imported>Lightningblade23 at 13:44, 14 June 2025

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{{Short description|Sultan of Delhi from 1266 to 1287}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}}
{{Essay-like|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox royalty|
| title = Zil-i-Ilahi (Shadow of God) Niyabat-i-Khuda (Vice-regency of God) Khuda-i-Vandgar (Devotee of God)
| succession = [[List of sultans of Delhi|Sultan of Delhi]] [[Emperor of Hindustan|Sultan of Hindustan]]
| image = Sultan Ghayas-ud-Din Balban.jpg
| caption = Miniature portrait of Balban, {{circa|1900}}, [[British Library]]
| reign = 18 February 1266 – 13 January 1287
| predecessor = [[Mahmud I of Delhi|Nasir ud din Mahmud I]]
| successor = [[Muiz ud din Qaiqabad]]
| regent = Muhammad Khan (1266–1285) Kaikhasrau (1285–1287)
| reg-type = Heir-apparent
| coronation = 18 February 1266 at [[Qutb Minar complex]]
| issue = Muhammad Khan [[Nasiruddin Bughra Khan]]
| house = [[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|House of Balban]]
| dynasty = [[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|Ilbari dynasty]]
| religion = [[Sunni Islam]]
| birth_name = Baha-ud-Din
| birth_date = 1216
| death_place = [[Delhi]], [[Delhi Sultanate]] (modern-day Delhi, India)
| death_date = 13 January 1287<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q374288|title=Ghayas ud din Balban}}</ref> (aged 71–72)
| birth_place = [[Turkestan]], [[Central Asia]]
| burial_place = [[Tomb of Balban]], [[Mehrauli Archaeological Park]], Delhi
}}
'''Al-Sultan al-Azam Ghiyath al-Dunya Wal Din Abu'l Muzaffar Balban al-Sultan''' ({{langx|fa|{{nq|السلطان الاعظم غیاث الدنیا والدین ابوالمظفر بلبن السلطان}}}};{{efn|''Al-Sulṭān al-Āẓam Ġiyās al-Dunyā Wal Dīn Abu'l Muzaffar Balban al-Sulṭān''}} 1216 – 13 January 1287), more famously known as '''Ghiyath al-Din Balban''' or simply '''Balban''', was the ninth [[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|Mamluk]] [[sultan of Delhi]]. He had been the [[regent]] of the last Shamsi sultan, [[Mahmud I of Delhi|Mahmud]] until the latter's death in 1266,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chandra|first=Satish|title=History of Medieval India|publisher=ORIENT BLACKSWAN|year=1999|pages=80|language=English}}</ref> following which, he declared himself sultan of [[Delhi]].

His original name was '''Baha-ud-Din'''. He was an Ilbari Turk. When he was young he was captured by the [[Mongol]]s, taken to [[Ghazni]] and sold to [[Khawaja]] Jamal-ud-din of Basra, a [[Sufi]]. The latter then brought him to Delhi in 1232 along with other slaves, and all of them were purchased by [[Iltutmish]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} Balban belonged to the famous group of 40 [[Turkic people|Turkic]] slaves of [[Iltutmish]].<ref>Bhat, R.A ''History of Medieval India'' pp. 66–68</ref>

Ghayas made several conquests, some of them as wazir. He routed the people of [[Mewat]] that harassed Delhi and reconquered [[Bengal]], all while successfully facing the [[Mongol]] threat, during which his son died. After his death in 1287, his grandson [[Muiz ud din Qaiqabad|Qaiqabad]] was nominated sultan, though his rule undermined the success made under his grandfather's reign.

In spite of having only a few military achievements, Balban reformed civil and military lines that earned him a stable and prosperous government granting him the position, along with [[Iltutmish|Shams ud-Din Iltutmish]] and the later [[Alauddin Khalji]], one of the most powerful rulers of [[Delhi Sultanate]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

==Early life==
He was the son of a [[Central Asia]]n [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] noble.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} As a child, he was captured by the [[Mongol]]s and sold as a slave to Khwaja Jamal ud-din Basri. Khwaja brought him to Delhi where he and the other slaves were bought by Sultan [[Shams-ud-din Iltutmish]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Ali |first=K. |year=1978 |orig-year=First published 1950 |title=A New History of Indo-Pakistan |edition=4th |volume=Part II |location=Lahore |publisher=Aziz Publisher |page=57 |oclc=59726645}}</ref> himself a captured Ilbari Turk in origin<ref>Columbia University press,Slavery&South Asian history Indrani Chatterjee,Richard M.Eaton</ref><ref> Cambridge University Press,Expanding frontiers in South Asian and world history Edited by:Richard M.Eaton,Munis D. Faruqui,David Gilmartin,Sunil Kumar </ref><ref>advanced Study in the History of Medieval India, vol 2 page 71 L.Mehta </ref> in 1232.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Balban was first appointed as a simple water carrier, but quickly rose to the position of Khasdar (king's personal attendant) by the Sultan. He became one of the most notable of the [[Corps of Forty|forty Turkic nobles of Delhi, or the Chalissa]]. During the reign of [[Razia Sultana|Razia Sultan]], he was the ''amir-i-shikar'' or lord of the hunt, a position of some importance at the time, having military and political responsibilities. After her overthrow, he made rapid strides in the subsequent reigns, earning the fief of [[Rewari]] under [[Muiz ud din Bahram|Bahram Shah]], and later became the Jagirdar (lord) of [[Hansi]], which was an important fief.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Balban was instrumental in the overthrow of [[Ala ud din Masud]], installing [[Nasiruddin Mahmud (grandson of Iltutmish)|Nasiruddin Mahmud]] as Sultan and himself as his Vizier from 1246 to 1265. Mahmud married one of Balban's daughters.<ref name="sen2">{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Sailendra |title=A Textbook of Medieval Indian History |publisher=Primus Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-9-38060-734-4 |pages=76–79}}</ref> Balban also installed Kishlu Khan, his younger brother, as lord chamberlain (Amir-i Hajib) and appointed his cousin, Sher Khan, to the Jagir of Lahore and [[Bathinda district|Bhatinda]].{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Balban's position did not go unnoticed by the other nobles and there was some resentment. His main antagonist was Imad ud-din Raihan, who in works written after Balban's time, is characterized as a Hindu [[Apostasy in Islam|Murtad]] (who revoked Islam), although some claim him to be of Turkic origin as well. Imad ud-din managed to persuade the Sultan that Balban was an usurper. Balban and his kin were dismissed and even challenged in combat. However, negotiations between Balban and the Sultan led to the dismissal of Imad ud din at 1254, and Balban was reinstated.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==Military campaigns==
[[File:Islamic Sultanates. Delhi. Ghiyath al-din Balban. AH 664-686 AD 1266-1287. Citing ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mustasim. Delhi mint. Dated AH 677 (AD 1278-9).jpg|thumb|300px|Gold coinage of Ghiyath al-din Balban (AH 664-686 AD 1266-1287). Citing Abbasid caliph [[al-Mustasim]]. Delhi mint. Dated AH 677 (AD 1278-9).]]
Balban's reign, according to [[Ziauddin Barani]], was to install 'Fear of the governing power, which is the basis of all good government.' Furthermore, he "maintained that the Sultan was the 'shadow of God' and introduced rigorous court discipline." He depended upon Turkish nobility but formed an army of 2 [[lakh]] made up of all [[castes]]. A portion of this army was made up of [[commando]]s.<ref name="sen2"/> Balban had several military achievements during his vizierhood, first raising the [[Uch|Mongol siege of Uch]] under Masud Shah in 1246.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rizvi |first=S. A. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACSGEAAAQBAJ |title=The Wonder That Was India: Volume 2 |date=2022-09-29 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |isbn=978-93-95624-33-6 |language=en}}</ref>

When the governor of Bengal, [[Tughral Tughan Khan]], revoked the authority of Delhi in 1275, Balban first sent the governor of [[Awadh]] and then a second army, both of which met with failure. Balban then accompanied a third army which reconquered the countryside, killing Tughral and his followers. His son, [[Nasiruddin Bughra Khan]], assisted him in this mission.<ref name=bpedia>{{cite book |last=Ali |first=Muhammad Ansar |year=2012 |chapter=Bughra Khan |chapter-url=https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Bughra_Khan |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Balban then placed his second son, [[Bughra Khan]], as governor. However, Bughra declared independence after Balban's death, which he maintained for 40 years.<ref name="sen2"/>

One of the famous military campaigns of Balban was against [[Meo (ethnic group)|Meo]], or Mayo, the people of [[Mewat]] who used to plunder the people of Delhi even in the daylight. The distress caused by the Meo is well described in Barani's words: He has killed many Meos in his military campaign.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

:''The turbulence of the Mewatis had increased, and their strength had grown in the neighbourhood of Dehli, through the dissolute habits and negligence of the elder sons of Shams ud-dín, and the incapacity of the youngest, Násir-ud-dín. At night they used to come prowling into the city, giving all kinds of trouble, depriving the people of their rest; and they plundered the country houses in the neighbourhood of the city. In the neighbourhood of Dehli there were large and dense jungles, through which many roads passed. The disaffected in the Doáb, and the outlaws towards Hindustan grew bold and took to robbery on the highway, and they so beset the roads that caravans and merchants were unable to pass. The daring of the Mewatis in the neighbourhood of Dehli was carried to such an extent that the western gates of the city were shut at afternoon prayer, and no one dared to go out of the city in that direction after that hour, whether he travelled as a pilgrim or with the display of a sovereign. At afternoon prayer the Mewatis would often come to the Sar-hauz, and assaulting the water-carriers and the girls who were fetching water, they would strip them and carry off their clothes. These daring acts of the Mewatis had caused a great ferment in Delhi.''{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Balban took upon himself the exterminating the turbulent tribes of [[Mewat]] and [[Awadh]], destroying strongholds and villages. He then built military outposts, gave land to soldiers and Afghans to settle. He garrisoned forts at key locations, cleared forests and ensured safe roads. He also unsuccessfully laid siege to the fortress of [[Ranthambore Fort|Ranthambore]], but did recapture [[Gwalior]] from the [[Rajputs]].<ref name="sen2"/>

In 1247, Balban suppressed a rising of the [[Kalinjar Fort|Chandela Chief of Kalinjar]].{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Balban's military reign also distinguished with his success in repelling Mongol army. This could be achieved because his cavalry horses were better suited to Indian climate and naturally bred larger than Mongol's horses. The extreme heat of summer constituted the Mongols' problem in India, as the quotation from [[Ata-Malik Juvayni|Juvaini]] indicates. Their incursions seem to have been brief, even when not defeated by the forces of Delhi, and to have taken place in winter, because only then was it cool enough for the comfort of the Mongols' horses.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Smith Jr. |first=John Masson |date=December 1984 |title=Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure? |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=307–345 |doi=10.2307/2719035 |jstor=2719035}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Smith Jr. |first=John Masson |date=January–March 1998 |title=Nomads on Ponies vs. Slaves on Horses |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=118 |issue=1 |pages=54–62 |doi=10.2307/606298 |jstor=606298}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ṭabīb |first=Rashid al-Din |year=1971 |title=The Successors of Genghis Khan |translator-last=Boyle |translator-first=John Andrew |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=52 and n. 197}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ibn Batuta |year=1962 |title=The Travels of Ibn Battuta |translator-last=Gibb |translator-first=H.A.R. |volume=II |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=478}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Boyle |first=John Andrew |date=June 1963 |title=The Mongol Commanders in Afghanistan and India According to the Ṭabaqāt-I NāṢirī of Jūzjānī |journal=Islamic Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages= 235–247 |jstor=20832685}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Smith Jr.|first1=John Masson|title=MONGOL ARMIES AND INDIAN CAMPAIGNS|url=https://www.mongolianculture.com/MONGOL-ARMIES.htm|website=mongolian culture|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|access-date=2015-11-04|ref=Ala al-Din Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, J.A. Boyle trans. (Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1958), I, 141-42.}}</ref>

== Reign as Sultan ==
[[File:Coin of Balban.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Coin during the reign of Balban]]
Since Sultan [[Nasiruddin Mahmud (grandson of Iltutmish)|Nasiruddin]] did not have a male heir, after his death, Balban declared himself the [[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|Sultan of Delhi]]. Balban ascended the throne in 1266 at the age of fifty with the title of ''Sultan Ghiyas-ud-din-Balban''.
[[File:Filea-A silver coin of Ghiyas ud din Balban.jpg|left|thumb|Silver coin of Balban]]
During his reign, Balban ruled with an iron fist. He broke up the '[[Corps of Forty|Chahalgani]]', a group of the forty most important nobles in the court. Balban wanted to make sure everyone was loyal to the crown by establishing an efficient espionage system, in the style of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] [[Barid]]. Sultan Balban had a strong and well-organized intelligence system. Balban employed spies, ''[[barid]]s'', to inform on his officials. He placed secret reporters and news-writers in every department. The spies were independent authority who were only answerable to Sultan.

Furthermore, Balban had his nobles punished most harshly for any mishap, including severe treatment of their own slaves. One of his nobles, Malik Baqbaq, the governor of [[Budaun]], was punished for ordering one of his slaves to be beaten to death, apparently when being drunk. Another governor, Haibat Khan, was handed over to the slave's widow for punishment.<ref name="sen2"/> About his justice Dr. Ishwari Prasad remarked "So great was the dread of Sultan's inexorable justice that no one dared to ill-treat his servant and slaves."

Balban re-organised the military against the threat of the Mongols. He re-organised the revenues of the Iqtadars, which have been passed on to the children of their original holders from the time of [[Iltutmish|Shams ud-din]], or maintained their hold of the Iqta even after they ceased to serve in the military. The old Muqta's, who could not serve as military commanders (emirs) for their revenue, were to be dismissed from their fief and settled with a pension of forty to fifty tankas. The younger Muqtas had been taxed for the surplus revenue (which was not taken from them as it should have) and the children and women who took possession of the Iqta of their forebears, were to be deprived of their Iqtas and compensated with the money required to sustain them. However, he was partially dissuaded from this ruling due to the advice of the old Kotwal, Fakhr ud-din, and the old nobles retained their lands.

Balban's steps against the nobility were so extreme as to raise suspicion from his brother, Sher Khan, who is said to have never visited Delhi. It appears that resentment between the brothers had to come to a degree that made the Sultan poison his brother.

"Balban's court was an austere assembly where zest and laughter were unknown and where wine and gambling were banished." He "introduced rigorous court discipline such as prostration before the king and kissing his feet." Nevertheless, Ghiyas-ud-din Balban still went on hunting expeditions, though these were more frequently used as a form of military training.<ref name="sen2"/> There were large scale conversions to [[Islam]] in [[Punjab]] under his reign. Balban was the first who introduced the famous Persian Festival of [[Nowruz]].<ref>Habib, Mohammad. ''Some Aspects of the Foundation of the Delhi Sultanate''. Dr. K.M. Ashraf Memorial Lecture (Delhi, 1966) p.20.</ref>

[[File:Entry gate at Gaur, Malda..jpg|thumbnail|The old gate of Lakhnauti, an evidence of the city's strong fortifications, easily overcome by Balban.]]
Balban was a fervent patron of the [[Persian language]] and himself encouraged [[Persian poetry]]. He started Iranian method [[Sajdah|Sajda]] and Paibos to the sultan in India. He also introduced the Persian festival [[Nowruz]] (meaning New year). He was also referred to as the Niyabat-i-Khuda (Vice-regency of God).

== Death ==
Ghiyas ud din Balban ruled as the Sultan from 1265 until his death in 1287. Balban's heir was his older son, Muhammad Khan, but he perished in a [[Battle of Beas River|battle against the Mongols]] on 9 March 1285. His other son, Bughra Khan, was reluctant to assume the throne, and sought to remain the ruler of Bengal instead. Balban, therefore, chose his grandson, Kaikhasrau,<ref>[[Nasiruddin Bughra Khan#cite note-sen2-2]]</ref> son of Muhammad, as heir apparent. However, after his death his nobles nominated [[Muiz ud din Qaiqabad|Qaiqubad]] as Sultan.<ref name="sen2"/>

Qaiqubad reign (1287–1290), while his father, [[Bughra Khan]], asserted independence in Bengal. Qaiqubad was very weak and incompetent and eventually fell to stroke and had to pass the rule to his three years old son, [[Shamsuddin Kayumars]], who was eventually dethroned by his guardian, [[Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji]] in 1290, bringing an end to the Slave dynasty.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Today, [[Tomb of Balban]] lies within the [[Mehrauli Archaeological Park]] in Delhi, adjacent to which stands that of his son Khan Shahid and a walled mosque. The domes of both the tombs have collapsed and the structures were mostly ruined until restored in recent years when the conservation work began in the park.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box|
before=[[Nasiruddin Mahmud (grandson of Iltutmish)|Nasiruddin Mahmud]]|
title=[[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|Slave Dynasty]]|
years=1266–1287|
after=[[Muiz ud din Qaiqabad]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghiyas Ud Din Balban}}
[[Category:Sultans of the Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)]]
[[Category:13th-century births]]
[[Category:1287 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:13th-century Indian monarchs]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}

Balban - Revision history

imported>Lightningblade23 at 13:44, 14 June 2025