Qutb-ud-din Aybak
Qutb-ud-din Aybak (Persian / Urdu: قطب الدین ایبک) was a Turkic ruler of medieval India, the first Sultan of Delhi and of the Slave dynasty (also known as the Ghulam dynasty). He served as sultan for only four years, from 1206 to 1210 and started to build the Qutab complex.
Early years
Qutb-ud-din was born somewhere in Central Asia; he was of Turkic descent. 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 good education, including fluency in Persian]] and Arabic 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. Qutb-ud-din was then purchased by Sultan Muhammad Ghori, ruler of Ghor in north-western Afghanistan.
Career
Starting with his native Ghor, an Aimak principality, Muhammad Ghori managed to establish control over most of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India sacking Delhi in 1193. He 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[1] and nominated administrators.
Qutb-ud-din rose through the ranks to become Sultan Ghori's most trusted general responsible for much of the territorial expansion.[2] His greatest military successes occurred while he was directly under Sultan Ghori's guidance and leadership. Qutb-ud-din was responsible for executing and consolidating Sultan Ghori's conquests in northern India. As Muhammad's viceroy for 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 Ghori's conquests, as after 1192 Sultan Ghori concentrated on Central Asia.
Founding of the Delhi Sultanate
Muhammad Ghori established the first real Muslim state in North India. Upon Sultan Ghori's death in 1206, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, after a brief power struggle, emerged as ruler of the empire in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India; Ghori's Central Asian possessions had been captured by the Mongols warlord, Genghis Khan.
. Keay describes Aybak as Muhammad's "likeliest successor".[3]
The areas over which Qutb-ud-din established his rule were those over which he already exercised power as Sultan Ghori's local receiver-general of periodic exactions and levies. Therefore, although his formal tenure as ruler was only four years, Qutb-ud-din managed to consolidate the administrative system that his his predecessor had set up. This was achieved despite having to quell rebellions by nobles such as Taj-ud-din Ildiz and Nasir-ud-din Qubachah. Qutb-ud-din ruled initially from Lahore, later moving the capital to Delhi. He is considered to be the first Muslim ruler of South Asia and of the Slave Dynasty, although Muhammad of Ghor can be credited as having founded the Dynasty, since he had stated in reply to the challenge that he had no sons to succeed him;
Other monarchs may have one son, or two sons; I have thousands of sons, my Turkish slaves who will be the heirs of my dominions, and who, after me, will take care to preserve my name in the Khutba throughout these territories.[4]
Qutb-ud-din Aybak 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 Qutb-ud-din Aybak. The first mosque built in Delhi[5].These were completed by his successor, Iltutmish. Aibak,was otherwise known as "Lakh Baksh" or "giver of hundred thousands" because of his generosity. He was thus a pious Muslim, praised by contemporary Muslim clerics. He patronized scholars such as Hasan Nizami and Fakh-i-Mudabbir, both of whom dedicated their works to Aibak.
Death and succession
Qutb-ud-din died accidentally in 1210. While he was playing a game of polo on horseback (polo or chougan in India), his horse fell and Qutb-ud-din was impaled on the pommel of his saddle.[6] He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore. Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, another ex-slave of Turkic ancestry who was married to Qutb-ud-din's daughter, succeeded him as sultan of Delhi.
Qutb-ud-din Aibak's tomb is located behind Anarkali bazaar today. In the early 1970's, it was renovated at the orders of the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Legacy
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Hunter, William Wilson. 1882. 2000. The Indian empire; its history, people and products. London: Trübner. London; Routledge. ISBN 9780415244954
- Keay, John. 2000. India: a history. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 9780871138002
- Pande, Rekha. 1990. Succession in the Delhi Sultanate. New Delhi, India: Commonwealth Publishers. ISBN 9788171690695
External links
| Preceded by: None |
Slave Dynasty 1206–1290 |
Succeeded by: Aram Shah |
| Preceded by: None |
Sultan of Delhi 1206–1290 |
Succeeded by: Aram Shah |
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