The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.134

v3.c20.134

It was but a remnant of Aibak's wide dominions that Iltutmish gained by his victory over Ārām Shāh. 'Alī Mardān was independent in Bengal, Qabācha seemed likely, besides retaining his independence in Multān and Sind, to extend his authority over Lahore and the upper Punjab, and Yildiz, who held Ghaznī, pretended, as Muhammad's successor, to suzerainty over all the Indian conquests and asserted his claim by issuing to Iltutmish a commission as viceroy. The position of Iltutmish was so precarious that he dared not at once resent the insult, but he neither forgot nor forgave it. Many of the Turkish nobles, even in Hindūstān, chafed against his authority and he was for some time occupied in establishing it in the districts of Delhi, Budaun, Oudh, and Benares, and in the submontane tract of the Himālaya.