Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah, commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim world. He travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo with 24,000 km (15,000 mi). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of southern Eurasia, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, but commonly known as The Rihla.
The Delhi Sultanate, or the Sultanate of Delhi, was a Muslim empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of Medieval India, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five unrelated heterogeneous dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.
The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451. Founded by Khizr Khan, the Tughlaq and Timurid governor of Multan, they succeeded the Tughlaq dynasty until they were displaced by the Lodi dynasty.
Muhammad bin Tughluq, also named Juna Khan as Crown Prince, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the young Muhammad was sent by his father to the Deccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against the Kakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfully laid siege upon the Kakatiya capital in Warangal. This victory over King Prataparudra ended the Kakatiya dynasty.
The Tughlaq dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Turkic or Turko-Mongol origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq. The dynasty ended in 1413.
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq or Ghazi Malik was the Sultan of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. He was the first sultan of the Tughluq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. During his reign, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq founded the city of Tughluqabad. His reign ending upon his death in 1325 when a pavilion built in his honour collapsed. The 14th century historian Ibn Battuta claimed that the death of the sultan was the result of a conspiracy against him
Jalāl Mujarrad Kunyāʾī, popularly known as Shah Jalal, was a celebrated Sufi figure of Bengal. His name is often associated with the Conquest of Sylhet and the Spread of Islam into the region, part of a long history of interactions between the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Various complexes and religious places have been named after him, including the largest airport in Bangladesh, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Khizr Khan was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty, the ruling dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, in northern India soon after the invasion of Timur and the fall of the Tughlaq dynasty. Khizr Khan was Governor of Multan under the Tughlaq ruler, Firuz Shah Tughlaq, and was known to be an able administrator. He did not take up any royal title due to fear of Amir Timur and contended himself with the titles of Rayat-i-Ala and Masnad-i-Aali or. During his reign, coins were continued to be struck in the name of previous Tughlaq rulers. After his death on 20 May 1421, he was succeeded by his son Mubarak Khan, who took the title of Muizz-ud-Din Mubarak Shah.
Veera Ballala III was the last great king of the Hoysala Empire. During his rule, the northern and southern branches of the Hoysala empire were consolidated and administered from Halebidu. During his rule, he fought numerous wars with the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Pandyan Dynasty of Madurai and other minor dynasties of South India. But it was his conflict with the invading forces of Alauddin Khalji, and later those of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi, that would alter the course of history of South India. For his courage and fortitude, the historians Suryanath Kamath, Chopra, Ravindran and Subrahmanian have called him a "great ruler". With his death in c. 1343, South India saw the rise of a new Hindu empire, the Vijayanagara Empire. In the words of the historian Sen "the Hoysalas were the greatest among those who claim to be the makers of modern Mysore". Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the brothers who founded the Vijayanagara Empire had served the king in a military capacity.
Ma'bar Sultanate, unofficially known as the Madurai Sultanate, was a short lived kingdom based in the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India. The sultanate was proclaimed in 1335 in Madurai led by the Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan declared his independence from the Delhi Sultanate. Ahsan Khan and his descendants ruled Madurai and surrounding territories until 1378 when the last sultan, Ala-ud-Din Sikandar Shah fell in battle against the forces of the Vijayanagara Kingdom. During this short span of 43 years, the Sultanate had 8 different rulers.
The Farooqi dynasty was the ruling dynasty of the Khandesh Sultanate from its inception in 1382 till its annexation by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1601. The founder of the dynasty, Malik Ahmad participated in a rebellion against the Bahmani ruler Muhmmad Shah I in his early years. When he was compelled to flee from Deccan, he established in Thalner on the Tapti River. After receiving the grant of the fiefdoms of Thalner and Karanda from Firuz Shah Tughluq in 1370, he conquered the region around Thalner, which later became known as Khandesh. By 1382, he started ruling independently.
The Mongol Empire launched several invasions into the Indian subcontinent from 1221 to 1327, with many of the later raids made by the Qaraunas of Mongol origin. The Mongols occupied parts of the subcontinent for decades. As the Mongols progressed into the Indian hinterland and reached the outskirts of Delhi, the Delhi Sultanate led a campaign against them in which the Mongol army suffered serious defeats. Delhi Sultanate officials viewed war with the Mongols as one of the Sultan's primary duties. While Sultanate chroniclers described the conflicts between the pagan Mongols and a monolithic Muslim community in binary terms, the Delhi Sultanate being an island of Islamic civilization surrounded by heathens to its north and south, it ignored the fact that a large number of Sultanate elites and monarchs were of Turk/Mongol ethnicity or had previously served in their armed contingents.
Alī Mubārak, better known by his regnal title `Alā ad-Dīn `Alī Shāh was an independent Sultan of Lakhnauti in Bengal. He was the foster brother of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, the eventual founder of the Bengal Sultanate.
Shamsuddīn Aḥmad Shāh was the last Sultan of Bengal belonging to the House of Ganesha. He was the son and successor of Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. After his father's death, he ascended the throne at the age of 14.
Shamsuddin Firuz Shah was the independent ruler of the Lakhnauti Kingdom. He ascended the throne with the title of Al-Sultan Al-Azam Shams Al-Duniya wa Al-Din Abu Al-Muzaffar Firuz Shah Al-Sultan and invoked the name of the Abbaside Caliph Mustasim Billah in his coins.
Ghiyath al-Din, also transcribed as Ghiyāthu'd-Dīn, Ghiyasuddin, etc. is the name of many persons in the Islamic world. It may refer to:
Ghiyath-ud-din Tughluq Shah II, born Tughluq Khan, was the son of Fateh Khan and the grandson of Firoz Shah Tughlaq. He was a Sultan of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate; he ascended to the throne in 1388 C.E. However, a succession crisis started almost immediately with Muhammad Shah ibn Firoz Shah staking his claim with the support of his brother Zafar Khan's son Abu Bakr Khan. Tughlaq Khan dispatched troops against his uncle towards the foot of the hills of Sirmur. Muhammad Shah Tughlaq ibn Firoz Shah after a brief battle took shelter in the Fort of Kangra, and Tughlaq Khan's army returned to Delhi without pursuing him any further due to the difficulties of the venture & terrain. Eventually though some Amirs joined Abu Bakr Khan son of Zafar Khan and grandson of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq and plotted to assassinate Tughluq Khan. In 1389 they surrounded the Sultan and Jahan Khan, his vizier, and put them to death and hung up their heads over the gate of the Delhi city; the duration of the reign of Tughluq Khan, was five months and eighteen days.
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, also spelt Abusaid Bahador Khan, Abu Sa'id Behauder, was the ninth ruler of the Ilkhanate, a division of the Mongol Empire that encompassed the present day countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as portions of Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Gujarat, a region in western India, fell under Delhi Sultanate following repeated expeditions under Alauddin Khalji around the end of the 13th century. He ended the rule of Vaghela dynasty under Karna II and established Muslim rule in Gujarat. Soon the Tughluq dynasty came to power in Delhi whose emperor carried out expeditions to quell rebellion in Gujarat and established their firm control over the region by the end of the century. Following Timur's invasion of Delhi, the Delhi Sultanate weakened considerably so the last Tughluq governor Zafar Khan declared himself independent in 1407 and formally established Gujarat Sultanate.
Abū al-Qāsim Jalāl ad-Dīn Tabrīzī was a celebrated Sufi saint of South Asia. He arrived in Bengal shortly after the start of its Muslim rule, where he propagated Islam to the local populace and spent the rest of his life. The Jaliliyyah Order, a small tariqah, is named after him, and he is considered to be the protagonist of the Sanskrit fiction Sekhaśubhodayā.
