Aibak and the plain

Who he is

Name

Qutb al-Din Aibak, Turkish slave of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad of Ghor

Title

Commander (sipahsalar; Fakhr-i Mudabbir) and iqta-holder of Kuhram and Samana (Minhaj); no higher title: not sultan until 1206, not even malik before 1206

Since

left in charge in Hind after Tarain (1192) and Delhi (1193)

Born

not known

Family

A slave (ghulam) of the sultan Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam; he owns slaves of his own, among them Iltutmish (bought about 1197 or later).

Confidence

high

Wikipedia (Aibak) summarises Hasan Nizami, Fakhr-i Mudabbir and Minhaj: Hasan Nizami calls the Kuhram and Samana post an ayalat (governorship), Minhaj an iqta, Fakhr-i Mudabbir a sipahsalari (command); the malik rank is first attributed to 1206.

Overlord

Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad of Ghor (Ghazna); his brother Ghiyath al-Din at Firuzkuh is the senior sultan

What it holds

• As overlord: the iqtas and garrisons of the plain east of the Yamuna (Koil, Badaun, Kannauj, Benares, Awadh, Kara, Gwalior, Narwar), each held by a commander under him or under the sultan directly; Delhi itself is in the western record.

How it was acquired

By the sultan's appointment after Tarain.

Allies and rivals

Rival: Baha al-Din Tughril at Bayana (the quarrel over Gwalior, which the campaign board says the sultan promised to Tughril and Aibak took). Marriage and slave ties bind him to Taj al-Din Yildiz at Ghazni and to Iltutmish. His officers: Hasan Arnal, Aghul-bak, the Khalji brothers Bakhtiyar and Shiran.

How things stand that morning

Securely first of the Turkish commanders in Hind and answerable to a master who is not there. No sultanate yet, no Delhi title. The conquered country is a chain of garrisons on the Uttarapatha from Lahore to Benares with Hindu chiefs paying between the forts.

Wealth

Revenue of Delhi, Kuhram and Samana, the tribute of the plain's chiefs, the booty of Benares, Anhilwara and (later) Kalanjara; Delhi jital coins that continue the Chahamana bull-and-horseman types.

Military

Turkish and Ghurid cavalry, with local Hindu horse; elephants. No numbers: the chroniclers' figures are inflated and not repeated.

Threats

• The sultan's recall or death
• The Khokhar and Katehr risings
• Tughril's rivalry

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 3 July 1200Tekish of Khwarazm dies; Mu'izz al-Din and Ghiyath al-Din move into Khurasan (Nishapur, Merv, Tus). No field army or treasure comes down to Hind.Depends on: Tekish's death; the Ghurid ambition in Khurasan. Stopped by: A Khwarazmian recovery (Muhammad takes Tus and Herat back in 1201).

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202 to 1203Aibak takes Kalanjara and Mahoba and installs Hasan Arnal.Depends on: A free hand in Hind. Stopped by: The sultan's call.
2. 15 March 1206Mu'izz al-Din is assassinated at Dhamiak; Aibak becomes ruler in Hind (25 June 1206 informally).Depends on: The assassination.

Where the sources disagree

• Brief says Aibak's "Delhi" is the other sheet's; we write the plain east of the Yamuna and leave his own household and Delhi to that record.
• The campaign board entry calendar puts Tekish's death on 3 July and says the sultan "goes straight into Khurasan": the Wikipedia page for Muhammad of Ghor gives the sequence (Tekish dies; the brothers capture Nishapur, Merv and Tus) but says Alauddin succeeded in August 1200 and recovered the lost ground by 1201.

Evidence: A named man with a documented career, but his titles and the dates of his steps in 1197 to 1200 vary by source.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: No ground: an office record; the garrisons are drawn in their own records.

Primary sources for Ghurids

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.