The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five 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 for 37 years. The first ruler of the dynasty, Khizr Khan, who was the Timurid vassal of Multan, conquered Delhi in 1414, while the rulers proclaimed themselves the Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate under Mubarak Shah, which succeeded the Tughlaq dynasty and ruled the Sultanate until they were displaced by the Lodi dynasty in 1451.
The Bahmani Sultanate was a late medieval Muslim empire that ruled the Deccan Plateau in South India. The Bahmani Sultanate came to power in 1347 during the Rebellion of Ismail Mukh against the Tughlaq dynasty of Delhi after Ismail Mukh abdicated in favour of Zafar Khan, who would establish the Bahmani Sultanate. The Bahmani Sultanate was in perpetual war with its neighbors, including its rival to the south, the Vijayanagara Empire.
Uch, frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf, is a historic city in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during his invasion of the Indus Valley. Uch was an early stronghold of the Delhi Sultanate during the Muslim conquest of the subcontinent. It is also known as the home for the Naqvi/Bukhari's after the migration from Bukhara. Uch was a regional metropolitan centre between the 12th and 17th centuries, and became refuge for Muslim religious scholars fleeing persecution from other lands. Though Uch is now a relatively small city, it is renowned for its intact historic urban fabric, and for its collection of shrines dedicated to Muslim mystics (Sufis) from the 12th-15th centuries that are embellished with extensive tile work, and were built in the distinct architectural style of southern Punjab.
Ziauddin Barani was an Indian Muslim political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate located in present-day Northern India during Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, a work on medieval India, which covers the period from the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq to the first six years of the reign of Firoz Shah Tughluq; and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari which promoted a hierarchy among Muslim communities in the Indian subcontinent, although according to M. Athar Ali it was not based on race or even like the caste system, but taking as a model of Sassanid Iran, which promoted an idea of aristocracy through birth and which was claimed by Persians to be "fully in accordance with the main thrust of Islamic thought as it had developed by that time", including in the works of his near-contemporary Ibn Khaldun.
Muhammad bin Tughluq, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, also known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, or The Wisest Fool 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 the third dynasty to rule 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.
The Khalji or Khilji dynasty was the second dynasty which ruled the Delhi sultanate, covering large parts of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three decades between 1290 and 1320. It was founded by Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji.
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, 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 Muslim 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 and numerous mosques around the United Kingdom.
Khizr Khan was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty, the fourth 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 invasion by 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, also known as the Madurai Sultanate, was a short lived kingdom based in the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India. It was Urdu speaking. The sultanate was proclaimed in 1335 CE in Madurai led by Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, a native of Kaithal in North India, declared his independence from the Sultanate of Delhi.
The Farooqi dynasty or the Farooq Shahi 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 numerous 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.
Ala-ud-Din Hasan Bahman Shah whose original name was Zafar Khan or Hasan Gangu, was the founder of the Bahmani Sultanate.
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.
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.
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.
