Every other chronicle of the times is based on Minhaj's history. Minhaj's point of view is therefore suspect given that he was unlikely to have included details in his account that would have brought embarrassment to his patron. Although Minhaj's history of the times is considered to be among the most reliable sources of information about Razia, Mihaj spent the last years of his life in the service of Balban, who had brought an end to Razia's rule. The work's author, Minhajus Seraj, served Iltutmish, Razia, and Balban. The Tabakat-I-Nasiri is a generalized history of Delhi that ends at about 1259, about twenty years after the death of Razia. Although the Delhi sultanate regained control of most of northern India in the early sixteenth century, it was finally destroyed by Babur, founder of the Mughal empire, in 1526. By the early fifteenth century, the sultanate consisted only of Delhi and immediately adjacent lands.
But in 1398, Timur the Lame (Tamurlane) plundered Delhi. Under other dynasties, however, the Delhi sultanate would persist until 1525, achieving its maximum physical extent under the reign of Muhammad ibn Tughluk in the first half of the fourteenth century, when most of the subcontinent was under the sultan's dominion. Following his death in 1287, the Slave dynasty would continue three more years under the competing rule of his inept grandsons. The most memorable of her successors was Balban (1266-1287), who succeeded in establishing a strong, central government and saw the position of sultan elevated to divine status. The Slave dynasty would come to an end some fifty years after the death of Razia. Bahram, for his part, would later be dethroned for incompetence. After Altunia and Razia undertook to take back the sultanate from Bahram through battle, both Razia and her husband-neither one more than 30 years of age-were both killed on Octo(some sources say Octoberġ3). Meanwhile, Razia's brother, Muiuddin Bahram Shah, had usurped the throne. To escape death, Razia agreed to marry Altunia.
Eventually, the governor of Bhatinda, a childhood friend named Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia, rebelled, refusing any longer to accept Razia's authority.Ī battle between Razia and Altunia ensued, with the result that Yaqut was killed and Razia taken prisoner. In any case, before long she had aroused the jealousy of the Muslim nobility by the favoritism she displayed toward Yaqut. According to some accounts, Razia and Yaqut were lovers other sources simply identify them as close confidants.
At that point, Razia seemed destined to become one of the most powerful rulers of the Delhi sultanate.īut the sultana miscounted the consequences that a special relationship with one of her Assyrian slaves, Jamal Uddin Yaqut, would have for her reign. Her greatest accomplishment on the political front was to manipulate rebel factions into opposing each other. As sultana, Razia adopted men's dress and contrary to custom, she would later show her face when she later rode an elephant into battle at the head of her army.Ī shrewd politician, Razia managed to keep the nobles in check, while enlisting the support of the army and the populace. Even before she became queen-during her father's reign-she was reportedly preoccupied with the affairs of state. As a child and adolescent, Razia had had little contact with the women of the harem, so she had had little opportunity to learn the customary behavior of women in the Muslim society that she was born into. With reluctance, the nobility next agreed to allow Razia to reign as sultana of Delhi. On November 9, 1236, both Ruknuddin and his mother Shah Turkaan were put to death-after only six months in power. With Iltutmish's widow Shah Turkaan for all practical purposes running the government, Ruknuddin abandoned himself to the pursuit of personal pleasure and debauchery, to the considerable outrage of the citizenry. (According to one source, Iltumish's eldest son had initially been groomed as his successor, but had died prematurely.) But the Muslim nobility had no intention of acceding to Iltutmish's disregard of tradition in appointing a woman as heir, and after the sultan died on April 29, 1236, Razia's brother, Ruknuddin Feroze Shah, was elevated to the throne instead. Iltutmish became the first sultan to appoint a woman as his successor when he designated his daughter Razia as his heir apparent.