Aladdin Khalji – One Of The Most Powerful Rulers Of Delhi Sultanate

Aladdin Khalji was a Sunni Muslim and was born in 1250 in Barhom district, Bengal. His Full name was Juna Mohammed Khalji, in his early days he got lack of education during childhood but later he became strong and famous Mughal ruler and warrior of India. Later he was appointed as Amir-I-Tuzuk. His Father was Shihab Uddin Masood and His son name was Qutub Uddin Mubarak Shah. He killed his uncle Sultan Jalal Uddin Firoz Khilji and became the ruler of Kara, which is near Allahabad city in 1291. He got that position after the death of his uncle Sultan Jalal Uddin Firoz Khalji who was very affectionate to him. And got married to his daughter who held the title of Malika I Jahan and also later married Alp Khan’s sister whose name was Mahru then later he also got into affair with jhatyapali and got married, she be situated the daughter of Hindu king Ramachandra of Devagiri, it happened after the Raid at Devagiri in 1296 Ad and also have another son named as Shihab Uddin Omar which was after the conquest of devagiri in 1308 Ad. Later he had to face a lot of difficulties from rebels for starting couple years where he continued to control the power, He died in January 1316, whereas his Burial chamber was constructed backside of Qutub Complex in Mehrauli, Delhi. Where they’re a madrasa also build in his memory. Alla Uddin Khalji was reign from 19 July 1296 to 4 January 1316, he was known as most powerful and became the second leader of the Khalji dynasty. He was the most successful reign in that era. He has ruled the Delhi sultanate in India for Twenty Years. He always wished to become the Sikander-e-Sani which mean second Alexander, and this position of his is also mentioned on coins Copper half Gani, Billion Gani, Silver Tanka, Bilingual Coin, Silver Tanka Dar Al- Islam Mint, Silver Tanka Qila Deogir Mint and in the public prayers. He was the first Muslim Emperor in south India who spread his kingdom and achieved success, combined wealth in his assets through campaigns in Deccan and South and his passion itself helped him throughout the journey to achieve the victory, which gave him more fame in South coast.

Discussion

So as mentioned above in 1291 Ad Jalal Uddin was considered as a weak and ineffective ruler of Kara by Malik Chajju’s who was the former of Amir’s at Kara, so Jalal Uddin prompted as Ruler of Delhi, and also the unhappy life with his marriage with Malika-I-Jahan, as she was very arrogant and will always tried her best to dominated Aladdin Khalji and this combination also determined Alla Uddin to Overthrow Jalal Uddin. In south India they were a big name of Khalji, they use to loot a lot in that villages and the empire who lost the wars he used to take them and make slaves. and during this war and loot he used to even safe Delhi kingdom and empire from Mongol attacks as Mongol was attacking on Delhi repeatedly from 1296 to 1308 in many ways and tricks. Sultan Shahi existence became endangered. In the battle of Jalandhar in 1296, Ravi in 1306, Amroha in 1305 and Kili in 1299, the Mongol armies were also defeated by him. Many people from Mongol lived in nearby areas of Delhi and accepted the Islamic Religion and known as new Muslims. But Alla Uddin never trusted this Mongolia’s as he thought it may be one of the trick of Mongols, so to safe his kingdom, in 1298 Alla Uddin have killed all the Mongolia’s who was nearly close to 30,000 people, after that he made his slaves to all the wives and children of Mongol’s. and occupied central Asia Now a day which is known as Afghanistan. Khalji name is also written in history who always defeated Mongol Empire. He has led many Defeats during this time, in 1299 he got his big Victory, while the plundering the Hindu Kingdom of Gujarat in 1297 AD carried by his generals ulugh khan and Nusrat Khan, who even loot Somnath temple. It’s the only place where he purchased a slave boy, Malik kafur also known as Taj al Din Izz al-Dawla, who was an attractive slave who turned to be his lover and was always they’re with him in wars, army and he eventually became viceroy of the sultanate, they were a deep emotional bonding developed between both of them Aladdin Khalji and Malik kafur and kafur used to take care of all the administration.

In 1301 when Aladdin Khalji, siege of Ranthambore, he faced 3 unsuccessful revolts, later he did strike administration by establishing aptitude and investigation organization .In this period most people have increased where he made a strong force of military on the route to India and in August 1303 AD Aladdin Khalji battle with chittor, which was Rana Rattan Singh kingdom ,whereas owing interest in Rani Padmavati who was an exceptionally beautiful princess of Singhal kingdom and queen of Mewar, which have resulted in defeat of chittor and the ruler Rana Rattan Singh and whereas Rani Padmavati with her 16000 companions committed Jauhar which means self-immolation by defeating Aladdin Khalji aim and protecting their honor. According to Muntakhab -ul -Tawarik proved that they were nothing between Aladdin Khalji and Padmavati, it’s all the rumors started where people started making up stories on them but still there is no authentic truth or resources to this story of Padmavati and Aladdin Khalji. Recently there was a Bollywood movie released on Padmavati by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It’s based on a poem Padmavat, which was written by Malik Muhammad Jauasi. where they presented Aladdin Khalji in a negative character, with all the bad habits, lust towards girls and his appearance was representing as villain and a Spoiled king who have all the habits, just for a communal issues as he was a Muslim king and Padmavati was a Hindu Queen and made a lot of mess in the stories and changed it in the way where he was shown as a nasty person. There was a lot of protests and problems occurred due to the release of this movie between two communities where they supported their community and made a lot of buzz in the Social networking sites too. There was the politicians who used it for their profit and they made a debates on the news channels and posted video clips on a social media to ban that movie and they did arranged their followers and their political party members and took rally’s and burned the statues of the Director and actors, and gave a social message to not to watch that movie. They came to do a lot of changes like there was a song in which actress who is doing role of the Queen Padmavati wears a dress in which her waist was visible, that made changed and many other parts like the scenes between the Queen Padmavati and Aladdin Khalji, the director made the changes because he belongs to the community of Queen Padmavati and didn’t changed for the King Aladdin Khalji as he didn’t got pressurized for that and their Political leaders, and he didn’t bothered or took any action on the Protest of the peoples supporting the king Aladdin Khalji. The Rajput community had fight and sued that movie and taking it as an insult which demanded into the ban of the movie. The story between Aladdin Khalji and Padmavati is just a myth. When Mongols again attacked India in December 1305, where Aladdin Khalji general Malik Nayak defeated Mongol’s at the war of Amroha, and when they built Siri Fort in commission of Aladdin Khalji they used more than 8000 Mongols head.

Before 1310 attack Malik kafur had defeated Yadavas in 8th century, which was neighbors of Kakatiya, Whereas Warangal came under the control of Kakatiya in 12th century, then later in 1309 Alla Uddin Khalji sent Malik kafur his general on mission to Kakatiya capital, Warangal where he reached Warangal in 1310,and attack the fort with 100,000 men and surrounded it, as they was unable to lifted the war for more than six months and after a few months later the ruler Prataparudra decided to give away all his wealth to the invaders and promised to send Delhi all his annual honors which he have gathered. in that attack he also victories Kohinoor Diamond also. Then later after that attack and when Malik Kafur left then Prataparudra started ruling the Kakatiya again and they were few vassals who started presenting themselves as independent rulers.

In 1311 there was a turn in story where Pratap started supporting sultan in attacking Pandyan Kingdom and he won that won and everything was in control of him. In 1318 He ignored paying the annual honour to Aladdin Khalji. And he was the first Muslim Ruler who established his whole empire in the Deccan area. And during this time there were four different leading kingdoms in Deccan. Such as Yadavas Kingdom of Devgiri, then Kakatiya Kingdom which belongs to Telangana whose capital was at Warangal, then it was Hoyasala Kingdom which was capital of Dwarasamudra and the last one was Kingdom of Pandya with its capital at Madura.

Conclusion

According to people around him during last four five years of Aladdin Khalji life, he fell in “deeply madly in love” with kafur and based on Barani’s description, the two scholars Ruth vanita and Saleem Kidwai believe they both were in Homosexual relationship with each other. They were many scholars who said many different stuffs about Allah Uddin Khilji and Kafur relationship, but they are no authentic proof such as Banarsi Prasad Saksena who was a historian associate with Allahabad university believes both was close but that closeness between them was not at all sexual. During the last years of Aladdin Khalji life, His mental health was disturbed due to his physical Chronic illness which was known as Edema, as he became unstable ,he was 66 years old at the time of his death it was in January 1316 AD, by appointing Malik Kafur to handle all of his management later kafur kept Shihab Uddin and his wife kamala Devi as a puppet sovereign and Aladdin Khalji death by leaving his Khilji dynasty and everything behind to his successor and Son Qutub Uddin Mubarak Shah who in custody the control shortly. It was also rumored that kafur was the one who killed Aladdin Khalji for the throne, then later in that period Aladdin Khalji have finished the tax which was on labors, shop sales man and everyone, which turned everything into very low price, such as 1.50 rupees we can get 10kg rice and grains. Everyone was very happy, even after Aladdin Khalji death this process continued for long time and people used to remember him and give lots of blessing on him.

Aladdin Khalji was really a good person, who always helped people around him he was the most powerful sultan of Delhi as Moghul emperors like Aurangzeb and Akbar. Aladdin Khalji he always used to camp to overcome lands far away from Delhi. He was always available for everyone. Also, by Malik Kafur victories in reaching the outermost place in south India and he build a mosque there. And which was known as Aladdin Khalji Expensive Territory which was starting from Himalayas which was in North to Adam’s Bridge which was in South. And he also Administrated the policy of price control, under which many things have applied such as food grains, medicines, clothing, camels, cattle, horses etc., which was instructed to be sold at Fixed prices, and it was very low prices, and that market was in Delhi and was largely benefitted all the citizens and militaries. Throughout this period, he was known for his power and Passion where he defeated many wars and made his army force more powerful day by day. He was a great worrier. They are many books and Articles written on Aladdin Khalji History, wars, achievements, family and Relationships. Such as “The Life and Works of Sultan Alauddin Khalji by Ghulam Sarwar Khan Niazi and Sultan Alauddin Khilji by Aslam Rahi M.A.