The Idea of Kingship & the Nobility: The Delhi Sultanate Notes | Study History for UPSC CSE - UPSC

The Idea of Kingship

During the reign of Iltutmish, the position of the sultan was not considered much higher than that of a noble. He treated the great Turkish nobles as his equals.

Iltutmish

• Balban placed the monarchy at a higher level than the nobility.
• Ala-ud-din Khalji allowed himself to be dominated by dreams of exacted monarchical power.
• Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq was extremely social in relations with the nobles.
• In regard to obedience to the Shariat and submission to the guidance of the Ulema, Firuz Tughlaq reversed the policy of Ala-ud-din and thereby weakened the monarchy.
• Under the Lodis, kings assumed a new complexion; the racial basis, which had been weakened by the Khaljis and the Tughlaqs, was restored.

Points To Be Remembered

• Bhima-II, the Solanki ruler of Gujarat, was the first Indian ruler to defeat Muhammad of Ghur.
• The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi of the period of the Slave Dynasty was originally a Vishnu temple.
• Bhaktiyar Khalji, the military officer of Muhammad of Ghur, was responsible for bringing Bihar and Bengal under Muslim rule.
• The original name of Balban was Ulugh Khan.
• Nasiruddin Khugrau was the only Hindu convert to Islam to sit on the throne of Delhi Sultanate.
• The Turks eschewed the representation of human and animal figures in the buildings.
• They used geometrical and floral designs, combining them with panels of inscriptions containing verses from the Quran. The combination of these decorative devices was called “Arabesque”.

The Nobility

• In the thirteenth century, the nobility was composed of persons of foreign origin but they belonged to two distinct groups: the Turkish slave-nobles and the non-Turkish (taziq) foreigners of high birth who immigrated to India from Central Asia and West Asia in search of fortune.
• Of the two groups of nobles, the Turks were stronger and they claimed a monopoly of high offices in the state.
• Alauddin ignored the racial and hereditary claims of the Turks and conferred high offices on nobles whom he considered efficient and trustworthy, but he tried to break their solidarity by stern measures.
• With a view to weakening the old nobility, Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq set up a new order of office-holders of heterogeneous racial origins.
• The reign of Firuz Tughlaq was a period of harmony between the Crown and the nobility.
• Under the Lodis, the Sultanate became, in effect, on the partnership between the crown and the mobility.

Points To Be Remembered

• The Delhi Sultans are credited with introducing the institution of ‘Dalals’ in India to facilitate commercial transaction on a large scale.
• With the introduction of sericulture in India by the Turks, the Indian silk industry received a boost.
• The origins of differentiation between the Hindustani and the Carnatic school of music can probably be traced to the period of the Delhi Sultanate.
• The Delhi Sultan who introduced plebian elements in his nobility was Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq.
• Firuz Tughlaq ordered the translation of a large number of Hindu religious works from Sanskrit to Persian