The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c8.32

c8.32

The new king's position was too insecure to enable him to take action at once; he did not feel safe enough to assume even sovereign dignity. Realist as he was, he found it wiser to compromise for the time being, and accept the regal insignia—the canopy and the mace—from Yalduz who, now that Aibak was dead, felt free to push his claims of suzerainty⁴. A great peril confronted Iltutmish when the Turkish guards (jandars) of Delhi, in alliance with Aram Shah’s party, rose in open rebellion and meant to negative his accession. It was only by a sanguinary conflict that they could be dispersed¹. It took him some months’ hard and tactful action to extend his authority even in the districts in the immidiate vicinity of Delhi, in charge of officers whose ranks were originally equal to his own. Even then his rule does not appear to have been effective beyond Benares on the east and the Siwalikh hills on the west².