Frontier town · The Ghurid sultanate · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Gwalior

The fort of Gwalior stands on a sandstone ridge above a town of rock shrines and palace works built by the Pratiharas, Kachchhapaghatas and Parihars (the Teli ka Mandir, the Sas-Bahu temples).

The usual date for its surrender to Tughril is 1196; others put the Ghurid hold at about 1200 with Iltutmish as amir. The great Jain rock sculptures of Gwalior were cut in the fifteenth century under the Tomaras (later), so they are not a feature of 1200.

Who holds it

Name
Baha al-Din Tughril; Iltutmish (not pinned); the Parihar rai Sulakshanapala
Title
Muqta or amir; a Parihar rai in submission
Since
1196 or about 1200
Born
not known
Family
See the Gwalior record.
Confidence
low

Wikipedia Gwalior Fort, Aibak and Iltutmish pages.

Lord in 1200

Tughril or Iltutmish, or a Parihar rai under them: not pinned.

How things stand that morning

A rock-fort under a disputed Ghurid hold.

Wealth

Tribute of the Chambal chiefs, the Narwar road.

Military

A strong fort; no numbers.

Threats

  • Parihar recovery (about 1210, later)

Communities

Jain and Hindu temples; Muslim garrison.

Walls and castle

The rock fort, with water tanks.

Trade and crafts

Not described.

Where the sources disagree

  • The brief asks which of 1196 and 1200 is wrong: we give both and our reading in the lord record.

Evidence: Conflicting pages.

On the map: Fort seed.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Gwalior Fort
  2. Wikipedia, Qutb ud-Din Aibak
  3. Wikipedia, Iltutmish

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.