Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji

Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī,^[2] also known as Bakhtiyar Khalji,^[3][4] was a Turko-Afghan^[5][6] military general of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor,^[7] who led the Muslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions of Bengal and parts of Bihar and established himself as their ruler.^{[8][9][10][11]} He was the founder of the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, ruling Bengal for a short period, from 1203 to 1227 CE.

Ikhtiyar al-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji and his fellow warrior Subahdar Auliya Khan leading troops in the slaughter of Buddhist monks at Nalanda monastery. Early 20th-century illustration.[1]
Ruler of (Bengal)
Reign	c. 1203 – 1206
Predecessor	(Position established)
Successor	Muhammad Shiran Khalji
Born	c. 1150 Garmsir, Helmand, Afghanistan
Died	c. 1206 Devkot, South Dinajpur, West Bengal
Burial	1206 Pirpal Dargah, Narayanpur, Gangarampur, West Bengal
Era dates (12th–13th centuries)
Clan	Khilji
Religion	Sunni Islam
Occupation	Military general ruler

Khalji's invasions of the Indian subcontinent between A.D. 1197 and 1206 led to mass flight and massacres of monks, and caused damage to the traditional Buddhist institutions of higher learning in Northern India.^[12] In Bengal, Khalji's reign was responsible for the displacement of Buddhism.^[13][14] The leading centre of teaching for Mahayana Buddhism was Nalanda. At the end of the 12th century, Bakhityar Khilji demolished the Monastery in a brutal sacking.^[15] But some historians don't agree and reason that Bakhtiyar's attacks weren't on the Buddhist viharas, and the actual Buddhist sites were already abandoned or in declining state.^[16]

His rule is said to have begun the Muslim rule in Bengal, most notably those of Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal.^[17]

Bakhtiyar launched an ill-fated Tibet campaign in 1206 and was assassinated upon returning to Bengal.^[18][19] He was succeeded by Muhammad Shiran Khalji.

Early life and origin

Bakhtiyar Khalji was born and raised in Garmsir, Helmand, in present-day southern Afghanistan. He was member of the Khalaj tribe,^[20] which was originally of Turkic origin.^[21] After being settled in south-eastern Afghanistan for over 200 years, it led to the creation of the Pashtun Ghilji tribe, with Bakhtiyar seen as a Turko-Afghan. Later in the Khalji Revolution, the Khaljis faced discrimination and were looked down upon by other Turks for Afghan barbarians.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Bakhtiyar during his early years went in search of employment to Ghazni and Delhi. At the latter, he was rejected due to his ugly appearance. Afterwards, he moved towards Badaun in present-day Uttar Pradesh, where he obtained his first employment. Accounts differ regarding who initially took Bakhtiyar into his service.^[26]

Bakhtiyar did not come from an obscure background. His uncle Muhammad bin Mahmud had fought in the Second Battle of Tarain against Prithviraja III. Mahmud was later honoured with the iqta of Kashamandi. After the death of his uncle, the iqta was passed to Bakhtiyar. However, Bakhtiyar did not stay in Kashamndi for long. He approached the commander of Benaras, Husamudin Aghul Bek, who was impressed with his gallantry and bestowed on him the iqtas of Bhagwat and Bhilui (present-day Mirzapur district).^[27]

In his early career, before the expeditions in Bengal and Bihar, Bakhtiyar displaced the minor Gahadavala chiefs in the region of present-day Uttar Pradesh and from there raided Maner and Bihar where he looted a large amount of booty. These successful raids increased Bakhtiyar's fame and many Khaljis joined in his service. Qutb ud-Din Aibak also honoured him.^[27]

Military career

Khalji was head of the Ghurid military force that conquered parts of eastern India at the end of the 12th century and at the beginning of the 13th century.^[28]

Bengal coinage of Bakhtiyar Khalji (1204–1206 CE). Struck in the name of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad, dated Samvat 1262 (1204 CE).
Obverse: Horseman with Nagari legend around: samvat 1262 bhadrapada "August, year 1262". Reverse: Nagari legend: srima ha/ mira mahama /da saamah "Lord Emir Mohammed [ibn] Sam".^[29][30]

Another type of Bengal coinage of Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji as governor (1204–1206 CE). Obverse: horseman galloping, holding lance with Devanagari legend around (śrimat mahamada samah "Lord Mohammed [ibn] Sam"). Reverse: name and titles of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad bin Sam in Arabic. Struck AD 1204–1205.^[29] This is his earliest coinage in Bengal, using both Sanskrit and Arabic legends.^[31]

Conquest of Bihar and Destruction of Mahaviras (Buddhist Ritual Centres) (1200)

See also: Vikramashila and Odantapuri

He subjugated much of Bihar in 1200.^[32] His invasions destroyed the university establishments at Odantapuri, Vikramashila Mahaviras.^[33][12] Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani's Tabaqat-i Nasiri documents Bakhtiyar Khalji's sack of a Buddhist monastery,^[12] which the author equates in his description with a city he calls "Bihar", from the soldiers' use of the word vihara.^[34] According to the early 17th-century Buddhist scholar Taranatha, the invaders massacred many monks at Odantapuri, and destroyed Vikramashila.^[34] Historians Satish Chandra, Mohammad Habib and others have directly or indirectly implicated Bakhtiyar in the destruction of the Mahaviharas in their writings, but others like D.N. Jha and Namit Arora have reasoned that those sites may not have been destroyed by him.^[35][36]

Conquest of Bengal (1203)

Main article: Ghurid conquest of Bengal

In 1203, Khalji invaded Bengal. With the octogenarian emperor Lakshmana Sena at the helm, the Sena dynasty was in a state of decline and could not provide much resistance. As Khalji came upon the city of Nabadwip, it is said that he advanced so rapidly that only 18 horsemen from his army could keep up.^[37] The small horde entered the city unchallenged and took the emperor and his army by shock.^[38][39] This caused Lakhsmana Sena to flee with his retainers to east Bengal.^[40][41][42] Khalji subsequently went on to capture Gauda (ancient Lakhnauti), the capital and the principal city of Bengal^[43] and intruded into much of Bengal.^[44]

Muhammad Bakhtiyar's rule was related by Minhaj al-Siraj, as he visited Bengal about 40 years later:^[45]

After Muhammad Bakhtiyar possessed himself of that territory he left the city of Nudiah in desolation, and the place which is (now) Lakhnauti he made the seat of government. He brought the different parts of the territory under his sway, and instituted therein, in every part, the reading of the khutbah, and the coining of money; and, through his praiseworthy endeavours, and those of his Amirs, masjids [mosques], colleges, and monasteries (for Dervishes), were founded in those parts.

— Account of the conquest of Bengal, Minhaj al-Siraj.^[45]

Invasion of Tibet (1206)

Main article: Bakhtiyar Khalji's Tibet campaign

Bakhtiyar Khalji left the town of Devkot in 1206 to attack Tibet, leaving Ali Mardan Khalji in Ghoraghat Upazila to guard the eastern frontier from his headquarters at Barisal. Bakhtiyar Khalji's forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Tibetan guerrilla forces at Chumbi Valley, which forced him to retreat to Devkot with only about a hundred surviving soldiers. This was first and shameful defeat of Khalji.^[46]

Death and aftermath

See also: Khalji dynasty of Bengal

Khalji dynasty of Bengal

As Bakhtiyar Khalji lay ill and exhausted in Devkot after defeated by Tibetans, he was assassinated by Ali Mardan Khalji.^[18][19]

The Khalji noblemen then appointed Muhammad Shiran Khalji as Bakhtiyar's successor. Loyal troops under Shiran Khalji and Subedar Aulia Khan avenged Ikhtiyar's death, imprisoning Ali Mardan Khalji. Eventually Ali Mardan fled to Delhi and provoked the Sultan of Delhi Qutb al-Din Aibak to invade Bengal, who sent an army under Qayemaz Rumi, the governor of Awadh, to dethrone Shiran Khalji. Shiran fled to Dinajpur where he later died.^[47]

Ghiyas-ud-din Iwaz Khalji assisted the invasion and assumed the governorship of Bengal in 1208. But shortly after, he yielded power to Ali Mardan willingly, when the latter returned from Delhi in 1210. However, the nobles of Bengal conspired against and assassinated Ali Mardan in 1212. Iwaj Khalji assumed power again and proclaimed his independence from the Delhi sultanate.^[48]

Legacy

Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji had the Khutbah read and coins struck in his name. Mosques, madrasas, and khanqahs arose through Bakhtiyar's patronage, and his example was imitated by his subordinates.^[49][50]

See also

• List of rulers of Bengal#Delhi Sultanate era
• Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi
• Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud
• Bakhtiarpur
• Conquest of Bihar (1202)

References

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4. Hussain, Syed Ejaz (2003). The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins (AD 1205–1576). New Delhi: Manohar. p. 27. ISBN 9788173044823.
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6. Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526). p. 226. Although the Afghans formed a large group in the army of the Delhi Sultanat, only few Afghan nobles had been accorded important positions. That is why Bakhtiyar Khalji who was part - Afghan had to seek his fortune in Bihar and Bengal.
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8. Majumdar, R. C. (1973). History of Mediaeval Bengal. Calcutta: G. Bharadwaj & Co. pp. 1–2. OCLC 1031074. Tradition gives him credit for the conquest of Bengal but as a matter of fact he could not subjugate the greater part of Bengal ... All that Bakhtyār can justly take credit for is that by his conquest of Western and a part of Northern Bengal he laid the foundation of the Muslim State in Bengal. The historians of the 13th century never attributed the conquest of the whole of Bengal to Bakhtyār.
9. Mehta, Jaswant Lal (1986) [First published 1979]. Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Sterling Publishers. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-81-207-0617-0. OCLC 883279992. The Turkish arms penetrated into Bihar and Bengal through the enterprising efforts of Ikhtiyaruddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji ... he started plundering raids into Bihar and, within four or five years, occupied a large part of it ... Nadia was sacked by the Turks and a few districts of Bengal (Malda, Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Birbhum) were occupied by them ... Bathtiyar Khalji could not retain his hold over Nadia and made Lakhnauti or Gaur as his capital.
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13. Arnold, Sir Thomas Walker (1896). The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. Archibald Constable and Co. pp. 227–228.
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16. Salam, Ziya Us (18 July 2024). "Of a gilded past and the future: Nalanda's lost glory and new-found ambitions". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
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22. Oberling, Pierre (15 December 2010). "ḴALAJ i. TRIBE". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 4 July 2020. Indeed, it seems very likely that [the Khalaj] formed the core of the Pashto-speaking Ghilji tribe, the name [Ghilji] being derived from Khalaj.
23. Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal (1966). The History of India, 1000 A.D.-1707 A.D. (Second ed.). Shiva Lal Agarwala. p. 98. OCLC 575452554. His ancestors, after having migrated from Turkistan, had lived for over 200 years in the Helmand valley and Lamghan, parts of Afghanistan called Garmasir or the hot region, and had adopted Afghan manners and customs. They were, therefore, wrongly looked upon as Afghans by the Turkish nobles in India as they had intermarried with local Afghans and adopted their customs and manners. They were looked down as non-Turks by Turks.
24. Eraly, Abraham (2015). The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate. Penguin Books. p. 126. ISBN 978-93-5118-658-8. The prejudice of Turks was however misplaced in this case, for Khaljis were actually ethnic Turks. But they had settled in Afghanistan long before the Turkish rule was established there, and had over the centuries adopted Afghan customs and practices, intermarried with the local people, and were therefore looked down on as non-Turks by pure-bred Turks.
25. Chaurasia, Radhey Shyam (2002). History of medieval India: from 1000 A.D. to 1707 A.D. Atlantic. p. 28. ISBN 81-269-0123-3. The Khaljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, had adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court. They were regarded as barbarians. The Turkish nobles had opposed the ascent of Jalal-ud-din to the throne of Delhi
26. Nizami 1970, p. 171.
27. Nizami 1970, p. 172.
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33. Roy, Himanshu (30 August 2021). Political Thought in Indic Civilization. SAGE Publishing India. p. 6. ISBN 978-93-5479-159-8. After the arrival of Islam, the universities such as Nalanda and Vikramshila were no longer existent. The destruction of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji was the last nail in this pre-Islamic Indic university, which had survived three major destructions
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43. Sarkar, Jadunath, ed. (1973) [First published 1948]. The History of Bengal. Vol. II. Patna: Academica Asiatica. p. 8. OCLC 924890. Bakhtyār fairly completed his conquest of the Varendra tract with the ... city of Gaur before the year 599 A.H.
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Bibliography

• Nizami, K. A. (1970). "Foundation of the Delhi Sultanat". In Habib, Mohammad; Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad (eds.). A Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1206-1526). Vol. 5. People's Publishing House. OCLC 305725.

External links

• History of the Muslims of Bengal – Volume 1A: Muslim Rule in Bengal (600-170/1203-1757), by Muhammad Mohar Ali, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Department of Culture and Publications.
• Ahmed, ABM Shamsuddin (2012). "Bakhtiyar Khalji". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M. Retrieved 24 December 2024.

• Chowdhury, AM (2012). "Sena Dynasty". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M. Retrieved 24 December 2024.

Preceded by Sena dynasty King Lakshman Sen	Khalji dynasty of Bengal 1204–1206	Succeeded by Muhammad Shiran Khalji