Khilji Dynasty (1290 – 1320 A .D)
On the death of Balban his grandson, Kaikobad ascended the throne of Delhi. He was then only 18 years old. The nobles began to quarrel among themselves for power. They were divided into two parts – one is Turkish Party and other is Hindustani Party.
Jalal ud din Firoz Khilji the commander in chief and the leader of hindustani party put to death Kaikobad and ascended the throne of Delhi. This incident is known as Khilji revolution.
Jalal ud din Firoz Khiljji (1290 - 1296 A.D.)
Jalal ud din was the founder and first king of the Khilji dynasty. He was seventy years old when he ascended the throne. The two important events of his reign were revolts of Malik chhaju and Siddi moula. He put down the revolts. In 1292 Abdulla the grandson of Mangol chief Halaku attacked India with vast army consisting of one lakh of soldiers. In spite of old age the sultan personally led the army and defeated them.
In 1296 A.D his nephew and son in law Alauddin Khilji murdered him and seized the throne.
Ala ud din Khilji (1296 - 1316 A.D)
Ala ud din ascended the throne after getting his uncle Jalal ud din murdered. He was the first sultan of Delhi, who separated religion from politics. He caused himself to be called the Second Alexander in the Khutba and on his Coins. He ordered that the wives and children of all the mutineers should be kept into Prison. He captured Chittor which was renamed Khizrabad, after the name of his son Khizr Khan.
Military Reforms
He introduced the first Permanent Standing Army of Medieval India.
He abolished Iqtas of Royal troopers and started payments of their salaries in cash.
He introduced Dagh (Branding of horses) and Chehra (Description of soldier)
Conquest
During the reign of his uncle Jalal ud Din, he had led compaigns against malwa and Devagiri. Alau ud din first victim was Gujrat, then under the rule of Karnadeva II, a baghela Rajput prince. In 1297 he sent an army under his brother Ulugh Khan, who captured the capital city of Annilwara. The Delhi army plundered the the rich port of Gujrat and returned to Delhi with a large booty. Ala ud din led his army against Ranthambhor and captured the fortess after one year’s seige in 1301 A.D. The next expedition was led against Chittor the capital Mewar. The brave rajput king Rana ratan singh was killed and the Rani padmini and other rajput women saved their honour by performing the rite of Jauhar.
Ala ud din was the first among the sultans of Delhi to send expeditions to the Deccan. His trusted general Malik Kafur led these expeditions. He defeated Ramachandradeva the Yadava king of Devagiri(1307-1307 A.D.), Prataputradeva, the king of Warangal (1308-1310 A.D),Vir Ballala, the Hoysala king of Dwarsamudra (1310 A.D), Pandya king of Madurai (1311 A.D) and advaced as far as Rameshwaram and returned Delhi in 1311 A.D. Ala ud din did not annex the Southern kingdoms and allowed the vanquished kings to retain their kingdoms on condition of owing allegience to him and paying an yearly tribute.. In this way he united North and South India under one rule and thus transformed the Delhi Sultanate to an “All India Empire”.
Administrative Reforms
Ala ud din was troubled by a series of rebellions. After consultation with his advisors he came to conclusions that these rebellions were due to (1)Inefficiency of Spy system, (2)General Practice of Drinking, (3) Social intercourse among nobles and their inter-marriages, (4) Abundance of wealth in the hands of few persons. In order to root out rebellions Ala ud din introduced four important ordinances.
The first ordinance was aimed at the confiscation of religious endowments and free grants of lands.
By the second ordinance he reorganised spy system.
in third ordinance prohibited the use of wine.
The fourth ordinance issued by Ala ud din laid that nobles should not have social gatherings and they should not inter marry without permission.
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Economic Reforms
Ala ud din was the first Turkish sultan to reform Land revenue system. He confiscated all Jagirs, free grants of land and religious endowments, and converted into “Khalisa“.He raised the land revenue into Khalisa to one half of the gross productions. He imposed two customary taxes- Grazing and Ghari.
Ala ud din sought to fix the cost of all the commodities. For this purpose he set up four markets in Delhi. One market was for food grains, second was for costly items and third was for horses slaves and cattle and fourth market was for merchandise. The check on market was kept by two other officers- The Diwan-i-Riyasat and Shahna-i-mandi. Malik Kabool was appointed as Shahna-i-mandi where as Najir Yakub was appointed as Diwan-i-Riyasat. Very strict punishment were prescribed for cheating and under weighing. The post of special officer called Mustakharaj was created for the collection of revenue. The booty captured during was was called Ghanima, of which the state was recieved 1/5 th share called Ghums and rest 4/5th was to be divided among soldiers. Alauddin reversed this share.