History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c1.s1.22

c1.s1.22

Thus it can safely be concluded that the Khaljīs were Turks, but having been long in residence in Afghanistan had assimilated the habits and customs of that country. Some of them came to India as soldiers in the armies of the conquerors from Ghazna and Ghaur and many more arrived as refugees during Mongol upheaval in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Here they were regarded to be different from the Ilbārī Turks who belonged, so to say, to the blue blood. The sovereignty of Delhi had been the monopoly of the Ilbārī Turks for about a century, and a change of dyansty appeared to the people of Delhi a violent break from the conditions to which they had now adjusted themselves. In other words it is in the conservatism of the populace that we should find an explanation of the surprise at the accession of the Khaljīs, and not in the racial differences between the Khaljīs and the Ilbārīs. Both belonged to the same stock.⁵⁴