Arabs. It is to be noted that a trading partner and an imperialist ruler are different, even if their religious belief is the same.

The victory of Muhammad Ghori (born Mu’izz ud-din Muhammad ibn Sam; 1144 – March 15, 1206) over the Rajput Chahamanas and their allies led by Prithviraj Chauhan (1166 – 1192) at the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192 resulted in the Turko-Afghan Rule in India from the 13th to the 16th Century. To understand the nature of Islamic Rule in India, one would have to indulge in studies on the time before advent of the Mughals in India.

Islam was not monarchical at its inception. The caliphs succeeding Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were not hereditary rulers. Over time, the Caliphate became a monarchical system. However, political expansion made direct control over the vast Islamic World impossible for the caliph. The rulers of newly conquered territories were basically independent monarchs who earned the title Sultan. Islamic theologians made an attempt to codify the contours of the newly formed Sultanate. According to noted Persian Sunni Muslim polymath and one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians and mystics in Islamic history Al-Ghazali (1058 – December 19, 1111), the main tasks of the Sultan were to maintain law and order, to improve religious practices, to protect his subjects, to establish Islamic Law, to spread Islamic rule and to take part in religious wars. Again, Nizam-ul-Mulk (August 11, 1671 – June 1, 1748), the first Nizam of Hyderabad, mentioned in his Siyāsatnāmeh (The Lives of Kings) that the main duty of a Sultan was to maintain law and order, and not to establish a religious state.

In his works, Ziauddin Barani (1285 – 1358), an Indian Muslim political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate located in present-day Northern India during the reigns of Muhammad bin Tughluq and Firuz Shah Tughluq, stated that the Sultans of Delhi chose the path of Dunyadari or Jahandari (Practical Rule), instead of Deendari (Religious Rule). They used to make friendships with Sufi philosophers in an attempt to avoid clerical influence on the political system. Moinuddin Chishti (1143-1236), Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Kākī (1173-1235), Bābā Farīd (April 4, 1173 – May 7, 1266), Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 – April 3, 1325) and Nasiruddin Mahmud Chirag-Dehlavi (1274-1337) were some of those Sufi philosophers who did not interfere in Sultan’s political activities. They used to lead simple lives and maintained regular contact with Hindu, Buddhist and Jain philosophers. There was a similarity between Moinuddin Chishti’s philosophical thought and monotheism as described in the Upaniṣads, ancient texts from India that were composed orally in Sanskrit between about BC 700 and BC 300. Nizamuddin Auliya declared that people of all religions could have their own beliefs and ways of worship.

After the sudden demise of Muhammad Ghori in 1206, a battle of succession had broken out between his generals. Qutb ud-Din Aibak (1150 – November 14, 1210) was one of those generals who established the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) and founded the Mamluk Dynasty, which would rule the Sultanate until 1290, after the assassination of Muhammad Ghori. Aibak set up his base in Lahore (Pakistan) first, and then in Delhi. After the untimely death of Qutb ud-Din Aibak, his slave Shams ud-Din Iltutmish (or Altamash 1211 – April 30, 1236) got the recognition of his independent Sultanate of Delhi from the Caliph himself. He was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India and the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, thus considered the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who made a serious attempt to establish the sovereign power of the Sultan, used to ignore the advice of orthodox Muslim clerics. He selected his daughter Raziya Sultana as his successor, in spite of opposition from clerics. However, Razia’s rule did not last long as Ghiyas ud din Balban (1216 – 1287), the former slave of Iltutmish, seized power in Delhi and reigned from 1266 to 1287. His main objective was to establish full royal status of the Sultanate of Delhi. Balban borrowed the concept of absolute monarchy from the pre-Islamic Persian Empire. Claiming to be the representative of God like the ancient emperors, he instituted the custom of abdication before the king and the magnificent royal court. Balban advised his son to practice Islam in private life, and to keep a distance from orthodox clerics.

Jalal-ud-Din Firuz Khalji (1220 – July 19, 1296) ended Turkish rule shortly after the passing away of Balban, and founded the Khalji Dynasty. He was also the first Sultan of the Khalji Dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1290 to 1320. Although the Khaljis were of Turkic origin, they had long been residents of the Indian Subcontinent. Balban used to consider Muslims of Indian origin as inferior. However, a number of officials of the Khalji Administration were Indian Muslims and non-Muslims. Jalal-ud-Din Khalji not only rejected the suggestion of forced conversion and humiliation of Hindus by fanatical Ulemas, but also allowed Hindus to enjoy the right to worship idols and to preach their own religion. In 1296, Alauddin Khalji (born Ali Gurshasp, 1296 – 1316) assassinated Jalal-ud-Din and consolidated his power in Delhi. Although a fictional 16th Century Sufi verse portrayed Alauddin Khalji as a womanizer and an aggressive ruler, he saved India from multiple Mongol invasions, apart from strictly controlling market prices in order to keep the daily necessities within the purchasing power of the common people. He also made it clear to the clerics that the Sultan’s decision should be the final, and it was aimed at public welfare. Alauddin Khalji was the first Sultan to make the Rajputs partners in governance through matrimonial relationships. In his writings, Ziauddin Barani described the plight of Hindu landlords and village leaders because of Alauddin Khalji’s strict administrative control over revenue collection. It seems that the majority of landlords and village leaders were Hindus.

According to some historians, Muiz ud-din Qaiqabad (1269 – February 1, 1290) was the 10th Sultan of the Mamluk Dynasty who reigned from 1286 to 1290. He was the son of Bughra Khan, the Independent Sultan of Bengal, as well as grandson of Ghiyas ud din Balban (1266 – 1286). After Qaiqabad was paralysed, a group of nobles appointed his infant son Shams ud-Din Kayumars (also known by his regnal name Shamsuddin II; 1285 – June 13, 1290 who reigned in 1290) as the new Sultan, and subsequently tried to kill Jalal-ud-Din Firuz Khalji. Instead, Jalal-ud-Din had the group of nobles killed and became regent. A few months later, he deposed Kayumars and became the new Sultan.

During the post-Khalji Tughluq Period, loyalty of the Chishtis to the Delhi Sultanate was interrupted because of their conflict with Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (died in 1325) and Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – March 20, 1351). However, the Tughluq Dynasty continued to appoint non-Muslim employees in the administration. Muhammad bin Tughluq, a great scholar of Islamic literature, used to discuss religious issues with Jain scholars, as well. Initially, Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309 – September 20, 1388) followed the Tughlaq culture. He greatly increased the financial prosperity of Delhi by improving agriculture and irrigation system, industry and trade. Many Sanskrit texts were translated into Persian during his reign. However, Firuz Shah Tughlaq became a fundamentalist towards the end of his reign as he imposed religious tax on Hindu Brahmins, executed a number of Shia clerics and reportedly ordered to destroy under-construction Hindu temples. His fundamentalism might have been one of the reasons for the weakening of the foundations of the Delhi Sultanate.

Devastated by Timur‘s invasion in 1398, Delhi did not regain its glory under Syed or Lodi rule. Sikandar Khan Lodi (died on November 21, 1517), who wanted to make the Lodi Kingdom of the Afghan people into an Empire, sought the help of the Ulemas. Therefore, his reign showed some signs of orthodox religious character. Interestingly, a section of the Lodis could not accept the transformation of the Lodi Administration into an absolute monarchy. In fact, some relatives of Ibrahim Khan Lodi (1480 – April 21, 1526), the last Sultan of the Lodi Dynasty, invited Babur to invade India!

Rulers in the Sultanate Period rightly realised that the Islamic monarchy could not turn India into a religious state. Many regional sultanates that became independent from Delhi, too, followed this ideal. The foundation of the Indo-Islamic culture was also laid during the Sultanate Period.

Hence, no one can deny the fact that the Delhi Sultanate had given top most priority to state protection and public welfare in India.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das