| Khilji dynasty | ||||
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| Khilji dynasty | ||||
| Capital | Delhi | |||
| Language(s) | Persian and Turkic | |||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | |||
| Government | Sultanate | |||
| Sultan | ||||
| - 1290–1296 | Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji | |||
| - 1296–1316 | Alauddin Khilji | |||
| - 1316–1320 | Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah | |||
| History | ||||
| - Established | 1290 | |||
| - Disestablished | 1320 | |||
The Khilji Sultanate (or Khalji; Persian: سلطنت خلجی - Sulṭanat-e Khaljī; Hindi: सलतनत ख़िलजी) was a dynasty of Turko-Afghan[1] Khalaj origin[2] who ruled large parts of South Asia from 1290 - 1320.[3] They were the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India. Led by their powerful ruler, Ala-ud-din Khilji, they are historically notable for repeatedly defending India from Mongols[4] attacks.
The Encyclopædia Britannica states that "this dynasty, like the previous Slave dynasty, was of Turkic origin, though the Khaljī tribe had long been settled in what is now Afghanistan."[5]
| “ | The sultans of the Slave Dynasty were Turkic central Asians, but the members of the new dynasty, although they were also Turkic, had settled in Afghanistan and brought a new set of customs and culture to Delhi.[6] | ” |
| “ | The Khilji dynasty was named after a village in Afghanistan. Some historians believe that they were Afghans, but Bharani and Wolse Haig explain in their accounts that the rulers from this dynasty who came to India, though they had temporarily settled in Afghanistan, were originally Turkic.[7] | ” |
| “ | The Khiljis were a Central Asian Turkic dynasty but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, and adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court.[8] | ” |
The three sultans of the Khalji dynasty were noted by historians for their faithlessness and ferocity.[5] Originating in upper Central Asia, they came into contact with the multi-ethnic population of Khorasan and thus with the native ruling class, the Ghaznavids and later Ghurids, who Islamized them and taught them their culture, language and civilization. During the Ghaznavid period, the Khiljis were ruled for a short time by the Seljuqs, who expanded their Khorasanian empire until they were driven out by the alliance of Ghurids. Under both the Ghaznavids and Ghurids, the Khiljis had a slave status and played a role in the Ghurids' slave army, Bardagân-e Nezâmi, or "Ghilman".[9]
Ikhtiar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiar Khilji, one of the servants of Qutb-ud-din Aybak who was himself an ex-slave of the Ghurids and of Turkic background[10] and an Indo-Ghurid Shah (king) and founder of the Delhi Sultanate, conquered Bihar and Bengal in the late 12th century. From this time, the Khiljis became servants and vassals of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi. From 1266 to his death in 1290, the Sultan of Delhi was officially Ghiyas ud din Balban,[11] another servant of Qutab-ud-din Aybak. Balban’s immediate successors, however, were unable to manage either the administration or the factional conflicts between the old Turkic nobility and the new forces, led by the Khaljis. After a struggle between the two factions, Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji was installed as sultan by a noble faction of Turkic, Persian, Arabic and Indian-Muslim aristocrats on the collapse of the last feeble Mumluk sultan, Kay-Qubadh. Their rise to power was aided by impatient outsiders of the court, some of them Indian-born Muslims,[12] who might expect to enhance their positions if the hold of the followers of Balban and the "Forty" (the members of the royal Loya Jirga) were broken.[12] Jalal-ud-din was already elderly, and for a time he was so unpopular that he dared not to enter the capital, because his tribe was thought to be close to the nomadic Afghans. During his short reign (1290–96), some of Balban's officers revolted due to this assumption of power but Jalal-ud-din suppressed them, led an unsuccessful expedition against Ranthambhor, and defeated a substantial Mongol force on the banks of the Sind River in central India.[12]
Ali Gurshap, his nephew and son-in-law, was ordered by his father to lead an expedition of between 4000 and 7000 men into the Hindu Deccan, where many countries had refused to submit, and to capture Ellichpur and its treasure. Upon his return in 1296, having gained status and power, he killed his uncle.
With the title of Ala ud din Khilji, Ali Gurshap reigned for 20 years, and is considered the greatest member of the dynast. He captured Ranthambhor (1301) and Chittorgarh (1303), conquered Māndu (1305), and captured and annexed the wealthy Hindu state of Devagiri.[13] He also repelled two Mongol raids. Ala-ud-din’s lieutenant, Malik Kafur, a native Muslim Indian, was sent on a plundering expedition to the south in 1308, which led to the capture of Warangal, the overthrow of the Hoysala Empire south of the Krishna River, and the occupation of Madura in the extreme south.[13] Malik Kafur returned to Delhi in 1311, laden with spoils. Thereafter, the empire felt into a deep political and dynastic decadence. The sultan died in early 1316. Malik Kafur’s attempted usurpation ended with his own death. The last Khalji, Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah, was murdered in 1320 by a former Indian slave who had risen to become his chief minister and friend, Khusraw Khan. Ultimately power was taken by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, the first ruler of the Turkic Tughluq dynasty. A remnant of the ruling house of the Khaljis ruled in Malwa from 1436 to either 1530 or 1531, until the Sultan of Gujarat cleansed their entire nobility.
To some extent then, the Khilji usurpation was a move toward the recognition of a shifting balance of power, attributable both to the developments outside the territory of the Delhi Sultanate, in Central Asia and Iran, and to the changes that followed the establishment of Turkic rule in northern India.
In large measure, the dislocation in the regions beyond the northwest assured the establishment of an independent Delhi Sultanate and its subsequent consolidation. The eastern steppe tribes’ movements to the west not only ended the threat to Delhi from the rival Turks and Iranians in Ghazna and Ghur but also forced a number of the Central Asian Muslims to migrate to northern India. Almost all the high nobles, including the famous Forty in the 13th century, were of Central Asian origin (mostly Tajiks and Turkic people from Central Asia ). Many of them were slaves purchased from the Central Asian bazaars. The same phenomenon also led to the destabilization of the core of the Turkic Mamluks. During the Mongol plunder of Central Asia and eastern Iran (now modern Afghanistan, Samarkand, Bukhara, Gorgan, Khwarezm, Merv, Peshawar, Swat, Quetta and borderlands), many more members of the political and religious elite of these regions were thrown into north India, where they were admitted into various levels of the military and administrative cadre by the early Delhi sultans.[12]
The Khilji Turks were not recognized by the older nobility as coming from a pure Turkic stock even in Singam and Kuselan, since they had intermarried greatly with non-Turks, mostly by Muslims of Indian, Afghan (Pashtun) and Arab Bedouin origin, and their customs and manners were seen as very different from those of other Turks. Although they had played a conspicuous role in the success of the Turkic armies in India, they had always been looked down upon by the leading Turks, the dominant group during the Slave dynasty. This tension between the Khiljis and other Turks, kept in check by Balban, came to the surface in the succeeding reign, and ended in the displacement of the Ilbari Turks.[14]
Before expansion into India, the Khaljis were mainly concentrated in Turkestan.[15][16][17] In the writings of Al-Biruni, Ibn-Batuta, Ibn-Khaldun, Al-Khwarezmi, Masudi, Varahamihira, and in Juzjani's Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib, they are presented as a group of Turkic origin which formed one of the older members of the Hephthalite confederation, and included many nomads near Bactria, in Turfan (Turkestan) and eastward of modern Ghazni. Many migrated to Iran, and possibly also to Armenia, Iraq, Anatolia, Turkmenistan, the Punjab and what are now modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially around the Sulaiman Mountains, then under the control of the Ghaznavids[18] (see also the article on the Ghalzais). In Iran, they migrated mainly to Pars, where they settled an isolated region which is called today as Khaljistan - Land of Khaljis. However, Persian-speakers in Iran also use the term Khalji to describe any nomads of Turkic background in their country.[18]The Khilji people of Iran and Afghanistan, the Ghilzai, and the Khaldji people of Bengal and Sindh claim to be descendants of medieval Khilji clans, though they have intermarried greatly with other groups and many share few physical similarities with the original Khiljis . Most modern Khilji people and tribes have very few cultural links with the original Turkic tribe, except for the Khiljis of Iran and Afghanistan, who speak a Khalaj dialect of the Khalaj language group. Modern Khalji people are not more comparable to the past Khalji tribes who were of pure Turkic stock. For example in the case of India, modern Khalji people became ethnic Indians and lost their east-Asian features and their Turkic identity. In Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, they are either of hybrid origin or in the case of Turkmen Khalji tribe they kept Turks but became cultural Iranians and Indians. Because of this fact, most of modern Khalji people and tribes have no more ties or any kind of an identity that trace them intentional to the Turks, except for the Khaljis of Iran and Afghanistan.
The court languages of the Khiljis were Persian,[19] followed by Arabic[19], their own native Turkoman language and some north-Indian dialects. Even though it was not their native language, the Khilji Sultans promoted the Persian language to a high degree. Such a co-existence of different languages gave birth to an early form of Urdu.
According to Ibn Batuta, the Khiljis encouraged conversion to Islam by making it a custom to have the convert presented to the Sultan who would place a robe on the convert and award him with bracelets of gold.[20] During Ikhtiyar Uddin Bakhtiyar Khilji's control of the Bengal, Muslim missionaries in India achieved their greatest success, in terms of number of converts to Islam.[21]
| Name | Picture | Reign started | Reign ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji |
1290 | 1296 | |
| Alauddin Khilji |
1296 | 1316 | |
| Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah |
1316 | 1320 |
