Write a project work on the sultans of Delhi – Explaining about :
(i) different sultans (ii) their expansions in different regions
(iii) the reasons for downfall (iv) show them through map too
Answers
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526). Five dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk/Slave 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 swathes of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.
Expansion of the Delhi Sultanate
Before 1300, the Sultans of Delhi controlled only their garrison towns, with soldiers to pay and no tax revenues. So they had to depend on risky trade and robbery, and they were often attacked by their own governors and by Mongols coming through Afghanistan.
With such challenges, it was almost impossible for the Sultanate to control faraway fort-towns in Bengal and Sind, or to build a big army to win the south.
So their first military campaign focussed on the fertile areas between Ganga and Yamuna. Sultans such as Ghiyasuddin Balban, Alauddin Khalji, and Muhammad Tughluq attacked villages, cleared forests, moved people, encouraged trade and agriculture, and built fortresses.
This gave them the tax income that Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq used to attack the rich south. These wars, on the "external frontiers" of the Delhi Sultanate, won them elephants, horses, slaves, precious metals, and many other valuable resources.
The first Sultan of Delhi, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, was a former slave in the Persian army of Muhammad Ghori. But in a mere 150 years, his sultanate had spread to most parts of the Indian sub-continent. Such rapid growth meant that the Delhi Sultans could never fully control all the people and places in their kingdom.