Delhi Sultanates

Noor Asher and Duaa Younas

History
The Delhi Sultanates were a series of five
different dynasties that ruled northern India
between 1206 and 1526. Muslim former slave
soldiers, or Mamluks from the Turkic and
Pashtun ethnic groups established each of these
dynasties. Although they had important cultural
impacts, the sultanates themselves were not
strong and none of them lasted very long.
History
Five families ruled the Delhi Sultanates over the
centuries:
The Mamluk Dynasty (1206 - 1290);
The Khilji Dynasty (1290 - 1320);
The Tughlaq Dynasty (1320 - 1414);
The Sayyid Dynasty (1414 - 1451); and
The Lodi Dynasty (1451 - 1526).
Administration
The administration system of Delhi Sultanate were
directed and governed by the Quranic injunctions.
The Quranic law was the supreme law of the empire.
The Caliph was the supreme sovereign according to
the Islamic theory of sovereignty. All Muslim kings
through the world were his subordinates. During the
Sultanate period, the power of the Caliph was at its
height.
Even if a governor became an independent king, he
had to invoke the sanction of the Caliphs name and
called himself his vassal. In fact, the rulers of the
Sultanate period always tried to maintain a formal
relation with the Islamic world.
Administration
The real head of the administration of Delhi Sultanate was
the king or Sultan himself. The Sultan at his death bed
could also nominate his heirs and that was recognized by
all other nobles.
There was no hereditary principle of succession.
Theoretically the office of the Sultan was open to all real
Muslims, but in practice the Sultanate was restricted to the
immigrant Turks.
Later on it became restricted to a smaller oligarchy and at
last to the members of the royal family only. During the
15th and 16th centuries the Arab and Afghan people also
could become the Sultan.
Following the Islamic theory the Sultans of Delhi were
considered to be the agent of Allah, i.e. God and it was his
duty to enforce the divine laws expressed by the Holy
Quran. He was thus the chief executive. It was his duty not
only to enforce the Quranic laws but also to interpret them.
Geography
Delhi sultanate Architecture
/Delhi sultanate monuments

Art and architecture took a new route in the
Delhi Sultanate period. It was as a mixture of
Arabic and Indian styles.
The Delhi architecture: The palaces built by
the Delhi Sultans have a few typical features
which are not seen elsewhere. The arches
carried Quranic teachings and floral patterns.
Hindu motifs were also used by the Turks in
palace decorations.
Architecture
Three schools of architecture:
The Delhi school of art which was a mix of Hindu
and Muslim styles.
The provincial styles which were also a blend of
Hindu-Muslim styles.
The Hindu style, free from Muslim influences.

Delhi- Sultanate
Monuments
Qutub minar
Iron pillar
Charminar
Mosque of jamali
Begumpuri mosque
Red Fort
Alai Darwaza
Khiriki Masjid
Quwat-ul-Islam [Mosque at Delhi]
Adhai din ka Jhonpra at Ajmer

Music
During these years, Hindustani music and Carnatic
music, (subgenres of Indian classical music), were
beginning to evolve.
Hindustani evolved from Vedic ritual chants in the
North, and it was influenced by Persian and Islamic
music.
Carnatic evolved in the South with an emphasis on
vocal music.
Dance during this period included Sattriya, a
classical Indian dance tradition, which originated in
the 15th century Assam.
Industry
Hindus occupied an important role in foreign, as in
domestic, trade, although foreign Muslim merchants,
known as khurasani, also had a large share of it.
The rulers of the coastal kingdoms in the Deccan
accorded to foreign merchants certain extra-territorial rights
and special concessions, in consideration of the heavy
taxes which they paid to the treasury.
An organized class of brokers handled the business on the
coast and inside the country. The imports consisted mainly
of certain luxury items for the upper classes, and a general
supply of all kinds of horses and mules, in which India was
deficient.
Hindus had never attached any importance to cavalry, but
seeing the success of the Muslim horsemen, they started
to substitute horses for elephants.
Industry
The exports included large quantities of food-grains
and cloth.
Among the agricultural products were wheat, millet,
rice, pulses, oilseeds, scents, medicinal herbs, and
sugar.
Some of the countries around the Persian Gulf
depended on the subcontinent for their entire food
supply.
Cotton cloth and other textiles were especially
important items of export, particularly to Southeast Asia
and East Africa, although some reached Europe.
They were carried by the Arabs to the Red Sea and
from there found their way to Damascus and
Alexandria, from where they were distributed to the
Mediterranean countries and beyond.

Trade
The first few Muslim Sultans could not devote their
attention to trade and commerce as they were
preoccupied with the problem of securing their
position.
Balban is the first Sultan who got dense forests
cut; roads built and secured form the danger of
bandits.
This helped the traders and their commercial
caravans to move from one market place to
another.
The economic reforms of Alauddin Khilji brought
the prices to very low ebb though it was an
artificial measure and had nothing to do with the
true prosperity and economic growth.
However, it encouraged import of foreign goods form
Persia, since the Sultan made advances to the foreign
traders to import their goods and he always subsidised
in such cases.
Indias foreign trade both overland and overseas was
truly an international enterprise. Although the Arabs
were the dominant partners in the India Ocean trade,
they had been by no means ousted the Indian traders,
viz. the Tamils and Gujaratis, both Hindu and Muslim.
The coastal trade and trade between the coastal ports
and north India was in the hands of Marwaris and
Gujaratis, many of whom were Jains. The Muslim Bohra
merchants also participated in the trade. The overland
trade with Central and West Asia was in the hands of
Multanis, who were mostly Hindus and Khurasanis, who
were Afghans, Iranians, etc. Many of these merchants
had settled down in Delhi.
Literature & Art

Persian was the official language and soon literary
works in the language began to appear. The Persian
literature talked about topics familiar to those from
Persia. As, more people starting speaking and
understanding Persian the literary works began to
have a more Indian theme.
Amir Khusrav was a writer of the period, he was the
first writers that wrote Persian literature about events
in India.
His inspiration came from events he saw around, his
work soon grew to be appreciated and he became a
court poet. He inspired many other Indians to take to
writing in Persian.
Learning
In Muslim society, teaching and the promotion of educational
enterprises are regarded as necessary marks of religious vocation,
and the Muslim state is expected to facilitate this by providing
teachers with ample means of subsistence.
This was the procedure generally adopted during Muslim rule in India,
and the official in charge of religious endowments, the sadr-i-jahan,
arranged for the grant of tax-free lands to imams, qazis, and other
religious groups who provided education, particularly in Islamic
subjects.
This education was usually on the elementary level, but the system
also provided for the maintenance of scholars who had specialized in
different branches of learning. We find even nobles and distinguished
men of affairs teaching subjects in which they had become proficient.
Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Auliya, for example, studied under Shams-ul-
Mulk, who became the wazir of Balban. The children of nobles were
taught at their own residences by private tutors, whose guidance was
often available for other students also.

For advanced students madrasas, or colleges, were set up
by pious and public-spirited rulers, and this activity received
special attention during the early period.
Two major madrasas called Muizziya and Nasiriya were
established during the beginning of Muslim rule at Delhi.
Details about these madrasas are lacking, but probably one
of them was the college built by Iltutmish and repaired a
century later by Firuz Tughluq.
Similar steps to establish educational institutions were
taken by Muslim rulers in the distant provinces, and we read
of Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji setting up madrasas at
Devkot and other places in Bengal.
Firuz Tughluq was unusual in that he looked after the
institutions established by his predecessors; probably most
of these establishments fell into decay when the original
founders passed away, and the grants made for the
madrasas were diverted to other purposes.

Art
Islamic art is not at all restricted to religious art,
but includes all the art of the rich and varied
cultures of Islamic societies as well.
Apart from the ever-present calligraphic
inscriptions, specifically religious art is actually
less prominent in Islamic art than in Western
medieval art, with the exception of Islamic
architecture where mosques and their
complexes of surrounding buildings are the most
common remains.
Figurative painting may cover religious scenes, but
normally in essentially secular contexts such as the
walls of palaces or illuminated books of poetry.

The calligraphy and decoration of manuscript Qurans
is an important aspect, but other religious art such as
glass, mosque lamps, and other mosque fittings such
as tiles, woodwork and carpets usually have the same
style and motifs as contemporary secular art, although
with religious inscriptions even more prominent.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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http://www.importantindia.com/551/administration-of-delhi-
sultanate/


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