Razia Sultan (1236-1240): Delhi's Only Woman Sultan

Razia Sultan ruled the Delhi Sultanate from November 1236 to April 1240, the only woman ever to sit on the throne of Delhi as sovereign. The daughter of Sultan Iltutmish, she came to power with the support of the people of Delhi, governed with energy and broke many conventions of the court. Her reign ended when the Turkish nobles rebelled, and she was killed in October 1240 while trying to recover her throne.

Background: Iltutmish’s succession

Razia’s father, Shams al-Din Iltutmish, was a former Turkish slave who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1211 to 1236 and made Delhi its capital. He relied heavily on a group of Turkish slave officers whom he had trained and promoted. Later writers called them “the Forty”, although that name comes from a fourteenth-century historian and the group was not formally organised.

Iltutmish’s eldest son, Nasir al-Din Mahmud, governor of Bengal, died in 1229. According to Minhaj-i Siraj, the main chronicler of the period, Iltutmish then decided that none of his other sons was fit to rule. Razia had managed affairs in Delhi while he was away on campaign, and he named her as his heir.

Accession in 1236

When Iltutmish died on 30 April 1236, the nobles ignored his choice and raised his son Rukn al-Din Firuz Shah to the throne. Firuz spent his time on pleasure, while real power lay with his mother, Shah Turkan, who had rivals at court killed. Revolts broke out in the provinces.

As the government collapsed, Razia appealed directly to the people of Delhi. Later accounts say she appeared at Friday prayers in the coloured clothes worn by those seeking justice and called on the crowd to act against Shah Turkan. The people rose, Shah Turkan was arrested and Razia was placed on the throne. Firuz was captured and killed in November 1236.

Her reign

Razia was the first ruler of the sultanate to owe her throne largely to the support of the capital’s population. She quickly defeated a group of provincial governors who refused to accept her, using diplomacy to divide them before fighting.

Minhaj-i Siraj, who served at her court, praised her as wise, just, generous and a protector of her subjects, a skilled commander who possessed all the qualities of a ruler. Yet he added that she had not been born a man, so in the eyes of his contemporaries these virtues were of no avail. His comment captures the main obstacle she faced.

Razia openly took on the role of a male ruler. She gave up the veil and the seclusion expected of royal women, wore a tunic (qaba) and a cap (kulah), held court in public, and rode at the head of her army, sometimes on an elephant. Her coins give her the title sultan and name her as the daughter of Iltutmish.

She tried to reduce her dependence on the Turkish nobles by promoting other officers. The most controversial was Jamal al-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian (Habshi) whom she made master of the royal stables, a post close to the ruler. The nobles resented his rise, and later historians spread rumours of a romantic relationship, for which there is no reliable evidence.

Challenges at home and abroad

Razia’s reign was troubled from the start. In 1237 a group of radical sectarians, described by Minhaj-i Siraj as Ismailis and Qarmatians gathered by a preacher named Nur Turk, attacked worshippers in the great mosque of Delhi during Friday prayers. Loyal troops and armed citizens put down the attack, an episode that shows how fragile order in the capital could be.

Beyond the frontier, the Mongols were extending their power across Afghanistan and the Punjab borderlands. Like her father, Razia avoided being drawn into conflict with them, while trying to keep control of distant provinces such as Bengal, Multan and Lahore, whose governors were often close to independent.

She also tried to reward loyalty and keep the administration working. She appointed new officials to key posts, sent expeditions against rebellious chiefs, including an attempt to relieve the besieged fortress of Ranthambore, and maintained the coinage and court ceremonial established by Iltutmish.

Key people

Shams al-Din Iltutmish (r. 1211–1236), Razia’s father, was the consolidator of the Delhi Sultanate and chose her as his heir.

Rukn al-Din Firuz Shah, her half-brother, briefly ruled in 1236 before being deposed and killed.

Jamal al-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian officer, was her trusted master of the stables; his promotion angered the Turkish nobles.

Ikhtiyar al-Din Altunia, governor of Tabarhindah, first rebelled against her and then married her in a joint attempt to regain Delhi.

Muizz al-Din Bahram Shah, another son of Iltutmish, replaced her on the throne in 1240.

Rebellion and downfall

In 1240 Ikhtiyar al-Din Altunia, governor of Tabarhindah (Bathinda) in the Punjab, rebelled. Razia marched against him, but many of her own officers had joined the conspiracy. Yaqut was killed, and Razia was taken prisoner and held at Tabarhindah. In Delhi the nobles placed her half-brother Muizz al-Din Bahram Shah on the throne in April 1240.

Altunia, disappointed by the rewards he received from the new regime, then married Razia and joined her in an attempt to retake Delhi. Their army was defeated near Kaithal. Minhaj-i Siraj reports that Razia and Altunia were killed as they fled, reportedly at the hands of local villagers, on or about 13 October 1240. She had ruled for about three and a half years.

Myths and facts

Romantic legends. Novels, plays and the 1983 Hindi film Razia Sultan made her relationship with Yaqut into a love story. The contemporary sources say only that she favoured him politically.

“Sultana”. She is often called Razia Sultana, but she used the title sultan. Sultana generally refers to the wife or mother of a ruler.

Her tomb. The small enclosure near Turkman Gate in Old Delhi, shown above, is traditionally her grave, but the identification rests on later tradition rather than an inscription. A site near Kaithal has a rival local claim.

Legacy

After Razia’s fall, the Turkish nobles dominated a series of weak sultans until Ghiyath al-Din Balban, one of their number, took the throne in 1266. No other woman ruled Delhi in her own name, though powerful women such as the Mughal empress Nur Jahan later wielded great influence. Razia is remembered today as a pioneering figure, and streets, schools and colleges in India and Pakistan bear her name.

Her reign is also important for what it reveals about the early Delhi Sultanate: a state in which the throne depended on the balance between the royal family, slave-born nobles and the people of Delhi, whose city was dominated by the newly finished Qutub Minar.

Timeline

• 1211: Iltutmish becomes sultan of Delhi.
• 1229: Iltutmish’s eldest son, Nasir al-Din Mahmud, dies.
• 1236, 30 April: Iltutmish dies; Rukn al-Din Firuz is enthroned.
• 1236, November: A popular rising in Delhi brings Razia to the throne.
• 1240: Altunia rebels at Tabarhindah; Yaqut is killed and Razia imprisoned.
• 1240, April: Bahram Shah is proclaimed sultan in Delhi.
• 1240, October: Razia and Altunia are defeated near Kaithal and killed.

Why it matters

Razia was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate, and one of very few women to rule a medieval Islamic state in her own name. Her brief reign shows both the possibilities open to a capable ruler and the limits imposed by the military elite and the expectations of her time.