The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c7.157

c7.157

There could be no two opinions as to the place Muizzuddin should occupy in history. Unlike Mahmud of Ghazni he was a practical statesman; of the rotten political structure of India he took the fullest advantage. As in the founder of the Mughal empire, his sovereign quality lay in the steadfast determination with which he pursued his objective and in his refusal to accept a defeat as final. Against his far more gifted rival, the Khwarizm Shah¹, his Central Asian empire, it is true, could have had only an ephemeral existence. But as in the case of Babar, his Indian conquests survived. If he failed to found a dynasty, he yet trained up a band of men who were to prove more loyal to his ideals and better fitted to maintain his empire. In choice of men he displayed a singular talent, for to slaves like Aibak, Yalduz, and Tughril he owed most of his success. His almsot annual campaigns from the Jaxartes to the Jumna display a military talent of no mean order. His military pre-occupations probably left him little liesure for aesthetic recreations, but he was not indifferent to learning and scholarship. The celebrated philosopher and savant, Fakhruddin Razi, and the famous classical poet Nizami Uruzi adorned the Ghoride court and have paid deserving tributes to the mental qualities of their friend and patron².