NCERT Class 7 - Our Pasts II • NCERT Class 12 - Themes in Indian History Part II

Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi Dynasties

The Tughlaqs ruled from 1320 to 1414 and took the Sultanate to its greatest extent, then lost most of it. The Sayyids and Lodis that followed held a shrunken kingdom until 1526, when Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq

• Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq founded the dynasty and built the fortress city of Tughlaqabad.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq, ruling 1325-1351, was learned in logic, philosophy, mathematics and medicine, but his projects failed for want of planning.
• Transfer of the capital to Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, to control the Deccan. The population of Delhi was made to move; the order was later reversed.
• Token currency - he issued coins of copper and brass meant to pass at the value of silver. Because the mint was not controlled, forgery spread and the experiment was withdrawn.
• Increase of taxation in the Doab, imposed during a famine, which caused peasants to abandon their fields and provoked revolt.
• The Khurasan expedition, for which a large army was raised and paid for a year before being disbanded, and the Qarachil expedition into the hills, which ended in disaster.
• The traveller Ibn Battuta came from Morocco during his reign and was appointed qazi of Delhi.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq

• He ruled 1351-1388 and chose consolidation over conquest, keeping nobles satisfied by making iqtas hereditary.
• He built canals from the Yamuna and Sutlej, the largest irrigation network of the Sultanate, and levied a water tax called haqq-i-sharb.
• He founded the towns of Firozabad, Hisar, Fatehabad and Jaunpur.
• Welfare departments included the Diwan-i-Khairat for charity and the marriage of poor girls, and a Diwan-i-Bandagan for the very large number of slaves he maintained.
• He banned mutilation as punishment, and wrote the Futuhat-i-Firozshahi, his own account of his reign.
• He extended jizya to groups previously exempt, which is criticised as a narrowing of policy.
• He had two Ashokan pillars moved to Delhi out of interest in their antiquity, though nobody could then read the script.

Decline and the last dynasties

• Timur invaded in 1398, sacked Delhi and left the Sultanate broken; provinces such as Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa and Bengal became independent.
• The Sayyid dynasty (1414-1451) was founded by Khizr Khan, who ruled as a deputy rather than claim the title of Sultan.
• The Lodis (1451-1526) were the first Afghan dynasty of Delhi. Bahlul Lodi founded it; Sikandar Lodi shifted the capital to Agra, which he founded in 1504, and introduced the Gaz-i-Sikandari, a standard measuring yard.
• Ibrahim Lodi quarrelled with his Afghan nobles and was defeated and killed by Babur at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.