The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c19.s8.t6.11

c19.s8.t6.11

Since the establishment of the Turkish Sultanate in northern India only two attempts were made by Indian Muslims to seize power. The first notable Indian Musalman to aspire *de facto* control of government was Imad-ud-din Rayhan, who ruled as prime minister for a period of one year only. But he fell a prey to the racial arrogance of the Turkish monopolists. Khusrav was the second Indian Muslim to aspire for power, not as a minister but as a full-fledged sovereign; but he, too, became a victim of Turkish intrigue and racial intolerance. Khusrav was a Musalman. It did not matter what he had been before his conversion to that religion. As Islam claims to be a democratic religion and believes that kingship is not the monopoly of any privileged class but belongs to those who have the power and ability to hold it, there was no reason why Khusrav should have been debarred from enjoying the position he had won. The charge that he insulted Islam and allowed idolatrous worship and ‘the use of the copies of the *Quran* as seats and stools’ was nothing more than an interested propaganda designed to cloak the ambition of Ghazi Malik and his son, Jauna Khan. The *Shaikh-ul-Islam* (Nizam-ud-din Auliya) at Delhi should have been a better judge of the king’s religious conduct than the military governor in a far-off province. If Khusrav was a murderer of his benefactor, so was Ala-ud-din Khalji and, possibly, Balban also. It is a pity that modern writers of our medieval history have become dupes of exaggerated denunciations indulged in by Barani and copied by later historians. Ghazi Malik was successful and captured the throne of Delhi in September 1320.