The
Tughluq Dynasty rose in the ashes of the House of Khalji. Under their
supervision, the Delhi Sultanate reached its apex, but also saw its decline in
order and power.
Rise of the Tughluq
Dynasty
Ghiyath
al-Din Tughluq founded the dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1321 to
1413. Known earlier as Ghazi Malik, he served as the warden of the western
frontier of the Sultanate serving as the governor of Punjab region. He defended
the borders against the attacks of marauding Mongols that threatened the realm.
He
rebelled against the cruel and incompetent Sultan Nasir-ad-din with various
rebellious nobles and officials rallying behind him. On August 1321, his forces
marched into Delhi and executed the Sultan. He then took the crown and reign as
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughluq Dynasty that would rule the
Sultanate for almost a century.
As
a Sultan he lived up to the expectation of his people. He gained the support of
the peasantry by reducing taxes to only 10% and moved away from the excessive taxation
during the time of Sultan Ala-ud-Din Khalji. He showed himself as a conqueror
by reaffirming the Sultanate’s dominion over the south with the help of his
second son Prince Juana who assert Delhi’s control on lands as far as
Telingana. For his military contributions, he rewarded Prince Juana the
governorship of the Deccan region.
In
1324, he turned attention east to Bengal where he re-established Delhi’s
sovereignty in the region and crushed those who intended to declare themselves
Sultan of an independent Bengal. To keep the country connected, he devised a
relay system of riders for a specific length to deliver messages faster than
before.
With
Delhi’s power back in the zenith, Sultan Ghiyath continued his reign until his
tragic demise in 1325. While visiting a pagoda for a celebration of his reign,
the structure crumbled down over his head. He and his eldest son passed away.
Prince Juana took the reins of power amid allegation of him engineering the
collapse of the pavilion that killed his father and brother to take over.
Disastrous Reign of
Sultan Mohammed
Prince
Juana ruled the Sultanate of Delhi as Sultan Al-Mujahid Mohammed ibn Tughlaq
and brought fresh ideas to the country that almost destroyed his people. Sultan
Mohammed possessed great qualities of a king – intelligent, cultured,
charismatic, and a military leader. Above all else, he feared nothing to start
new projects. Whoever opposed his policies faced his ruthless and merciless
hand. Among his early projects came along a rebellious south. As the hold of
Delhi remained weak in the south, previous independent kingdoms resisted and
reasserted their freedom. Mohammed had them crushed and came up a plan to
cement once and for all his control over the region.
Sultan
Mohammed decided to establish a new capital in the Southern region of the Sub-continent.
He choose for the site a capital of the vanquished Yadav Kings – Devagiri. In
1327, he renamed the site as Daulatabad and declared it as the new capital of
the Sultanate. It would have been better if Sultan Mohammed only decided to
move his government to the new capital, but the project soured when he
commanded the residences of Delhi to abandon their longtime homes and move to
Daulatabad.
The
whole move turned into a catastrophe. The people partaking in the exodus faced
harsh terrains of river, jungle, mountains, and desserts. The long distant
march and exposure to environment ended the lives of many young and old. When
the people of Delhi arrived, barely few structures stood and it meant that they
had to start their lives all over again. As Delhi stood empty, Daulatabad
filled with graves of those who perished during the move. Worst came when the
Sultan realized the disaster at hand and decided to cancel his project and to
move back to the old capital. Still reeling from their losses, the people of
the new capital once again uprooted themselves to move back to their late home
Delhi. By the time they returned, the city never regained its vibrancy before
the whole project. Criticism of the project reached the ears of the Sultan who
then crushed them without mercy.
After
the capital mishap, another great idea came into his mind – introduction of
copper coinage. It all began with the Mohammed’s desire to shift taxation from
kind that started during Ala-ud-din’s reign to money. The Sultan, however,
discovered that the country lacked the currency – the silver and gold tanka –
to allow peasants to pay their dues. To solve the shortage, he came up with the
issuance of plentiful copper tanka. It went well initially as trade flourished,
but later the abundance of copper and the lack preventing counterfeits led to
the whole project’s failure. Soon, every house in Delhi was a mint that turned
out fake copper tankas. Its value dropped and prices of goods rose along with
the number of copper tanka grew. In the end, trade declined and the Sultan
realized his grand project, like his new capital, failed. He ordered the recall
of all copper tanka. At the end of the collection, he had a mountain of
worthless copper coins, a monument of Mohammed’s another failure. Following his
major failures, he continued to draft new grandiose projects.
He
then turned his attention to conquest and set his sights on Persia and China.
For his military ambitions he began to extract more taxes from peasants and
their farms. But right after the economic debacle caused by the currency
crisis, the last thing the people wanted was tax hikes. At the end of this
project, failure still plagued him. The campaign ended in disaster with his
army facing defeat in the border between China and India. Worst, due to heavy
taxation, rebellions began to flare up across the Sultanate.
Rebellions
began in different parts of the country, which never ended until his reign ended.
Rebellions spurred in Doab regions due to famine caused by taxation and the
currency project. Mohammed showed no mercy and stomped out the rebels. So much
men got killed that lands laid barren that worsened the famine. More rebellions
followed. In 1335, Malabar revolted, followed by another in Bengal in 1338. All
rebellions faced the wrath of the Sultan and crushed ruthlessly. Though, after
seeing the rising number of rebellions, Sultan Mohammed decided to change
policies to appease the people. He reduced taxes and offered support to
peasants by offering loans to promote expansion of farmlands and food
production. By the time of the implementation, however, descent continued. Gujarat
and Malwa rebelled in 1344. The Deccan region, which Sultan Mohammed held dear
also fell to rebellion.
He
continued to fight rebels until his death in March 1351 during his campaign to
crush rebels in Gujarat and Sind.
Peace of Sultan Firoz
Shah Tughluq
Sultan
Firoz Shah succeeded his cousin Sultan Mohammed Tughluq. The 45-year old Sultan
served his cousin and known by many officials and nobles. When he came along
with the late Sultan to Gujarat to crush a rebellion, he received the offer to
take the throne. He accepted and marched backed to Delhi. But his claim to the
Sultanate met an early challenge from a pretender who claimed to be the late
Sultan’s son. Many knew the late Sultan died childless and the pretender
eventually lose to Firoz Shah.
His
reign saw a peaceful reign yet a decline in the prestige of the Delhi
Sultanate. As an individual, he showed great mercy and piety. His merciful and
peaceful attitude saw conflict in decline which pared his reign from the
traditional chaotic and divisive nature of succession. Later on, however, his
peaceful reign saw provinces slipping away from the Sultanate. His abrasion to
war resulted to late responses against independence movement that retreated the
borders of the Sultanate. The region of Southern India secured independence
under the Vijayanagara Empire along with the Deccan region that also seceded under
the Bahmanid Dynasty and the always unstable Bengal following suit in the
1350’s. Sultan Firoz Shah tried to reclaim Bengal twice first in 1353 and
another in 1354, but found no success.
As
the territory of the Delhi declined in size, his reign, nonetheless, saw
positive achievements in other fields with the help of his abled Vizier Mukbul
Khan, a Hindu official coming from Telingana. With the help of his Vizier,
Sultan Firoz Shah solved a rising issue among the peasantry – rising debts.
Under his predecessor, numerous peasants owed the government sums of money
after the late Sultan Mohammed issued loans meant to improve food production.
Most of the peasants failed to meet their obligations and faced bankruptcy and
poverty. The Sultan and Vizier relieved the peasants by simply forgiving all
the debts, thus winning popularity among the peasantry.
Sultan
Firoz also oversaw the construction of numerous towns and cities. Towns like
Fathabad, Azadpur, and Jaupur rose. Each project he supplied with means of
accessibility and sustainability. He built roads, canals, and irrigations that
supplied water and provided connection with the rest of the realm. One of his
famous cities was Firozabad that later housed 2 Ashoka pillars that he had
ordered to be moved.
His
construction projects and economic polices led to increase in prosperity for
the people of the Sultanate despite loses it incurred in matters of territory.
A whole generation lived in prosperity and without fear of terror and
execution. This lack of fear of authority, however, led to unintended
consequence later on.
As
the reign of Firoz Shah entered its latter years, he set in motions policies
that contributed to the further disintegration of the Sultanate. Since the time
of Sultan Balban of the Mamluk Dynasty, power over the provinces rested in the
authority of the Sultan. Taxation and administration centered on Delhi. Under
Firoz Shah, however, feudalism returned as the Sultan gave provinces to various
officials and nobles to govern and to collect tax revenues. The
decentralization later proved to be the Sultanate’s undoing.
The Decline of the
Dynasty
Other
than the decentralization, deaths within Firoz Shah’s circle led to political
instability. In 1371, his abled Vizier passed away, followed by the death of
his eldest son and heir, Fath Khan, in 1376. The death of his eldest son led in
1377 the creation of a regency which his other son Prince Mohammed presided.
But Mohammed’s rule saw disaster with rebellion of Mamluks. Soon after, Firoz
Shah decided to remove Prince Mohammed in favor of his grandson Ghiyath-ud-din
Tughluq II.
In
September 1388, Sultan Firoz Shah passed away and Sultan Ghiyath-ud-din Tughluq
II succeeded to the throne briefly. Due to his incompetence and debauchery, he
ruled for only 5 months before he was assassinated in 1384. The brief rule and
lack of preparation for succession paved once again the way to divide. The
failed regent Muhammad returned to the scene, but his grab for power was
thwarted by another relative – Firoz Shah Abu Bakar. The 2 fought desperately
for the throne until 1390 when Muhammad won and ruled as Sultan Nasiru’d-din.
Sultan
Nasiru’d-din’s reign saw continuous rebellion by different provinces and their
governors, in particular the Rajputs in Rathor and the Gujarati in the
southwest. He managed to cling to power as he managed to get the support of
local Hindus and Muslims instead of migrant Muslims from Central Asia and
Mamluks.
In
1394, weary of his duties he passed away, leaving a turbulent Sultanate to his
young son Humaymi. Humaymi did not even managed to enjoy his throne, because
after only 6 weeks, his brother Mahmud usurped the throne.
Once
again, Mahmud did not solely owned the throne. Another rival court appeared in
Firuzabad when Nasarat Shah, son of Fath Khan, the son of the late Sultan Firoz
Shah, claimed his right to the Sultanate. The civil war did not end until 1398,
but by then the Tughluq Sultanate of Delhi was at its knees.
The
continuous squabbles of the royal family, thus marked the decline and closing
end for the dynasty, Worst, the Tughluq controlled lands shrinking by every
passing year. Apparently, the policy of decentralization of the late Sultan
Firoz, which was meant to better administer the Empire, led to series of
declaration of independences. In 1394, Bihar, Ouadh, and Janipur formed an
independent state. 2 years later Gujarat followed and Khadesh (1399) and Malwa
(1401).
Moreover,
another threat loomed over the Sultanate, a renewed aggressive empire building
Mongol horde knocked in the doorsteps of the India. Timur or Tamerlane
threatened to sack India to plunder its riches for the glory of his name and
that of his capital Samarkand.
The
rebellions and civil war drained much of the Tughluq’s military might and by
the time the Mongols poured into the sub-continent, the impotent Sultan failed
to stop their advance. In 1398, even the shadow of the once great capital of
the Delhi Sultanate fell to Timur and its wealth and artisans taken back to
Samarkand.
After
the sacking of Delhi, the Sultanate stood in a pathetic state. Sultan Mahmud
ruled only the parts of Rohtak and the surrounding regions of Delhi. He
continued to rule the Sultanate until 1413. By then he faced an attack from the
Khizr Khan of the Sayyids who years ago collaborated with Timur. And on that
year, when Mahmud fell to the Sayyids, the last great dynasty of the Sultanate
of Delhi ended.
See also:
Bibliography:
Jackson, A.V. Williams. History of India Volume III: Medieval India from the Mohammedan Conquest to the Reign of Akbar the Great. London: The Grolier Society Publishers, 1906.
Kulke, Hermann & Dietmar Rothermund. A History of India. New York, New York: Routledge, 2004.
Stein, Burton. A History of India. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2010.
Srinivasachari, Rao Saheb & M.S. Ramaswami Aiyangar. History of India Part II: Muhammadan India. Mount Road, Madras: Srinivasa Varadachari & Co., 1937.
Website:
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Delhi Sultanate." In Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on February 6, 2009. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Delhi-sultanate
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