Mamluk Dynasty of Delhi

The Delhi Mamluk dynasty, called the Slave Dynasty, ruled North India from 1206 to 1290 as the first of the five Delhi Sultanates. It must not be confused with the later Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt: both grew from the same institution of military slavery, but they were separate states on opposite ends of Asia. When Muhammad of Ghor died without an heir, his Turkic slave general Qutb ud-Din Aibak seized his Indian possessions and raised the first mosque of Delhi, beginning the Qutb Minar tower that still dominates the city. His successor Iltutmish moved the capital fully to Delhi, struck the tanka silver coin, and sheltered scholars fleeing the Mongol destruction of Central Asia, making Delhi an Islamic cultural centre while the Mongols burned everything beyond the Indus. His daughter Razia, learned and capable, ruled as sultan from 1236 to 1240, the first woman to hold sovereign power in Delhi, until the Turkic nobles who despised a female ruler deposed her. Balban then restored order with an iron hand, modelling his court on Persian kingship and holding the Mongols at the frontier for twenty years. The line ended in 1290 when the Khalji faction murdered the boy sultan and took the throne.