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The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c16.s2: Raziah, 1236—1240

The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c16.s2

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Raziah, 1236—1240

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Raziah became ruler in name only. She had the support of the people and nobility of Delhi; but the governors of the provinces of Badaun, Multan, Hansi and Lahore, who had no hand in her election, were definitely hostile. They were joined by Firoz’s wazir, Nizam-ul-mulk Muhammad Junaidi. The confederates besieged Raziah in her capital. Though powerless against this combination, she adroitly played her game of diplomacy. She sowed dissension among the confederates. The rebel governors fell out among themselves and the confederacy was broken. Raziah now fell on them. Two of the confederates were taken prisoners and slain. The wazir fled to save himself, but died a fugitive in Sirmur hills.

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Raziah’s triumph brought her great prestige and stabilised her position. She redistributed the high offices of the state and appointed Khwaja Muhazab-ud-din her wazir. She made fresh appointments to the posts of governors of the provinces. The entire Hindustan from Lakhanauti to Debal submitted to her. Bangal also came back under Delhi. But Raziah’s very success proved to be the chief cause of her downfall. She had taken steps to make the power of the crown absolute. The Turkish nobles, who had formed themselves into a military brotherhood and monopolised all power in the State since the time of Qutub-ud-din Aibak, would not tolerate a very powerful and despotic monarch who was pursuing the policy of making her will supreme. They considered themselves to be indispensable and would not allow the sovereign to occupy a higher place than that of the chief among the peers. Moreover, Raziah seems to have given offence to the orthodox Muslim opinion by casting off female attire and the seclusion of the harem. She dressed herself as a man, rode in public and transacted business in the open court. She took steps to emphasise the firmness and vigour of her rule. She commanded armies and took part in battles. Such conduct in a woman, though a queen, appeared scandalous to the hoary Turkish warriors. She is also said to have shown an undue preference for an Abyssinian officer, Jamal-ud-din Yaqut, who held the office of her master of the horse. Probably, this was the result of her deliberate policy of breaking the Turkish nobles’ monopoly of all important posts in the kingdom.

The fall of Raziah

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The above causes led to a conspiracy against the queen.

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leaders of the conspiracy were the *amirs* and *maliks* at the court and in the provinces. They wanted to depose Raziah and to replace her by a ruler who should be weak and abide by their wishes. The leader of the conspiracy was Ikhtiyar-ud-din Aeitigin who held the high office of the queen’s lord chamberlain (*amir-i-hajib*), and the other prominent members were Malik Altunia, governor of Bhatinda, and Kabir Khan, governor of Lahore. Aware of Raziah’s military strength and the loyalty of troops to her, the conspirators wanted to decoy her to a distant place and to finish her off there. In pursuance of this plan, Kabir Khan, governor of Lahore, revolted early in 1240. The queen proceeded quickly to put down the rebellion. Kabir Khan was defeated and he fled. His progress was, however, barred by the presence of the Mongols at the river Chenab. So he returned and surrendered to the queen unconditionally. Raziah returned victorious to the capital. But the conspirators would not give up their design. Their next rebellion took place within a fortnight of Raziah’s return. This time Altunia, the governor of Bhatinda and a friend of the lord chamberlain, raised the standard of revolt. In spite of the heat of the season, Raziah was again on the march against the rebels. This time, however, the conspirators played their game with consummate skill. As soon as Raziah reached Bhatinda, some agents of the conspirators abused Yaqut (Raziah’s master of the horse) and put him to death. The queen’s party was thus weakened; and, perhaps, she was found in a state of mental confusion. The conspirators now laid their hands on her and threw her into prison (April 1240). They raised Bahram, Iltutmish’s third son, to the throne. The conspirators returned to Delhi. They had won in the contest against the crown.

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In the redistribution of offices that took place on the accession of Bahram, Altunia did not get what he had expected. He, therefore, became disaffected. He thought of a plan to avenge himself. In August 1240, he released Raziah from the prison fort of Bhatinda, married her and proceeded with her to Delhi to capture it by force. But they were defeated by Bahram’s army and compelled to return towards Bhatinda. Their troops had deserted them and near Kaithal they were murdered by some Hindu robbers on 13th October, 1240.

An estimate of Raziah

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Raziah was the only Muslim woman who sat upon the throne of Delhi. Although her reign was brief, lasting barely for three years and a half, she was, without doubt, a very successful and extraordinary ruler. She was brave and energetic. She was a good soldier and general. She was adept in the arts of political intrigue and diplomacy. She succeeded in restoring the prestige of the Turkish kingdom in India. She raised the power of the crown and made it absolute. In fact, she was the first Turkish ruler of Delhi to have imposed the royal will upon the *amirs* and *maliks*. Qutub-ud-din was the chief noble among the nobles. Iltutmish was shy to sit upon the throne in the presence of his peers. Other members of the dynasty of Iltutmish, both before and after her, were much weaker in personality and character. Raziah was, therefore, the first and the last ruler of Iltutmish’s dynasty to dominate the politics of the Sultanate of Delhi by sheer force of her ability and character. The contemporary historian, Minhaj-ud-din Siraj, describes her as “a great sovereign, and sagacious, just, beneficent, the patron of the learned, a dispenser of justice, the cherisher of her subjects and of warlike talent, and........endowed with all admirable attributes and qualifications necessary for kings.” He concludes his estimate of the queen with the lamentation: “Of what advantage were all these excellent qualifications unto her?”

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It is usually believed that the cause of Raziah’s fall was her sex, as the Turkish nobles did not like to be ruled by a woman. But the primary cause of her downfall seems to have been the determined ambition of the Turkish military aristocracy to keep the ruler of Delhi a tool in their hands and to retain the monopoly of power for themselves, whereas Raziah had all through followed the opposite course of making herself supreme in the kingdom and concentrating power in her hands. Her sex was only a secondary cause of her premature end.