Sultanate of Delhi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1206–1526 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Status | Sultanate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Capital | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Official languages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Religion | State religion Sunni Islam Others Hinduism (majority), Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sultan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1206–1210 | Qutb ud-Din Aibak (first) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1517–1526 | Ibrahim Lodi (last) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vizier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1228–1235 | Yaqut-i-Mustasimi (first) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1513–1526 | Khwaja Jahan (last) [9] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Legislature | Corps of Forty (1211–1266) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Medieval India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 June 1206 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
21 April 1526 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Area | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1312. | 3,200,000[11] km2 (1,200,000 sq mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Currency | Taka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi[a] was a late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, for 320 years (1206–1526).[13][14][15] Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.[16]
The foundation of the Sultanate was laid by the Ghurid conqueror Muhammad Ghori who routed the Rajput Confederacy led by Ajmer ruler Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 near Tarain, after suffering a reverse against them earlier.[17] As a successor to the Ghurid dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate was originally one among several principalities ruled by the Turkic slave-generals of Muhammad Ghori, including Taj al-Din Yildiz, Qutb al-Din Aibak, Bahauddin Tughril and Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, that had inherited and divided the Ghurid territories amongst themselves.[18] Khalji and Tughlaq rule ushered a new wave of rapid and ceaseless Muslim conquests deep into South India.[19][20][21] The sultanate finally reached the peak of its geographical reach during the Tughlaq dynasty, occupying most of the Indian subcontinent under Muhammad bin Tughluq. A major political transformation occurred across Northern India, triggered by Central Asian conqueror Tamerlane's devastating raid on Delhi in 1398, followed soon afterwards by the re-emergence of rival Hindu powers such as Vijayanagara and Mewar asserting independence, and new Muslim sultanates such as the Bengal and Bahmani Sultanates breaking off.[22][23] In 1526, Timurid ruler Babur invaded northern India and conquered the Sultanate, leading to its succession by the Mughal Empire.
The establishment of the Sultanate drew the Indian subcontinent more closely into international and multicultural Islamic social and economic networks,[24] as seen concretely in the development of the Hindustani language[25] and Indo-Islamic architecture.[26][27] It was also one of the few powers to repel attacks by the Mongols (from the Chagatai Khanate)[28] and saw the enthronement of one of the few female rulers in Islamic history, Razia Sultan, who reigned from 1236 to 1240.[29] Their treatment of Hindus, Buddhists, and other dharmic faiths are generally perceived to be unfavorable, as mass forcible conversions were popular during the sultanate's rule and large-scale desecrations of Hindu and Buddhist temples, including universities and libraries took place.[30][31][32][33][34] Mongolian raids on West and Central Asia set the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, intelligentsia, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from those regions into the subcontinent, thereby establishing Islamic culture there.[35][36]
...helps identify another curious flag found in northern India – a brown or originally silver flag with a vertical black line – as the flag of the Delhi Sultanate (602–962/1206–1555).
Large banners were carried with the army. In the beginning, the sultans had only two colours : on the right were black flags, of Abbasid colour; and on the left, they carried their colour, red, which was derived from Ghor. Qutb-ud-din Aibak's standards bore the figures of the new moon, a dragon or a lion; Firuz Shah's flags also displayed a dragon.Jha, Sadan (8 January 2016). Reverence, Resistance and Politics of Seeing the Indian National Flag. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-107-11887-4., also "On the right of the Sultan was carried the black standard of the Abbasids and on the left the red standard of Ghor." in Thapliyal, Uma Prasad (1938). The Dhvaja, Standards and Flags of India: A Study. B.R. Publishing Corporation. p. 94. ISBN 978-81-7018-092-0.
malik
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Hindavi was recognized as a semi-official language by the Sor Sultans (1540–1555) and their chancellery rescripts bore transcriptions in the Devanagari script of the Persian contents. The practice is said to have been introduced by the Lodis (1451–1526).
It was a similar combination of political and economic imperatives which led Muhammad Ghuri, a Turk, to invade India a century and half later in 1192. His defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan, a Rajput chieftain, in the strategic battle of Tarain in northern India paved the way for the establishment of the first Muslim sultante
The Khaiji rule proved much stronger for the Rajput principalities ... A new wave of invasions and conquests began, which ended only when practically the whole of India had been bought under the sway of the Delhi kingdom.
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