The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c21.17

c21.17

The state that the conquest brought into being was of a peculiar composition. In its outlook tribal polity combined with the divinely appointed monarchy. To Indian theories this was a little peculiar, for there, a king ruled either by divine choice or by a contractual delegation of powers; in either case, in effect, he became a person above the society¹. But to the Turk the kingdom was a joint property and every one had a proprietory share in it. In this any khan² was eligible for the throne if he could satisfy other conditions, for example, of fitness, and legitimacy; Kashlu Khan’s attempt to assume the crown provides an illustration of the fact that this was actually practised. Because the Turks were losing their share in the administration of their kingdom the *wazir* Muhazzabuddin was murdered; in fact the racial character of the Memeluke state arose from this deep rooted habit of political thought. How materially this share in the kingdom helped the individual members of the race is seen from a passage in the contemporary writing of Fakhruddin Mubarakshah. "Even a poor householder, who did not possess a single slave, became" as a result of Muizzuddin’s great conquest "the owner of numerous slaves, horses and camels; a man who originally owned only one horse, became a *sipahsalar* and possessed a kettle-dum, standard, *naubat*, all of his own"¹.