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South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c16: Additional Special Note: Nationality of the Khiljis

South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c16

Language
English

Additional Special Note: Nationality of the Khiljis

c16.2

ON page 75 above, I have said, following the authority of Major Raverty and Elphinstone, the Historian, that the Khiljis were ‘a people who were Turks, but having been long staying in Afghanistan first round Herat and then Eastwards they became so assimilated to the populations of the locality that they were taken to be more Afghans than Turks.’ That position is supported by Beale in his *Oriental Biographical Dictionary* The late Dr. Vincent Smith states on page 230 of the *Oxford History of India*. ‘Although the Khalij or the Khilji tribe is reckoned by Raverty among the Turks, the contemporary author Ziau-d-din Barani, who must have known the fact states that ‘Jalalu-d-din came of a race different from the Turks,’ and that by the death of Sultan Kaikobad, ‘the Turks lost the Empire.’ In regard to this point I append a letter very obligingly written by Dr. A. Suhrawardy of the Calcutta University in answer to an enquiry I made on the point at issue. I publish the letter with grateful acknowledgments to the learned doctor for his courtesy in spite of personal inconvenience.

c16.3

‘With reference to your question regarding the origin of Jalalu-d-din and Alau-d-din, the Khilji sovereigns, I beg to say that in ‘Tazikhi-Feroz Shahi of Zayau-d-din Barni,’ Jalalu-d-din is not considered as belonging to the race of the Turks; nor it is clearly laid down in it that he came of an Afghan race. This fact will be clear from Mr. Elliotts’ History of India (Vol. iii, page 34), in which the author has given the translation of a portion of Feroz Shahi, which runs as follows :—

c16.4

‘At the same time, Jalalu-d-din who was Ariz-i-Mamalik (Muster Master-General), had gone to Baharpur, attended by a body of his relations and friends. Here he held a muster and inspection of the forces. He came of a race different from that of the Turks; so he had no confidence in them, nor would the Turks own him as belonging to the number of his friends.’

c16.5

I fail to understand how Mr. Vincent Smith considers him an Afghan.

c16.6

According to ‘Tazikh-i-Ferishta by Abdul Casim,’ Jalalu-d-din is considered as belonging to the race of the Turks, as it will be apparent from the following lines from the translation of Tarikhi Ferishta by John Briggs (pp. 285-7). Vol. I :—

c16.7

‘Nizamu-d-din Ahmed relates, that he has seen, in some respectable works, that the tribe of Khalich or Kalij, is descended from Khalich Khan, a son-in-law of Chengiz Khan, and that his history is this:—Kalij Khan and his wife constantly disagreed, but he was afraid of throwing her off on account of the power of his father-in-law. At length when Chengiz Khan, having pursued Jalalu-d-din Khwarazm Shah to the banks of Indus, was on his return towards Iiran and Turan, Kalij Khan, being well acquainted with the mountainous country of Ghur and Jurjistan, watched his opportunity to throw off his allegiance to Changiz Khan, and remained with his tribe, amounting to 30,000 families, in those hills. Upon the death of Chengiz Khan, none of his descendants thought fit to persecute Kalij Khan, who remained ever since in those hills; and as the race of Ghur was now seated on the throne of India, the Khiljis, on account of their vicinity, went to Delhi in parties, and remained there. Jalalu-d-din Khilji of Delhi; and Sultan Mahmud Khilji of Mandu, are both descended from Kalij Khan, vulgurly called Khalij Khan, and from him the tribe is called Khilji. But, according to the author of Saljuqnāma, Turk, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had eleven children, one of whom was called Khulich; and from him are descended the Khilichis or Khiljis. I conceive this account the most probable of the two, because the Khiljis are often mentioned in the histories of the kings of Ghazni, particularly in the reigns of Subukhigin and Sultan Mahmud; and it is certain, that they existed anterior to the time of Chengiz Khan; but it is possible that Kalij Khan might be of the tribe of Khalji, and that the father of Jalalu-d-din, and the ancestor of Sultan Mahmud of Malwa, may have both been descended in a direct line for him.’

c16.8

I have gone through the Persian text of both Feroz-i Shahi and Tarikhi-i-Ferishta and found that the translations so far given here are correct.

c16.9

An *Oriental Biographical Dictionary*, by T. W. Beale, page 137.

c16.10

‘It is mentioned in the above-named book that Feroz Shah surnamed Jalalu-d-din was the first Sultan of the second branch of the Turks-Afghan dynasty called Khilji.’

c16.11

In conclusion, I beg to say that no sound inference can be drawn from the materials now before me that they were Afghans, nor can these be the basis of our conclusion that they were Turks. In my opinion, the conclusion arrived at by T. W. Beale is to some extent satisfactory.

c16.12

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