The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c9.1

c9.1

Within six weeks of the festivities celebrating the Caliphial investiture, news arrived of the death of Iltutmish's crown prince, his eldest son Nasiruddin Mahmud. It nearly stunned him, for all his dynastic plans seemed doomed to frustration. The Sultanate's initial difficulties were by no means over and it could ill-afford the hazards of a dynastic change, for a stable leadership was essential. But he could see no one among his surviving sons competent enough to be entrusted with his responsibilities. Firoz, the eldest among them, was lazy and irresponsible; others were too young. He could detect the necessary courage and alertness in only one of his children, his eldest daughter, Raziah, who, with the requisite training, might prove equal to the task. A queen-regnant was perhaps a novel experiment for India but not to his persianised compatriots whose racial and cultural traditions were familier with female sovereigns. The *Shariah*, it is true, would take a great deal of ingeneous interpretation to countenance the idea, but Iltutmish could perhaps count on his docile ecclesiastics to overlook this departure from a law that was, in any case, continually being reinterpreted all these centuries¹. The real opposition, he apprehended, was to come from his sons and their partisans in the court and in the services. A young woman, besides, was exposed to many dangers; to expect her to hold the crown against the wishes of her courtiers and officers was foolish optimism. Iltutmish could, no doubt, force them to accept her heir-apparentship, but prudence suggested a more cautious approach. And a timely improvement in Firoz's character, may, after all, solve his problems.