Qutb ud-Din Aibak

Aibak was born in c. 1150.[1] His name is variously transliterated as "Qutb al-Din Aybeg",[2] "Qutbuddin Aibek",[3] and "Kutb Al-Din Aybak".[4] He came from Turkestan, and belonged to a Turkic tribe called Aibak. The word "Aibak", also transliterated as "Aibek" or "Aybeg", derives from the Turkic words for "moon" (ai) and "lord" (bek). As a child, he was separated from his family and taken to the slave market of Nishapur. There, Qazi Fakhruddin Abdul Aziz Kufi, a descendant of the noted Muslim theologian Abu Hanifa, purchased him. Aibak was treated affectionately in the Qazi's household and was educated with the Qazi's sons. He learned archery and horse-riding, besides Quran recital.[5]

The Qazi or one of his sons sold Aibak to a merchant, who in turn, sold the boy to the Ghurid Sultan Muhammad Ghori in Ghazni. After being admitted to the Sultan's slave-household, Aibak's intelligence and kind nature attracted the Sultan's attention. Once, when the Sultan bestowed gifts upon his slaves, Aibak distributed his share among the servants. Impressed by this act, the Sultan promoted him to a higher rank.[5]

Aibak later rose to the important position of Amir-i Akhur, the officer of the royal stables.[5] During the Ghurid conflicts with the Khwarazmian ruler Sultan Shah, Aibak was responsible for the general maintenance of the horses, as well as their fodder and equipment.[6] One day, while foraging for horse fodder, he was captured by Sultan Shah's scouts and was detained in an iron cage. After the Ghurids defeated Sultan Shah, Muhammad Ghori ad-Din saw him in the cage and was deeply touched by his desperate condition. After he was released, the Sultan greatly favoured him. No information is available about Aibak's subsequent assignments until the First Battle of Tarain fought in India, in 1191–1192.[7]

According to Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri, Aibak had conquered territory up to the frontiers of Ujjain in the south.[40] Minhaj states that at the time of Sultan Muhammad Ghori's death in 1206, the Ghurids controlled the following areas in India:[41]

However, Ghurid control was not equally effective in all these areas. In some of these places, such as Gwalior and Kalinjar, Ghurid control had weakened or even ceased to exist.[42]

Tajul-Ma'asir, a contemporary chronicle by Hasan Nizami, suggests that Muhammad Ghori appointed Aibak as his representative in India after his victory at Tarain. Hasan Nizami also states that the iyalat (governorship) of Kuhram and Samana was entrusted to Aibak.[44]

Fakhr-i Mudabbir, another contemporary chronicler, states that Muhammad Ghori formally appointed Aibak as the viceroy of his Indian territories only in 1206 when he was returning to Ghazni after suppressing the Khokhar rebellion. According to this chronicler, Aibak was promoted to the rank of malik and appointed heir apparent (wali al-ahd) of the Sultan's Indian territories.[45]

Historian K. A. Nizami theorizes that Sultan Muhammad Ghori never appointed Aibak as his successor in India: the slave-general acquired this position after the Sultan's death through the use of diplomacy and military power. The Sultan's unexpected death left three of his main slave-generals - Aibak, Taj al-Din Yildiz, and Nasir ad-Din Qabacha - in positions of power.[37] During his last years, the Sultan was disappointed in his family and his chiefs and trusted only his slaves, whom he thought of as his sons and successors.[46]

At the time of the Sultan's death, Aibak had his headquarters at Delhi. The citizens of Lahore requested him to assume sovereign power after the Sultan's death, and he moved his government to Lahore. He informally ascended the throne on 25 June 1206, but his formal recognition as a sovereign ruler happened much later, in 1208–1209.[47][4]

Meanwhile, in and around Ghazni, the Sultan's slaves fought with his nobles for control of the Ghurid Empire and helped his nephew Ghiyasuddin Mahmud ascend the throne.[48] When Mahmud had consolidated his rule, Aibak and other slaves sent messengers to his court, seeking deeds of manumission and investiture for ruling over the various Ghurid territories.[41] According to Minhaj, Aibak (unlike Yildiz) maintained the khutba and stuck's coins in Mahmud's name.[49][4]

Yildiz, who was Aibak's father-in-law, sought to control the Ghurid territories in India. After Sultan Mahmud confirmed him as the ruler of Ghazni and manumitted him, Yildiz marched to Punjab, intending to take control of the region. Aibak marched against him, forced him to retreat to Kohistan, and took control of Ghazni.[42] Aibak then sent his representative Nizamuddin Muhammad to Mahmud's headquarters at Firuz Kuh, seeking to expedite his request for the investiture.[41]

In 1208–1209, Mahmud conferred a chatr (ceremonial parasol) on Aibak,[49] and issued a deed of investiture recognizing him as the ruler of Hindustan. He may have also issued a deed of manumission for Aibak at this time.[41] According to Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri, Mahmud styled Aibak as a "Sultan"; chronicler Hasan Nizami also calls him a "Sultan".[49] Nizami states that the khutba was read and coins were struck in Aibak's name, but no other source corroborates this claim.[4] No coins issued by him have been found,[4] and no extant coins describe him as a "Sultan".[49]

According to Minhaj, Aibak became complacent and devoted his time to pleasures and amusements in Ghazni. The people of Ghazni invited Yildiz to evict him from the city, and when Yildiz arrived in the vicinity of Ghazni, Aibak panicked and escaped to India via a narrow mountain pass called Sang-i Surkh. Subsequently, Aibak moved his capital to Lahore to safeguard his territories against Yildiz.[42]

Ali Mardan Khalji, who had accompanied Aibak to Ghazni, was captured and imprisoned by Yildiz. He somehow secured his release and returned to India. Aibak dispatched him to Lakhnauti in Bengal, where Husamuddin Iwaz agreed to be his subordinate. Ali Mardan thus became the governor of Aibak's territories in eastern India and brought the whole region under his control.[43]

A modern artist's impression of the accident that caused Aibak's death

After being recognized as the ruler of India, Aibak focused on consolidating his rule in the territories already under his control, rather than conquering new territories. In 1210, he fell down from a horse while playing chovgan (a form of polo on horseback) in Lahore, and died instantly when the pommel of the saddle pierced his ribs.[43]

All contemporary chroniclers praise Aibak as a loyal, generous, courageous, and just man.[7] According to Minhaj, his generosity earned him the epithet lakh-bakhsh, literally "giver of lakhs [of copper coins or jitals]".[50] Fakhr-i Mudabbir states that Aibak's soldiers - who included "Turks, Ghurids, Khurasanis, Khaljis, and Hindustanis" - did not dare to forcibly take even a blade of grass or a morsel of food from the peasants. The 16th century Mughal chronicler Abu'l-Fazl criticizes Mahmud of Ghazna for "shedding innocent blood", but praises Aibak stating that "he achieved things, good and great". As late as the 17th century, the term "Aibak of the time" was used to describe generous people, as attested by the chronicler Firishta.[51]

Aibak's conquests involved the large-scale capture of people as slaves. According to Hasan Nizami, his Gujarat campaign resulted in the enslavement of 20,000 people; and his Kalinjar campaign resulted in the enslavement of 50,000 people. According to Irfan Habib, Nizami's work is full of rhetoric and hyperbole, so these numbers seem to be exaggerated, however, the number of slaves collected must indeed have been vast and grew over time.[52]

Tomb of Qutb al-Din Aibak (renovated in 1970) in Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore.

Aibak, who died unexpectedly, had not appointed an heir apparent. After his death, the Turkic officers (maliks and amirs) stationed at Lahore appointed Aram Shah as his successor. No details about Aram Shah's life are available before his ascension to the throne.[51] According to one theory, he was a son of Aibak, but this is unlikely (see personal life section.)[53]

Aram Shah ruled for no more than eight months, during which various provincial governors started asserting independence. Some Turkic officers then invited Aibak's former slave Iltutmish, a distinguished general, to take over the kingdom.[54] Aibak had purchased Iltutmish sometime after the conquest of Anhilwara in 1197.[44] According to Minhaj, Aibak looked upon Iltutmish as the next ruler: he used to call Iltutmish his son and had granted him the iqta' of Badaun. Consequently, the nobles appointed Iltutmish as Aram Shah's successor and married Aibak's daughter to him. Aram Shah challenged Iltutmish's claim to the throne but was decisively defeated and killed after a military conflict.[55] Iltutmish subjugated the rebel governors and transformed the loosely-held Ghurid territories of India into the powerful Delhi Sultanate.[56]

Iltutmish was succeeded by his family members, and then by his slave Ghiyas ud din Balban.[57] This line of kings is called Mamluk or Slave dynasty; however, this term is a misnomer.[3][57] Only Aibak, Iltutmish, and Balban were slaves, and seem to have been manumitted before their ascension to the throne.[3] The other rulers in this line were not slaves at any point in their life.[57]

Today his tomb is located in Anarkali, Lahore. The tomb was built, in its present form, during the 1970s by the Department of Archaeology and Museums (Pakistan) which tried to emulate the Sultanate-era architecture. Before the modern construction, the Sultan's grave existed in a simple form and was enclosed by residential houses. Historians dispute whether a proper tomb ever existed over it (some historians claim that a marble dome did stand over it but was destroyed by the Sikhs).[58]

Some manuscripts of Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri append the words bin Aibak ("son of Aibak") to the name of Aibak's successor of Aram Shah.[54] However, this may have been an erroneous addition made by a careless scribe, as Alauddin Ata Malik-i-Juwayni's Tarikh-i-Jahan-Gusha chronicle explicitly mentions that Aibak had no son.[53] Contrarily, the 14th century historian Abdul Malik Isami stated Aaram Shah as Aibak's real son.[59]

Minhaj refers to the three daughters of Aibak. The first one was married to Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, the Ghurid governor of Multan. After her death, the second daughter was married to Qabacha as well. The third one was married to Aibak's slave Iltutmish, who succeeded Aram Shah on the throne of Delhi.[53]

Chronicler Hasan Nizami, who migrated from Nishapur to Delhi during Aibak's reign, characterizes Aibak as a devout Muslim who "uprooted idolatry" and "destroyed temples" at Kuhram. He also mentions that the Hindu temples at Meerut and Kalinjar were converted into mosques during Aibak's reign; these included "a thousand temples" in Delhi alone.[60][61] He further claims that Aibak freed the whole Kol (Aligarh) region from idols and idolatry.[62]

Nizami's claim that the remains of the demolished Hindu temples were used to build mosques is corroborated by architectural remains, such as those at the Qutb Minar complex in Delhi and the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra in Ajmer. However, his other claims such as Aibak freeing Kol from idols are doubtful.[62]

At some point, Aibak's army started recruiting Hindu soldiers. His army at the siege of Meerut (1192) is known to have included Hindu soldiers. Similarly, the "forces of Hindustan" (Hasham-i Hindustan) that accompanied him to Ghazni in 1206, included Hindu chiefs ("ranas" and "thakurs").[63]

The construction of the Qutb Minar in Delhi started during Aibak's reign. Aibak was also a patron of literature. Fakhri Mudabbir, who wrote Adab al-Harb - etiquettes of war - dedicated his book of genealogies to Aibak. The composition of Hasan Nizami's Tajul-Ma'asir, which was completed during the reign of Iltutmish, probably began during Aibak's reign.[4]

• 1206 in India