Khilji dynasty

Khilij Dynasty

The Khiljis (or Khaljis; Persian: سلطنت خلجی - Sulṭanat-e Khaljī; Hindi: सलतनत ख़िलजी) were a dynasty of Turkic Khalaj origin^[1][2] who ruled large parts of South Asia from 1290 - 1320.^[3] They were the second Muslim dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India.

History

This dynasty, like the previous Slave dynasty, was of Turkic^[4] origin, though the Khalji tribe had long been found in modern Afghanistan along with the Ghaznavids, who were originally of Qarluq origin. The three kings of the Khaljis were noted for their faithlessness, their ferocity, and their penetration of the Indian south^[5]. Although the kings were members of the Khalji tribes and therefore of Turkic origin, the court was of multi-ethnical background, filled with ministers, vezirs, poets, writers, teachers etc. of Persian, Indian, Arab, Turkic origin. The most elemental influence came from central Asia's Iranian population (Tajiks) and Iranized slaves, mostly Turks, brought by famous intellectuals, Sufis, scientists, physicians and noble families and noble warrior tribes (Daylamites, Assassines and Ayyars from Khorasan).

The term Khilji was their self-designation, (see also Ibn Batuta's and Ibn Khaldun's excessive quantity) meaning in Turkic languages "swordsman" or in Ottoman-Turkish "long arm" or "long fingers" and in Pashtu "thief"^[6][7][8]. Originated from upper central Asia, they came in contact with the Iranian population of Khorasan and thus with the native ruling class, the Ghaznavids and later Ghurids, who islamized them in slavery and taught them the Khorasanian's urbane culture, language and civilization. During the Ghaznavid periode, the Khalji Turks were ruled for a short time by the Turkoman Seljuqs, who expanded their empire from anatolian Rum to Baluchistan, until they were droven out by the alliance of Ghurids^[9]. Under the Ghurids, the Khaljis had still the slave-statue as before under the Ghaznavids and played a role in Ghurid's slave army, Bardagân-e Nezâmi^[10], also called Ghilman^[10].

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^[11] and an Indo-Ghurid Shah (king) and founder of the Delhi Sultanat, conquered Bihar and Bengal regions of India 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^[12], 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 established by a noble faction of Turkic, Persian, Arabic and Indian-Muslim aristocrates on the collapse of the last feeble Slave king, Kay-Qubadh. Their rise to power was aided by impatient outsiders, some of them Indian-born Muslims^[13], who might expect to enhance their positions if the hold of the followers of Balban and the Forty (members of the royal Loya Jirga) were broken^[13]. Jalal-ud-din was already elderly, and for a time he was so unpopular, because his tribe was thought to be close to the nomadic Afghans, that he dared not to enter the capital. During his short reign (1290-96), some of Balban's officers revolted due to this assumption 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^[13].

Ali Gurshap, his nephew and son-in-law was ordered by his father to lead an expedition with ca. 4000-7000 men into the Hindu Deccan where the conquered countries had refused obedience and to capture Ellichpur and it's treasure and possibly it was also his father's order to murder his uncle after his return in 1296. However, the prince is considered to be the greatest among the Khiljis, due to successfully repelling of two invasions from the Mongols.

With the title of Ala ud din Khilji, Ali Gurshap reigned for 20 years. He captured Ranthambhor (1301) and Chitor (1303), conquered Māndu (1305), and captured and annexed the wealthy Hindu kingdom of Devagiri^[14]. He also repelled 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 Dynasty south of the Krishna River, and the occupation of Madura in the extreme south^[15]. Malik Kafur returned to Delhi in 1311, laden with spoils. Thereafter, the empire felt into a deep political and family 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 former Indian slave who was also chief minister and his friend, Khusraw Khan, who was in turn replaced 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 1530/31 until the Sultan of Gujarat cleansed their entire nobility.

To some extent then, the Khalji 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, a land that came to be known as Hindustan. Almost all the high nobles, including the famous Forty in the 13th century, were of Central Asian origin (mostly Iranians and Turks). 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. With the Mongol plunder of Central Asia and eastern Iran (modern Afghanistan, Samarkand, Bukhara, Gorgon, 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^[13].

The position of the Khaljis within the Turkic society of India

The Khalji Turks were not recognized by the older nobility as coming from a pure Turkic stock (although they were ethnic Turks)^[16], since they were (unlike the Turks and their Turkic nobility who tried to intermerry only into Turkic families) assimilated into Non-Turks, mostly by Muslims of Indian, Afghan (Pashtun) and Arab (bedouines) origine, who populated the entire North-West India and near locations which cause that they were in terms of customs and manners different from the 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. Sometimes, they were called as bastards, fake Turks or doll-witted by the Turkic noble families^[17][18]. This tension between the Khaljis 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.

Origin of the Khalji people

It seems, that the larger Khalji tribe was once member of the semi-nomadic Hephthalites of central Asia who also conquered -invaded- India. Originally, the Khaljis were mainly dwelling in Turkestan, except in some cases^[19][20][21] or members of ancient Gökturks. In older scripts of Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarezmi, Masudi, in Juzjani's Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib and of Arab and Indian historians (Ibn Batuta, Ibn Khaldun or Vahara Mihira etc.) they are considered as one of the original (in the sense of real) members of the Hephtalite's confederation and of Turkic origin who are also found as nomads near Bactria, in Turfan (Turkestan) and east-ward of modern Ghazna in Afghanistan. Possibly, they have split themselves from these large area up and moved to Iran, Armenia, Iraq, Anatolia, Turkmenistan, India (particularly to Punjab) and modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, around the Sulaiman Mountains under the Ghaznavids^[22] (see also on Ghalzais). In Iran they moved to Pars where they settled an isolated region which is called today as Khaljistan - Land of Khaljis. However, Persians of Iran use the term Khalji also to describe nomads of Turkic background in their country^[22]. Also in in the Kohistan destrict of Pakistan, there is a place called after the Khaljis. The Khalji people of Iran and Afghanistan, the Ghalzai (also called Khaldjish) fraction of the Pashtuns, the Khaldji people of Bengal and Sindh are considered as descendants of ancient and middle-age Khalji (sub-)tribes. However, 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, who speak a Khalaj dialect of the Khalaj language group. One aspect of their life is still alive among the Khalji people around Asia. They all are still mostly of nomadic background.

Cultural achievements

The main court language of Khaljis became Persian^[23], followed by Arabic^[23] and their own native Turkoman language and some of north-Indian dialects. Even if it was not related with their nature as original nomads and had no ties with urbane cultures and civilizations, the Khalji of Delhi promoted Persian language to a high degree. Such a co-existence of different languages gave birth to the earliest and archaic version of Urdu.

Khalji Sultans of Delhi (1290-1320)

• Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji (1290-1296)
• Ala ud din Khilji (1296-1316)
• Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah (1316-1320)

Khilji Sultans of Malwa (1436-1531)

• Mahmud Khilji (1436-1469)
• Ghiyas ud din Khilji (1469-1500)

See also

• Khalaj
• Khalaj language
• Kilij
• Hepthalites
• Turkic people
• Turkic languages
• History of India

References and footnotes

• The Oxford History of India, Clarendon Press, 1958.

External links

• Encyclopedia Britannica - Khalji Dynasty
• - The early Muslim period
• History of India - The Khilji Dynasty
• History of Pakistan
• The Delhi-Sultanat
• A very good article about the Khalji of India