Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c8.16

c8.16

In short, as Yahiya concluded in the fifteenth century, each and every noble wanted to become sultan,¹⁶ but of course only a few succeeded. Slave nobles who attained fame, position and crown, were feared, befriended and flattered; others were not given much attention. About the first set a few encomiums by Minhaj Siraj are worth reproducing. Qutbuddin Aibak was ugly and deformed, but because he ascended the throne, he was, according to our author, endowed with all laudable qualities and admirable impressions the beneficent Qutbuddin Aibak, the second Hatim, was a high spirited and open handed monarch, The Almighty God had endowed him with intrepidity and beneficence the like of which, in his day, no sovereign of the world, either in the east or west, possessed¹⁷ Nasiruddin Qubacha was endowed with very great intellect, sagacity, discretion, skill, wisdom and experience,¹⁸ while Bahauddin Tughril, the governor of Thangir or Bayana, was a Malik of excellent disposition, scrupulously impartial, just, kind to the poor and strangers, and adorned with humility.¹⁹ Sultan Iltutmish was just and munificent Sultan, upright, beneficent, zealous and steadfast warrior against infidels, the patronizer of the learned, the dispenser of justice through his sovereignty (and) valour the Ahmadi faith acquired pre-eminence. In intrepidity he turned out to be another impetuous Ali, and, in liberality, a second Hatim-i-Tai²⁰ Even the belatedly recognized Ikhtiyaruddin Bakhtiyar Khalji was a man impetuous, enterprising, intrepid, bold, sagacious, and expert.²¹ But when he lay dying of age and exhaustion after the Tibetan debacle, our author could say nothing more than that Ali Mardan in some way went unto him, drew the sheet from his face, and with a dagger assassinated him, and add nothing more than that these events and calamities happened in the year 602 H (1205-06 C.E.).²²