The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c16.s2.t2: An estimate of Raziah
The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c16.s2.t2
- Language
- English
An estimate of Raziah
c16.s2.t2.1
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?”
c16.s2.t2.2
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.