Nasir-ud-din Mahmud
Nasir-ud-din was a man of amiable and pious disposition. He was an expert calligraphist and spent his leisure moments in copying the Quran. He was also a patron of the learned. Minhaj-us-Siraj, who held a high post under the Sultan and received various costly presents from him, dedicated his Tabaqat-i-Nasiri to his royal patron.
As a ruler, Nasir-ud-din’s abilities fell far short of what the prevailing complicated situation demanded. Ghiyas-ud-din Balban, his minister, and later on his deputy, was the real power behind the throne. Balban proved himself worthy of the confidence thus reposed in him. He did his best to save the State from the perils of internal rebellions and external invasions. The attacks of the Mongols were repelled, and several expeditions were led into the Doab and other parts of the kingdom to chastise the rebellious Rajas and Zamindaras. A party of nobles, opposed to Balban, induced the Sultan to exile him in 1253. But his enemies mismanaged the affairs of the State, and he was recalled and restored to supreme authority in A.D. 1255. Nasir-ud-din Mahmud died on the 18th February, 1266, leaving no male heir behind him. Thus was extinguished the line of Iltutmish. Balban, a man of proved ability, whom the deceased Sultan is said to have designated as his successor, then ascended the throne with the acquiescence of the nobles and the officials.
Ghiyas-ud-din Balban
Like his predecessors on the throne of Delhi, Balban was descended from the famous Ilbari tribe of Turkestan. In his early youth, he was taken as a captive to Baghdad by the Mongols, from whom he was purchased by Khwaja Jamal-ud-din of Bussorah, a man of piety and learning. Khwaja Jamal-ud-din -brought him to Delhi in A.D. 1232 along with his other slaves, all of whom were purchased by Sultan Iltutmish. Thus Balban belonged to the famous band of Turkish slaves of Iltutmish, known as ” The Forty ” (Chahelgan). He was originally appointed a Khasdar (King’s personal attendant) by Iltutmish. But by dint of merit and ability, he rose by degrees to higher positions and ranks, till he became the deputy of Nasir-ud-din Mahmud and his daughter was married to the Sultan in A.D. 1249.
Balban was confronted with a formidable and difficult task on his accession. During the thirty years following the death of Iltutmish, the affairs of the State had fallen into confusion through the incompetence of his successors. The treasury of the Delhi Sultanate had become almost empty, and its prestige had sunk low, while the ambition and arrogance of the Turkish nobles had increased. In short, as Barni writes, “Fear of the governing power, which is the basis of all good government, and the source of the glory and splendour of all States, had departed from the hearts of all men, and the country had fallen into a wretched condition”. To add to the evil of internal bankruptcy, the Delhi Sultanate was exposed to the menace of recurring Mongol raids. Thus, a strong dictator was the need of the hour.
An experienced administrator, Balban eagerly applied himself to the task of eradicating the evils from which the State had been suffering for a long time. He justly realised that a strong and efficient army was an essential requisite for the stability of his government. He therefore set himself to the task of reorganising the armed forces. “The cavalry and the infantry, both old and new, were placed under the command” of experienced and faithful officers (maliks). He next turned his attention towards restoring order in the Doab and the neighbourhood of Delhi, which had been exposed, for the last thirty years of weak rule, to the predatory raids of the Rajputs of Mewat (the district round Alwar) and different robber bands. Life, property and commerce had become unsafe. The Sultan drove away the Mewatis from the jungles in the neighbourhood of Delhi, and put many of them to the sword. He also took precautionary steps against any future disturbances by building a fort at Gopalgir and by establishing several posts near the city of Delhi in charge of Afghan officers. In the next year (1267), Balban suppressed the brigands in the Doab. He personally rode to their strongholds at Kampil, Patiali and Bhojpur. He built strong forts in those places and also repaired the fort of Jalali. Thus order and security were restored, and sixty years later Barni remarked that “the roads have ever since been free from robbers”. In the same year he punished the rebels in Katehr (now in Rohilkhand). After a few days he marched into the mountains of Jud and suppressed the hill tribes there.
In pursuance of his policy of curbing the power of the nobles, Balban tried to regulate the tenure of lands in the Doab enjoyed by 2,000 Shamsi horsemen since the time of Iltutmish on condition of military service. We know from Barni that most of the original grantees had died or grown infirm by this time, and their descendants had “taken possession of the grants as an inheritance from their fathers, and had caused their names to be recorded in records of the Ariz (Muster-master)”, though there was a general tendency on their part to evade service in the field. Balban tried to remove this abuse by a moderate dose of reform. He resumed the old grants but allotted subsistence allowances to the grantees according to their age. This caused discontent among the grantees, who represented their case to the old Fakhr-ud-din, Kotwal of Delhi, who persuaded the Sultan by an emotional speech to rescind the orders for the resumption of lands. Thus feelings triumphed over prudence, and an old abuse was allowed to remain as a sort of drain on the resources of the State.
While thus trying to make his government firm and stable within, Balban did not fail to think of protecting the north-west frontier against the invasions of the Mongols. The latter, having established their power in Ghazni and Transoxiana and captured Baghdad after murdering the Caliph, Al Mu’tasim, advanced into the Punjab and Sind. In the year 1271 the Sultan marched to Lahore and ordered the reconstruction of the fort, which had been destroyed by the Mongols during the preceding reigns. For long the Sultan’s cousin, Sher Khan Sunqar, an able servant of the State, who held the fiefs of Bhatinda, Bhatnair, Samana and Sunam, “had been a great barrier to the inroads of the Mongols.” But the Sultan was suspicious of him, as he was one of “The Forty” and had avoided coming to Delhi since his accession. He died about this time, and Barni writes that ” the Sultan caused him to be poisoned “. If Barni’s statement be true, then Balban’s action was not only bad but also impolitic. Sher Khan had defended the frontier with remarkable ability and had also brought under control various defiant tribes. His death now encouraged the Mongols to ravage the frontier tracts. To check their depredations the Sultan appointed his eldest son, Prince Muhammad (popularly known as Khan-i-Shahid, the Martyr Prince), governor of Multan. Prince Muhammad was a man of moderate habits, endowed with courage and ability, and a generous patron of letters. At the same time the Sultan placed his second son, Bughra Khan, in charge of the territories of Samana and Sunam, instructing him to strengthen his army to check the apprehended incursions of the Mongols. About the year 1279 the marauders actually renewed their raids and even crossed the Sutlej. But they were completely routed by the combined troops of Prince Muhammad coming from Multan, of Bughra Khan coming from Samana, and of Malik Mubarak Bektars coming from Delhi. Thus the Mongol menace was warded off for the time being.
