The Tughlaq dynastyalso known as Tughluq or Tukhlak; , was the third dynasty to rule over the Delhi Sultanate in the medieval Indian subcontinent.Lombok, E.J. Brill's First Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol 5, , pp 30, 129-130 The dynasty came to power in 1320 when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne in Delhi under the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, and ended in 1413.Edmund Wright (2006), A Dictionary of World History, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press,
The Tughlaq dynasty reached its territorial zenith through the military campaigns led by Muhammad bin Tughluq between 1330 and 1335. It ruled most of the Indian subcontinent until its decline in the late 14th-century.W. Haig (1958), The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, pp 153-163 After the disastrous invasion of Timur in 1398–99, the last Tughlaq sultan was eventually deposed by Khizr Khan, who went on to establish Sayyid dynasty.
Origin The etymology of the word Tughlaq is not certain. The 16th-century writer Firishta claims that it is an Indian corruption of the Turkic term Qutlugh, but this is doubtful. Literary, numismatic and epigraphic evidence makes it clear that Tughlaq was not an ancestral designation, but the personal name of the dynasty's founder Ghazi Malik. Historians use the designation Tughlaq to describe the entire dynasty as a matter of convenience, but to call it the Tughlaq dynasty is inaccurate, as none of the dynasty's kings used Tughlaq as a surname: only Ghiyath al-Din's son Muhammad bin Tughluq called himself the son of Tughlaq Shah ("bin Tughlaq").
The ancestry of Ghiayth al-Din is debated among modern historians because the earlier sources provide differing information regarding it. However, he is usually considered to be of Turko-Mongol or Turkic origins. Muhammad bin Tughlaq's court poet Badr-i Chach attempted to find a royal Sassanian genealogy for the sultan from the line of Bahram Gur, which seems to be the official position of the genealogy of Sultan Muhammad, although this can be dismissed as flattery.
The medieval historian Firishta states that Ghiayth al-Din's father was a Turco-Mongol slave of Balban while his mother was a Jat lady of Punjab, however this lacks confirmation from contemporary authorities.
Peter Jackson suggests that Ghiayth al-Din was of Mongol stock and a follower of the Mongol chief Alaghu. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta stated with reference to the Sufi saint Rukn-e-Alam that he belonged to the "Qarauna" [Neguderi] tribe of Turks, who lived in the hilly region between Turkestan and Sindh, and were in fact Mongols.
History Rise to power
The Khalji dynasty ruled the Delhi Sultanate before 1320. Its last ruler, Khusro Khan, was a Hindu slave who had been forcibly converted to Islam and then served the Delhi Sultanate as the general of its army for some time.Vincent Smith, , Oxford University Press, pp 81-82
After Alauddin Khalji's death from illness in 1316, a series of palace arrests and assassinations followed,Tarikh-I Firoz Shahi Ziauddin Barni, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pages 214-218 with Khusro Khan coming to power in June 1320, after killing the licentious son of Alauddin Khalji, Mubarak Khalji, initiating a massacre of all members of the Khalji family and reverting from Islam.Holt et al. (1977), The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol 2, , pp 11-15 However, he lacked the support of the Muslim nobles and aristocrats of the Delhi Sultanate. Delhi's aristocracy invited Ghazi Malik, then the governor in Punjab under the Khaljis, to lead a coup in Delhi and remove Khusro Khan. In 1320, Ghazi Malik launched an attack and killed Khusro Khan to assume power.Mohammad Arshad (1967), An Advanced History of Muslim Rule in Indo-Pakistan, , pp 90-92
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq After assuming power, Ghazi Malik renamed himself Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq – thus starting and naming the Tughlaq dynasty.Tarikh-I Firoz Shahi Ziauddin Barni, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pages 229-231 He rewarded all those maliks, amirs and officials of Khalji dynasty who had rendered him a service and helped him come to power. He punished those who had rendered service to Khusro Khan, his predecessor. He lowered the tax rate on Muslims that was prevalent during Khalji dynasty, but raised the taxes on Hindus, wrote his court historian Ziauddin Barani, so that they might not be blinded by wealth or afford to become rebellious. He built a city six kilometres east of Delhi, with a fort considered more defensible against the Mongol attacks, and called it Tughlakabad.William Hunter (1903), , Frowde - Publisher to the Oxford University, London, 23rd Edition, pages 123-124
In 1321, he sent his eldest son Jauna Khan, later known as Muhammad bin Tughlaq, to Deogir to plunder the Hindu kingdoms of Arangal and Tilang (now part of Telangana). His first attempt was a failure.William Lowe (Translator), , Volume 1, pages 296-301 Four months later, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq sent large army reinforcements for his son asking him to attempt plundering Arangal and Tilang again.Tarikh-I Firoz Shahi Ziauddin Barni, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pages 233-234 This time Jauna Khan succeeded. Arangal fell, was renamed to Sultanpur, and all plundered wealth, state treasury and captives were transferred from the captured kingdom to Delhi Sultanate.
The Muslim aristocracy in Lakhnauti (Bengal) invited Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq to extend his coup and expand eastwards into Bengal by attacking Shamsuddin Firoz Shah, which he did over 1324–1325, after placing Delhi under control of his son Ulugh Khan, and then leading his army to Lukhnauti. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq succeeded in this campaign. As he and his favourite son Mahmud Khan were returning from Lukhnauti to Delhi, Jauna Khan schemed to kill him inside a wooden structure (kushk) built without foundation and designed to collapse, making it appear as an accident. Historic documents state that the Sufi preacher and Jauna Khan had learnt through messengers that Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq had resolved to remove them from Delhi upon his return.Elliot and Dowson (Translators), Travels of Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pages 609-611 Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, along with Mahmud Khan, died inside the collapsed kushk in 1325, while his eldest son watched.Henry Sharp (1938), DELHI: A STORY IN STONE, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 86, No. 4448, pp 324-325 One official historian of the Tughlaq court gives an alternate fleeting account of his death, as caused by a lightning bolt strike on the kushk.Elliot and Dowson (Translators), Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháh Ziauddin Barani, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pages 609-611 Another official historian, Al-Badāʾunī ʻAbd al-Kadir ibn Mulūk-Shāh, makes no mention of lightning bolt or weather, but explains the cause of structural collapse to be the running of elephants; Al-Badaoni includes a note of the rumour that the accident was pre-planned.
Patricide
According to many historians such as Ibn Battuta, al-Safadi, Isami, and Vincent Smith,Vincent A Smith, , Chapter 2, pp 236-242, Oxford University Press Ghiyasuddin was killed by his eldest son Jauna Khan in 1325. Jauna Khan ascended to power as Muhammad bin Tughlaq, and ruled for 26 years.Elliot and Dowson, Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháhí of Ziauddin Barani, The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period (Vol 3), London, Trübner & Co
Muhammad bin Tughluq
During Muhammad bin Tughluq's rule, the Delhi Sultanate temporarily expanded to most of the Indian subcontinent, its peak in terms of geographical reach.Muḥammad ibn Tughluq Encyclopædia Britannica He attacked and plundered Malwa, Gujarat, Mahratta, Tilang, Kampila, Dhur-samundar, Mabar, Lakhnauti, Chittagong, Sunarganw and Tirhut.Tarikh-I Firoz Shahi Ziauddin Barni, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pp. 236–237 His distant campaigns were expensive, although each raid and attack on non-Muslim kingdoms brought new looted wealth and ransom payments from captured people. The extended empire was difficult to retain, and rebellions all over Indian subcontinent became routine.
He raised taxes to levels where people refused to pay any. In India's fertile lands between Ganges and Yamuna rivers, the Sultan increased the land tax rate on non-Muslims by tenfold in some districts, and twentyfold in others.William Hunter (1903), , 23rd Edition, pp. 124-127 Along with land taxes, dhimmis (non-Muslims) were required to pay crop taxes by giving up half or more of their harvested crop. These sharply higher crop and land tax led entire villages of Hindu farmers to quit farming and escape into jungles; they refused to grow anything or work at all. Many became robber clans. Famines followed. The Sultan responded with bitterness by expanding arrests, torture and mass punishments, killing people as if he was "cutting down weeds".Tarikh-I Firoz Shahi Ziauddin Barni, The History of India by its own Historians - The Muhammadan Period, Volume 3, Trubner London, pp. 235–240 Historical documents note that Muhammad bin Tughluq was cruel and severe not only with non-Muslims, but also with certain sects of Musalmans. He routinely executed Sayyids (Shia), Sufis, Qalandars, and other Muslim officials. His court historian Ziauddin Barni noted,
Muhammad bin Tughlaq chose the city of Deogiri in present-day Indian state of Maharashtra (renaming it to Daulatabad), as the second administrative capital of the Dehli Sultanate. He ordered a forced migration of the Muslim population of Dehli, including his royal family, the nobles, Syeds, Sheikhs and 'Ulema to settle in Daulatabad. The purpose of transferring the entire Muslim elite to Daulatabad was to enroll them in his mission of world conquest. He saw their role as propagandists who would adapt Islamic religious symbolism to the rhetoric of empire, and that the Sufis could by persuasion bring many of the inhabitants of the Deccan to become Muslim. Tughluq cruelly punished the nobles who were unwilling to move to Daulatabad, seeing their non-compliance of his order as equivalent to rebellion. According to Ferishta, when the Mongols arrived in Punjab, the Sultan returned the elite back to Delhi, although Daulatabad remained as an administrative centre. One result of the transfer of the elite to Daulatabad was the nobility's hatred of the Sultan, which remained in their minds for a long time. The other result was that he managed to create a stable Muslim elite and result in the growth of the Muslim population of Daulatabad who did not return to Dehli. Muhammad bin Tughlaq's adventures in the Deccan region also marked campaigns of destruction and desecration of Hindu and Jain temples, for example the Swayambhu Shiva Temple and the Thousand Pillar Temple.Richard Eaton, , (2004)