15/07/2023

Alauddin Khilji/Khalji Age, Wife, Family, Biography, Death Cause, Facts & More

Alauddin Khilji (or Khalji) belonged to the Khalji dynasty. He was the most powerful ruler in his dynasty and one of the Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate. He is the most ambitious ruler among. He had acquired the rulership of the Delhi Sultanate after stabbing his uncle ‘Jalaluddin’ in the back while embracing him.

Biography/Wiki

Alauddin Khilji was born in the year between 1266–1267 (According to the 16th-17th century historian Haji-ud-Dabir), as Ali Gurshasp aka Juna Khan Khalji in the Khalji Dynasty in Qalat, Zabul Province, Afghanistan. He is truly eager to rule the world and has the desire to become Alexander the Second. He was also nicknamed as Alexander the Second aka Sikander-i-Sani by his community and followers.

Alauddin Khilji was the only ruler who made many reforms in the existing administration and improved the army to prevent any rebellion against him. His reforms produced a better government, and that government was run by himself. Some of his reforms included Revenue Reforms (direct taxation and removal of Hindu regional chiefs), Market Reforms (reducing the price of goods to maintain a large army on low wages), Social Reforms (banned liquor, prostitution, magicians and con men) and Military Reforms. Although these reforms were imposed to prevent any form of protest and rebellion, some of these proved to be good for keeping the administration in power. But he worsened the position of Hindus during his rule.

Family, Religion, Wife & Sexuality

Alauddin Khilji was born to Shihabuddin Mas’ud. He belongs to the Turkish Khalji lineage. He was raised by his uncle and Khalji Dynasty founder Sultan Jalaluddin along with his three brothers Almas Beg aka Ulugh Khan, Qutlugh Tigin, and Muhammad after his father’s death. He follows Islam and is a Sunni Muslim.

Alauddin Khilji married his uncle, Jalaluddin’s son, Malika-i-Jahan. After Jalaluddin became the Sultan of Delhi, his daughter became a princess and was very arrogant towards Alauddin. Since Alauddin was not satisfied with his first marriage, he married a woman named Mahru. After he plundered Devagiri, he again married the Devagiri princess, Jhatyapali and was blessed with a son named Shihabuddin Omar who was also the successor of the Khalji Dynasty. He also married another Hindu woman Kamaladevi, who was the ex-wife of Karna, the last Vaghela king of Gujarat.

Although Alauddin Khilji was married to four women, he developed a deep bond with his army commander who was a slave, Malik Kafur. Allegedly, Alauddin Khilji was bisexual, and in the last few years of his life, he fell in love with Malik Kafur.

Ascension as King

Alauddin Khilji proved himself as a great warrior before the Sultan of Delhi, Jalaluddin, who appointed Alauddin as Amir-i-Tuzuk. Later, to win Jalaluddin’s trust, he succeeded in suppressing the rebellion against the Sultan and got the post of Governor of Kara in 1291, and later became the governor of Awadh. In 1296, he attacked Devagiri and plundered the Raja. He was supposed to take all the looted treasure to Delhi. Instead, he took it to Kara. It was a rather rebellious move on his part; so, Sultan Jalaluddin himself went to investigate Alauddin, who killed the Sultan by stabbing him in the back. This automatically made him the next Sultan of Delhi.

After becoming Sultan of Delhi, he successfully tricked the Mongols and conquered many Hindu kingdoms including ‘Gujarat,’ ‘Chittor,’ ‘Malwa,’ ‘Siwana,’ ‘Jalore,’ etc. During his conquest, his army commander and counselor, Malik Kafur, proved to be very helpful. Malik Kafur was a slave captured during the Gujarat raid.

Alauddin Khilji was an enthusiastic ruler and liked to be called Second Alexander by his people. He also wrote the title Sikander-i-Sani on the coin.

Cause of death

Alauddin Khilji had become very insecure about his position in the last years of his life. It is said that he only trusted Kafur Malik whom he appointed as Viceroy and had acquired most of the administrative powers. Alauddin Khilji suffered from severe illness and followed all Malik Kafur’s advice including abolishing the Office of Wazir, dismissing most experienced officers from his department, killing his brother-in-law Alp Khan.

Alauddin Khilji died on January 4, 1316 which was suspected as a conspiracy by Malik Kafur and other Sultanate officials. Kafur buried Alauddin’s body (brought from Siri Place) in Alauddin’s mausoleum, which had been built for Alauddin before his death.

Alauddin’s mausoleum and madrasah is located behind the Qutb complex, Mehrauli, Delhi.

Facts

Alauddin served with his uncle Jalaluddin as Amir-i-Tuzuk (equivalent to Master of Ceremonies) and Almas Beg as Akhur-beg (equivalent to Master of the Horse).

His marriage to his first wife Malika-i-Jahan was unsuccessful; because Jalaluddin’s first wife’s father had become Sultan, and finally, she became a princess, resulting in a change in her behavior. He became more dominant towards Alauddin. He even attacked his second wife, Mahru out of jealousy.

Malik Chajju, the Governor of Kara, considered Jalaluddin an ineffective ruler and had started a rebellion against him. Alauddin played an important role in suppressing this rebellion, and as such, was appointed as the new Governor of Kara by Jalaluddin.

Jalaluddin’s wife was completely against Alauddin and had warned the Sultan of his intentions.

Malik Chajju incited Alauddin to oppose Jalaluddin, and it made him conspire against Jalaluddin to overthrow him.

Alauddin raided many neighboring Hindu Kingdoms and looted the treasures. He handed over this looted treasure to Jalaluddin who helped him gain the Sultan’s trust.

He took the booty looted in the Devagiri raid to Kara instead of handing it over to Jalaluddin. Jalaluddin decided to go to see Alauddin and with a small army of 1000 people.

Jalaluddin arrived in Kara on July 20, 1296 to meet Alauddin. While embracing the Sultan, he stabbed him in the back and declared himself the next Sultan of Delhi. But he was announced as the Sultan of Delhi on 21 October 1296 when he arrived in Delhi.

According to the chronicler Ziauddin Barani, the first year of Alauddin’s reign was the happiest year for the people of Delhi.

While being the Sultan of Delhi, he expanded his territory by attacking neighboring kingdoms including, Gujarat, Mewar, Jalore, Malwa, Madurai, etc.

Alauddin defeated the Mongols every time they tried to attack Delhi. He defeated them in the wars of Jalandhar (1298), Kili (1299), Amroha (1305), and Ravi (1306). He treated the Mongols with cruel punishments such as killing children in front of their mothers.

When he conquered Ranthambore, he faced three unsuccessful rebellions against him, which he suppressed each time. To prevent any future rebellions, he imposed a system of intelligence surveillance and tightened his rules.

According to some old stories, Alauddin attacked Chittoor to capture the queen of Rawal Ratan Singh/Ratnasimha (King of Chittoor) Padmavati. However, no such fact is found in modern history.

Due to the lack of troops and prepared strategy, Alauddin had to take refuge in Siri Fort which was under construction to escape the Mongol attack on Delhi around August 1303.

To prevent any future attacks by Malika-i-Jahan, he planted more troops and tightened security on the routes used by the Mongols to enter his borders and made several economic reforms to keep his army in good shape.

Alauddin was the first Muslim King to invade South India with the help of his most loyal servant Malik Kafur.

He established the most orderly administration in Delhi by paying his officials well; also, he appointed different officials to different positions to run his own government.

Alaudin set the price of the commodity according to its real value, which caused the people to survive efficiently on low wages.

The taxation system established by him proved to be very effective and was followed until the nineteenth century.

According to the historian Ziauddin Barani, Alauddin also had the intention of embracing a new religion.

Allegedly, Alauddin was bisexual, and in the last years of his life, he shared a special bond with his most loyal officer Malik Kafur whom he had captured as a slave during his invasion of Gujarat.