Why was Iſtutmish called a pragmatic ruler?
Answers
Explanation:
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, (r. 1211–1236) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus considered the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
Explanation:
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, (r. 1211–1236) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus considered the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
Sold into slavery as a young boy, Iltutmish spent his early life in Bukhara and Ghazni under multiple masters. In the late 1190s, the Ghurid slave-commander Qutb al-Din Aibak purchased him in Delhi, thus making him the slave of a slave. Iltutmish rose to prominence in Aibak's service, and was granted the important iqta' of Badaun. His military actions against the Khokhar rebels in 1205-1206 gained attention of the Ghurid Emperor Mu'izz ad-Din, who manumitted him even before his master Aibak was manumitted.
After Mu'izz ad-Din's death in 1206, Aibak became a practically independent ruler of the Ghurid territories in India, with his headquarters at Lahore. After Aibak's death, Iltutmish dethroned his unpopular successor Aram Shah in 1211, and set up his capital at Delhi. He married a daughter of Aibak, subjugated several dissidents, and gained control over much of the territory that had been lost after Aibak's death. He did not immediately claim a sovereign status, acknowledging the nominal authority of Taj al-Din Yildiz, another former slave who had gained control of the Ghurid capital Ghazni. Subsequently, a Khwarazmian invasion prompted Yildiz to move from Ghazni to India, and to demand control of the former Ghurid territories in India. Iltutmish refused to oblige, defeating and killing Yildiz at the Battle of Tarain in 1216. He also fought with Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, another former Ghuird slave, for control of Lahore. In 1221, a Mongol invasion prompted the Khwarazmian ruler Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu to move to the Indus Valley region, which became embroiled in conflicts involving Jalal ad-Din, Qabacha, and the Mongols. Iltutmish largely remained away from this region until the departure of the Mongols and Jalal ad-Din, engaging in minor skirmishes only when he saw a danger to his own territories in India.