Qutb-ud-din Aibak (Persian: قطب الدین ایبک; lit. "Axis of the Faith") was a Turkic king of Northwest India who ruled from his capital in Delhi where he built the Qutub Minar and the Quwwat Al Islam mosque.[1] He was of Turkic descent from central Asia, the first Sultan of Delhi and founder of the Slave dynasty (also known as the Ghulam dynasty) of India. He ruled for only four years, from 1206 to 1210 AD. He died while playing polo in Lahore.[2]
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Qutbuddin was born somewhere in the area of what is today known as Afghanistan; he was of Turkic descent.[3][4] There are also evidence that he might be from the town of Aibak which serves as the provincial capital of Samangan Province. While still a child he was captured and sold as a slave (ghulam). He was purchased by the chief Qazi of Nishapur, a town in the province of Khorasan in northeastern Iran. The Qazi treated him like one of his own sons, and Aibak received a very good education in all the major subjects, was a very brave warrior and an appreciable ruler and intelligent in languages including fluency in Persian and Arabic[5] and training in archery and horsemanship. When his master died, his master's sons, who were jealous of Aibak, sold him to a slave merchant. Aibak was, then, finally purchased by the great General Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghauri, then governor of Ghazni.
Starting with his native Ghori, an Aimak principality, Shahabuddin Ghauri proved to be a distinguished personality of the history and managed to establish control over most of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. Under his command, Qutbuddin conquered Delhi in 1193 after the victory in the Battles of Tarain.[6] As governor of northern India, Aibak was very refined and established the first verifiable Muslim administration through collection of state taxes, establishing the rule of law, equitable distribution of land and revenues to the nobles under his charge, and governance based on a mixture of locally elected representation through Mashura courts and nominated administrators on every rank to ensure the good working of the government.
Qutbuddin rose through the ranks to become the Emperor Muhammad Ghauri's most trusted general. His greatest military successes occurred while he was directly under Ghauri's guidance and leadership. Qutb was responsible for executing and consolidating Ghauri's conquests in northern India. He was left in increasingly independent charge of the Indian campaigns and the exaction of levies from the areas in India that were under Sultan Ghauri's conquests, as after 1192 the ambitious Sultan Ghauri concentrated on Central Asia.
In 1206, the Emperor Ghauri appointed Qutb-ud-din Aibak as his Naib us Sultanat in India[7] at a grand darbar (reception) at Lahore, which was attended by a large majority of the nobles and dignitaries of his vast empire. It was at this occasion that Ghauri bestowed upon Qutb-ud-din the title of Aibak, meaning "Axis of the Faith".[8]yoybvofghut
Muhammad Ghauri established the first real Muslim state in North India. Upon Sultan Ghauri's death in 1206, Qutb, after a brief power struggle, succeeded in establishing himself as ruler of the kingdom in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India; Shahabuddin Muhammad's Central Asian possessions had been captured by none other than the Mongol warlord, Genghis Khan.
The areas over which Aibak established his rule were those over which he already exercised power as Ghauri's local receiver-general of periodic exactions and levies. He did not attack other kingdoms without any reason and concentrated on the development of the existing empire. Therefore, although his formal tenure as ruler was only four years, Aibak managed to consolidate thoroughly the administrative system that was established by his predecessor and master Shahabuddin Ghauri. This was achieved despite his having to quell powerful rebellions by nobles like Taj-ud-din Ildiz and Nasir-ud-din Qubacha. Qutbuddin ruled his empire initially from the Capital Lahore and later moved the capital to Delhi; he is hence considered the first Muslim ruler of South Asia.
Qutbuddin Aibak was a very refined and inticrate builder. He led the constructions of the security towers, check posts, tax posts and a few of the forts in the most important cities of his empire to avoid plunderings and loots. He also initiated the construction of Delhi's earliest Muslim monuments, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutub Minar. Historical records compiled by Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the iconoclasm of Qutbuddin Aibak. The first mosque built in Delhi.[9] These were completed by his successor, Iltutmish. He patronized Nizami and Fakh-i-Mudabbir, both of whom dedicated their works to Aibak. Tazul Maasir is a work primarily dealing with Aibak.
Sultan Qutbuddin died accidentally in 1210. While he was playing a game of polo in Lahore on horseback (Polo known as Chougan in India), his horse fell and the sultan was impaled on the pommel of his saddle. He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore. Aibak's son Aram, died in 1211 CE,[2] so Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, another ex-slave and an outstanding ruler of Turkic ancestry who was married to Aibak's daughter, succeeded him as Sultan of Delhi.
Aibak's tomb is located behind Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore today and is a famous tourist site. In the early 1970s, it was renovated at the orders of the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.[10]
| Preceded by None |
Slave Dynasty 1206–1290 |
Succeeded by Aram Shah |
| Preceded by None |
Sultan of Delhi 1206–1210 |
Succeeded by Aram Shah |
