The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c14.6

c14.6

Muizzuddin's kingdom was thus, on paper, a province of the Caliphial empire, and as such, his early coins, issued in Delhi, bore the name of the reigning Caliph as a matter of course. By recieving a formal investiture from al-Mustansirbillah, Iltutmish made the Delhi Sultanate a direct vassal. None of his successors repeated the process but no one repudiated the legal vassalage; in coins and in the *khutbah* the Caliph's name continued as the legal sovereign, even long after the last Abbaside yielded up his life to Mongol brutalities. Meanwhile, to the Sultan's name were added appropriate phrases indicating his lieutenancy. By even inscribing the Caliph's name in Nagari characters on the currency pieces, occasional affirmation was made to the non-Muslims of the Delhi state being part of a world empire¹.