What is Qutb-ud-din Aybak?

Qutb-ud-din Aybak (Persian / Urdu: قطب الدین ایبک) was a ruler of medieval India, the first Sultan of Delhi and founder of the Slave dynasty (also known as the Mamluk dynasty). He served as sultan for only four years, from 1206 to 1210.

Early years

Qutb-ud-din was born somewhere in Central Asia, he was of Turkic descent.^[1][2] When yet a child, he was captured and sold as a slave (mamluk). He was purchased by the chief Qazi of Nishapur, a town in the province of Khorasan in northeastern Iran. The Qazi treated him like one of his own sons, and Aibak received a good education, including training in archery and horsemanship. When his master died, his master's sons, who were jealous of Aibak, sold him to a slave merchant. Qutb-ud-din was purchased by Sultan Muhammad Ghori, ruler of Ghor in north-western Afghanistan.

Career

Starting with his native Ghor, an Aimak principality, Muhammad Ghori managed to establish control over most of present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkestan, Pakistan and northern India sacking Delhi in 1193. He established the first verifiable Muslim administration through collection of state taxes, establishing the rule of law, equitable distribution of land and revenues to the nobles under his charge and governance based on a mixture of locally elected representation through Mashura courts and nominated administrators.

Qutb-ud-din rose through the ranks to become Sultan Ghori's most trusted general. His greatest military successes occurred while he was directly under Sultan Ghori's guidance and leadership. Qutb-ud-din was responsible for executing and consolidating Sultan Ghori's conquests in northern India. He was left in increasingly independent charge of the Indian campaigns and the exaction of levies from the areas in India that were under Sultan Ghori's conquests, as after 1192 Sultan Ghori concentrated on Central Asia.

Founding of the Delhi Sultanate

Muhammad Ghori established the first real Muslim state in North India. Upon Sultan Ghori's death in 1206, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, after a brief power struggle, succeeded in establishing himself as ruler of the empire in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India; Ghori's Central Asian possessions had been captured by none other than the Mongol warlord, Genghis Khan. The areas over which Qutb-ud-din established his rule were those over which he already exercised power as Sultan Ghori's local receiver-general of periodic exactions and levies. Therefore, although his formal tenure as ruler was only four years, Qutb-ud-din managed to consolidate the administrative system that was established by his predecessor Sultan Ghori. This was achieved despite his having to quell rebellions by nobles like Taj-ud-din Ildiz and Nasir-ud-din Qubachah. Qutb-ud-din ruled initially from Lahore and later moved the capital to Delhi; he is hence considered the first Muslim ruler of South Asia.

Qutb-ud-din Aybak initiated the construction of Delhi's earliest Muslim monuments, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutub Minar. Historical records compiled by Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the iconoclasm of Qutb-ud-din Aybak. The first mosque built in Delhi, the "Qubbat al-Islam" was built after demolishing the Hindu temple built previously by Prithvi Raj and leaving certain parts of the temple outside the mosque proper ^[3]. This pattern of iconoclasm was common during his reign, although an argument goes that such iconoclasm was motivated more by politics than by religion^[4].These were completed by his successor, Iltutmish. Aibak,was otherwise known as "Lakh Baksh" or "giver of hundred thousands" because of his generosity. He was thus a pious Muslim, praised by contemporary Muslim clerics. He also patronized Nizami and Fakh-i-Mudabbir, both of whom dedicated their works to Aibak.

Death and succession

Qutb-ud-din died accidentally in 1210. While he was playing a game on horseback (Chougan:polo) , his horse fell and Qutb-ud-din was impaled on the pommel of his saddle. He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore. Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, another ex-slave of Turkic ancestry who was married to Qutb-ud-din's daughter, succeeded him as sultan of Delhi.

Qutb-ud-din Aibak's tomb is located behind Anarkali bazaar today. In the early 1970's, it was renovated at the orders of the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

See also

• Mamluk dynasty of Delhi
• History of India
• Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque

Also Read

• List of mausolea worldwide

References

External links

• India: The early Turkish sultans
• Slave Dynasty and the beginning of the Delhi Sultanate

Preceded by None	Slave Dynasty 1206–1290	Succeeded by Aram Shah