Qutb al-Din Aibak

Who he is

Name

Qutb al-Din Aibak

Title

Commander (amir; the chroniclers later say malik and sipahsalar) of Muizz al-Din's army in Hind. Not sultan: no one calls him that before 1206

Since

1192, after the Second Battle of Tarain (Nizami 1992, as summarised by Wikipedia); Delhi taken into direct rule in 1193

Born

not pinned (a Turkish slave boy; the year is not given in the sources we could reach)

Family

A mamluk (slave soldier) of the Ghurid sultan Muizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam. Wikipedia calls Taj al-Din Yildiz his father-in-law and does not say which daughter. Minhaj's report that Aibak's daughters married Qabacha and Iltutmish (via Nizami 1992) is undated and probably later than 1200.

Confidence

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Wikipedia's Aibak article gives no title for 1200. Fakhr-i Mudabbir has him made malik and heir only when the sultan formally appointed him in 1206; Hasan Nizami and Minhaj call him sultan afterwards (Nizami 1992; Jackson 2003). On 1 January 1200 the safe description is a slave-commander with a great command, which is how the brief and the campaign board also treat him.

Overlord

Muizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam (Muhammad of Ghor), the Ghurid sultan who rules the east from Ghazni; his elder brother Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad rules the west from Firuzkoh and Herat and the two reign as a dyarchy (Wikipedia, Muhammad of Ghor)

What it holds

• The citadel of Delhi (Qila Rai Pithora and Lal Kot), Mehrauli and the Yamuna landing at Indraprastha
• The Delhi country and the roads out of it: Sonipat, Rohtak, Panipat, Gurgaon, Palwal, Rewari
• Control, through officers named below, of Meerut and Baran, Hansi and Sirsa, Kuhram and Samana, and Ajmer
• The mosque at Delhi (Quwwat-ul-Islam, begun 1193) and the first storey of the victory tower, thought to be in hand about 1200
• A mint at Delhi striking billon jitals in the sultan's name with a bull and a horseman (Wikipedia, Muhammad of Ghor)

How it was acquired

Muizz al-Din gave him the former Chahamana lands after Second Tarain in 1192, based at Kuhram (Minhaj calls it an iqta, Fakhr-i Mudabbir a sipahsalari, Hasan Nizami has him governor of Kuhram and Samana). Same year he relieved Hansi and took Meerut and Baran, and took Delhi while keeping its Tomara ruler as a vassal; in 1193 he deposed that ruler and ruled Delhi directly, then went to Ghazni for about six months. In 1194 he sent the army that ended Hariraja; Ajmer then got a Muslim governor (Nizami 1992, pp.

166 to 168).

Allies and rivals

Under Muizz al-Din in name; the sultan's other slave generals are Tughril at Bayana, Yildiz in the Kurram valley (Persia's ground) and Aytam at Uch. Whether Aibak and Tughril are open rivals over Gwalior, as the campaign board says, is not shown in the sources we could reach: Wikipedia calls Tughril only 'another prominent slave-general' and says the defenders of Gwalior surrendered to Aibak. Chaulukya Gujarat is the enemy he beat in 1197 and the one most likely to come back.

The Gahadavalas of Kannauj are broken (1194, 1198 to 1199) and are in the Ganges plain record.

How things stand that morning

On 1 January 1200 Aibak is the senior slave-commander in Hind but holds an office and not a crown. His whereabouts on the morning are not recorded. The Ghurid hold on Delhi, Meerut, Baran, Kuhram, Samana and Hansi is secure for the moment; Ajmer is held by a governor in Taragarh with the Mers of the hills restless; Bayana is Tughril's. Gujarat is not held: the Anhilwara garrison put in after the sack of 1197 (a Muslim officer in Firishta, Hindu vassals in Ibn al-Athir) did not last and the Chaulukya king is back.

Fakhr-i Mudabbir has Aibak conquer Malwa in 1199 to 1200; Wikipedia, after Nizami, thinks he merely raided it and that no other historian mentions a conquest. The Quwwat-ul-Islam is in building; the Ajmer mosque (Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra) had its mihrab inscription cut in Jumada II 595 AH (April 1199) and is finished or nearly finished.

Wealth

The Chahamana and Tomara treasuries taken in 1192 and 1193 and the booty of Anhilwara in 1197; no sum is given in the sources we could reach, and the Persian figures for the Chaulukya dead in 1197 are rhetorical. Iqta revenue and road tolls; the Sambhar salt revenue passes to Ajmer's garrison. Delhi jitals, billon coins with the bull and horseman of the old Indian types and the sultan's name in Nagari (Wikipedia, Muhammad of Ghor).

Military

Turkish slave cavalry and Ghurid and Afghan horse, held in forts and walled posts, with Hindu contingents used in the vanguard (the sources do not say how many). No troop count in the sources we could reach is used here. Record: Second Tarain 1192, Chandawar 1194, Mount Abu and Anhilwara 1197. The campaigns of 1198 to 1199 (Kannauj, Budaun) are in the Ganges plain record.

Threats

• Rajput risings in the sands and the Mewat hills (Jatwan in 1192; Hariraja in 1194)
• The Mers of the Aravalli round Ajmer, who rose once already (Nizami: undated)
• A new coalition at Mount Abu and a Chaulukya recovery in Gujarat
• The sultan's war in the west, which can take every reinforcement and call him away from India (the Khwarazmian war opens later in 1200; see likely_course_1200)
• Tughril, who can make himself a separate power at Bayana

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. 1199 to 1200, not pinned inside the span (Fakhr-i Mudabbir)A Ghurid raid into Malwa under Aibak, which the chronicler reads as a conquest and Wikipedia, after Nizami, doubtsDepends on: Aibak free of the Delhi and Doab fronts and no Paramara force in the field Stopped by: A Paramara muster on the Chambal, or the Chaulukya court pressing Malwa from the south
2. 1200, July or August (the day is not given in the source we could reach)Tekish of Khwarazm dies and his sons quarrel; the Ghurid war with Khwarazm opens (1200 to 1205), which takes Muizz al-Din's attention and his reinforcements to KhurasanDepends on: Tekish dying in 1200 (Wikipedia, Muhammad of Ghor; the source does not support a precise day) and the Ghurids choosing to press Stopped by: A settlement between Muizz al-Din and the new Khwarazmshah
3. September to October 1200 (Dhu al-Hijjah 596 AH)A second inscription is cut at the Ajmer mosque naming Abu Bakr ibn Ahmad Khalu al-Hirawi as its supervisor (Wikipedia, Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra)Depends on: The Ajmer garrison holding the town and the work continuing Stopped by: A rising in Ajmer or among the Mers

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202Aibak besieges Kalinjar and the Chandelas cede it; Sayyid Husain (Miran Saheb) is said to die in a Rajput attack at Taragarh in 1202 (Wikipedia, Taragarh Fort, giving the year as fact)Depends on: Aibak free to leave Delhi for the east Stopped by: Revolt at Delhi or Ajmer drawing him back
2. 15 March 1206 and 25 June 1206Muizz al-Din is assassinated at Dhamiak; Aibak 'informally ascends the throne' at Lahore on 25 June, with formal recognition from Mahmud in 1208 or 1209Depends on: Muizz al-Din's death in 1206 and Aibak surviving the intervening years Stopped by: Muizz al-Din's earlier death, a defeat of Aibak, or Yildiz or Tughril taking the lead
3. about 1210 (recalled, not rechecked)Aibak dies at Lahore in a polo accidentDepends on: Nothing in play changes it Stopped by: A change in his circumstances, such as defeat or capture

Places of note

• Qila Rai Pithora (Lal Kot): the Delhi citadel: Aibak's seat; the garrison ring round the Tomara walls and the new mosque
• Mehrauli: The settlement outside the citadel that supplies it

Where the sources disagree

• Title: some sources and many modern accounts say 'Sultan Qutb al-Din' for the whole period. The sultanate is 1206 at the earliest (informal accession 25 June 1206, recognition 1208 to 1209). On 1 January 1200 he is commander of Muizz al-Din's army in Hind.
• The campaign board entry quwwat-ul-islam-mosque dates the mosque 'by its own inscription to 1198'. Wikipedia's Quwwat-ul-Islam page gives a start in 1193 and the stone screen in 1196 and does not mention the inscription date, which we could not check. Either way the mosque is in building on 1 January 1200.
• The campaign board entry qutb-minar puts its start in 1199. Wikipedia's mosque page puts only the first storey 'about 1200', inferred from the eulogies to the sultan on the lowest storey; the Aibak article says only that it began in his reign. Treat the scaffolding as likely, not certain.
• The brief puts Taj al-Din Yildiz at Kuhram. The Persia map and Minhaj (Juzjani's 'Karman') put him in the Kurram valley, a different place. See Kuhram and Samana.
• The campaign board entry hansi and the Aibak article disagree on when Jatwan besieged Hansi: Nizami (1992) has 1192, Firishta 1203. The campaign board's story that Aibak rode forty miles in a night is not in any source we could reach.

Evidence: Wikipedia's articles on Aibak and Muhammad of Ghor summarise Nizami (1992) and Jackson (2003) and carry the chronology; the Persian chronicles themselves (Hasan Nizami's Taj al-Ma'athir, Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri, Fakhr-i Mudabbir) are reached only through those summaries because archive.org was refused. Dates inside 1192 to 1200 are often a year out between sources.

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

On the map: A block drawn from modern districts for a country that is really a chain of forts, tanks and road stages; the hills of Mewat inside it are not held. The Delhi near-country is firm; Rewari and Narnaul are inference from the road.

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.