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Muhammad bin Tughluq was born to Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, who founded the Tughlaq dynasty after taking control of the Delhi Sultanate. [9] He is also known as Prince Fakhr Malik Jauna Khan, Juna Khan or Ulugh Khan. [10]
Aug 29, 2023 · Learn about the history and achievements of the Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1413), which ruled the Delhi Sultanate after the Khilji dynasty. Find out who were the important rulers, their policies, and their experiments such as transfer of capital and token currency.
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Muḥammad ibn Tughluq (born c. 1290, Delhi, India—died March 20, 1351, Sonda, Sindh [now in Pakistan]) second sultan of the Tughluq dynasty (reigned 1325–51), who briefly extended the rule of the Delhi sultanate of northern India over most of the subcontinent. As a result of misguided administrative actions and unexampled severity toward his opponen...
Muḥammad was the son of the sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Tughluq. Very little is known of his childhood, but he apparently received a good education. He possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Qurʾān, Muslim jurisprudence, astronomy, logic, philosophy, medicine, and rhetoric. In 1321–22 his father sent him against the city of Warangal in the Deccan, in which campaign, after initial reverses, he subdued the rebellious Hindu rajas. From his accession to the throne in 1325 until his death in 1351, Muḥammad contended with 22 rebellions, pursuing his policies consistently and ruthlessly. Ziyāʾ al-Dīn Baranī, his close companion and counsellor for 17 years, often advised him to abdicate, but Muḥammad disdainfully rejected his advice.
As his reign began, Muḥammad attempted, without much success, to enlist the services of the ʿulamāʾ, the Muslim divines, and the Sufis, the ascetic mystics. Failing to win the ʿulamāʾ over, he tried to curtail their powers, as some of his predecessors had, by placing them on an equal footing with other citizens. The Sultan wanted to use the Sufis’ prestigious position to stabilize his authority as ruler. Yet they had always refused any association with government and would not accept any grants or offices except under duress. Muḥammad tried every measure, conciliatory or coercive, to yoke them to his political wagon. Although he humiliated them, he could not break their opposition and succeeded only in dispersing them from the towns of northern India.
In the four pages of his so-called autobiography, Muḥammad’s only surviving literary work, he confesses that he had wavered from traditional orthodoxy to philosophic doubts and then found his way to a rational faith. To still his own doubts, as well as to counteract the opposition of the Muslim divines, he obtained from the titular caliph in Cairo a manshūr (patent of royalty) legitimizing his authority.
The transfer of the capital in 1327 to Deogir (now Daulatabad) was intended to consolidate the conquests in southern India by large-scale—in some cases forced—migration of the people of Delhi to Deogir. As an administrative measure it failed, but it had far-reaching cultural effects. The spread of the Urdu language in the Deccan may be traced to this extensive influx of Muslims. He introduced several reforms in the monetary system, and his coins, in design as well as in workmanship and purity of metal, excelled those of his predecessors. His introduction of token currency, coins of baser metal with the face value of silver coins, however, failed dismally.
A projected Khorāsān expedition (1327–28) that never materialized was intended to secure more defensible frontiers in the west. The Karajil (Garhwal-Kumaon) expedition (1329–30), an attempt to adjust the boundary dispute with the northern hill states then dominated by China, ended in disaster, but it was followed by an exchange of emissaries between China and Delhi. The conquest of Nagarkot in the foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India was based on Muḥammad’s policy of establishing secure frontiers.
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Sultan Muḥammad was among the most controversial and enigmatic figures of the 14th century. A dauntless soldier, he was tolerant in religion and was normally humane and humble, but these traits were vitiated at times by cruelty sometimes approaching the inhuman. He lived in constant conflict between faith and action, faith in the correctness of his policies and action in the means by which he sought to implement them. A born revolutionary, he desired to create a more equitable social order by making Islam a religion of service rather than a means of exploitation. This end, he believed, could be achieved only by a strong centralized authority based on justice and patronage of the poor, the learned, and the pious and on the suppression of rebellions mainly of the privileged classes in a tradition-ridden society.
All contemporary historians based their assessment of Muḥammad on his administrative measures, which were neither vicious nor visionary. They failed because of the harshness of the Sultan in executing them, the challenge they posed to the privileged classes, the general lethargy and conservatism of his subjects, and the expansion of the empire with which Muḥammad’s administrative machinery could not cope.
Tughlaq dynasty. Territory under the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, 1330–1335. The empire shrank after 1335. [4][5] The Tughlaq dynasty (also known as the Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty; Persian: تغلق شاهیان) was the third dynasty to rule over the Delhi Sultanate in medieval India. [10]
Learn about the life, death, and achievements of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq, the eighth ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. Find out his religious policies, expeditions, token currency, and capital shift, and their impact on his reign.
- He is also known for wild policy swings. Muhammad ascended to the Delhi throne upon his father’s death in 1325. He was interested in medicine and w...
- Sultan Muhammad-bin Tughluq has been described by some as a ‘mad king’. For, all his projects like the transfer of capital from Delhi to Daulatabad...
- Muhammad Bin Tughlaq issued token money in 1330, after his unsuccessful expedition to Deogiri; that is, coins of brass and copper were minted whose...
- In AD 1325, Jauna Khan succeeded his father as Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He was one of the most knowledgeable scholars of his time. He spoke Arabic and...
- Muhammad bin Tughlaq is known as a ‘confused genius’ because his experiments failed. He was a modern man but the scenarios made him fail.
- Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq or Ghazi Malik was the founder of the Tughluq dynasty. Tughluq’s policy was harsh against Mongols. He had killed envoys of th...
- Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was one of the most interesting personalities of Medieval Indian history because he is popularly called by scholars as an inte...
- Mohammad bin Tughlaq issued token currency – the coins of brass and copper were minted whose value were equal to gold and silver coins. This experi...
- There were two reasons behind the transfer. Delhi was insecure on account of the Mongol invasion. He cannot maintain a large army. Devagiri was mor...
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The age of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq is considered a very significant epoch in the history of Indian coinage. He introduced various reforms and improvements in manufacturing, valuation and types of coinage. Edward Thomas has aptly called him the ‘Prince of Moneyers’ because of his advanced measures in the field of coinage.
A biography of Muhammad bin Tughluq, a medieval Indian ruler who faced rebellions, invasions, and administrative reforms. Learn about his life, achievements, and legacy from various sources and perspectives.
