Delhi Sultanate
The Court of Razia Sultan
A woman gives audience before the Qutb at Delhi, c. 1236-1240 CE
c. 1236-1240 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
The court of the Delhi Sultanate, Delhi, northern India
28.6517, 77.2319 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
Razia, daughter of Sultan Shams al-Din Iltutmish of Delhi, was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate in her own name, reigning from about 1236 to 1240. Her father, judging her abler than his sons, had named her his heir, and after a brief and weak succession she came to the throne with the support of the people of Delhi against the candidate of the court. Her contemporary, the historian Minhaj al-Siraj al-Juzjani, who served at her court and records her reign in the Tabaqat-i Nasiri, praises her as just, wise and able in rule, a sovereign in every quality save that she was a woman; the Maghribi traveller Ibn Battuta, passing through Delhi a century later, still preserved her memory in his Rihla. She set aside the veil of seclusion, appeared in open audience, and rode out at the head of the army and the administration as a ruler must, striking coins in her own name and governing in her own right. The monumental setting of her capital was the Qutb complex south of the old city, where the towering victory minaret begun under the first Ghurid governors and raised by her father, and the columned enclosure of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque, were the proudest works of early Muslim Delhi. But the powerful Turkic military aristocracy of the early sultanate, the group of slave-origin commanders sometimes called the Forty, could not in the end abide the rule of a woman and her reliance on officers outside their circle; they rose against her, and after a few years she was deposed and, with her husband, killed. Her short reign is remembered as a striking and exceptional moment in the history of Muslim India. This scene depicts the seat of her authority rather than a portrait of the sovereign: an open durbar held in an arcaded sandstone courtyard beneath the parasol of Indian kingship, with the working diwan of clerks, scribes and treasury chests set out around it and the great minaret of the Qutb rising behind, in the capital of the sultanate on the northern plains.
What you see
A fluted, tapering tower of red sandstone climbs above the rooftops at the left, banded with projecting balconies: the great victory minaret of the Qutb complex at Delhi, begun by the first Ghurid governors and raised by Iltutmish, the monumental heart of early Muslim power in the subcontinent.
The court is held in an open arcaded courtyard, its walls a screen of pointed sandstone arches carried on close-set columns, with a small domed pavilion behind the seat of audience. This is the austere early Indo-Islamic manner of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque enclosure, not the gilded opulence of later Mughal halls.
A wide royal parasol, the chatr, the emblem of sovereignty in India, is spread over a raised circular dais at the centre of the courtyard, where the ruler sits in open audience on a carpeted platform. The scene is a durbar in session, not a battle or a Friday prayer.
This is the open court of Razia, daughter of Sultan Iltutmish, whom her father named his heir over his sons and who took the throne of Delhi, the only woman ever to rule the sultanate in her own name. The figure beneath the parasol is the sovereign giving audience; the scene shows her authority by its setting, not her face.
Clerks and officials are at work around the courtyard: men seated on carpets reading petitions, scribes at low desks, and bound chests and coffers of the treasury and chancery. This is the working apparatus of a young sultanate, the diwan brought out into the court.
Razia set aside the veil of seclusion to sit in open audience and to ride out at the head of affairs, as her contemporary Minhaj al-Siraj al-Juzjani records in the Tabaqat-i Nasiri, praising her justice and ability; the later traveller Ibn Battuta still recalled her in his Rihla a century on. Yet the Turkic military aristocracy could not abide a woman's rule, and after a few years she was overthrown and killed.
The setting is Delhi, capital of the new sultanate on the northern plains of India, the city the Ghurids and their successors made the centre of Muslim power in the subcontinent. Ranks of guards and retainers line the arcades, the standing household of a court at the seat of government.
The reign of Razia (1236-1240) is recorded by her contemporary al-Juzjani, who served at this court. In keeping with the project's visual ethics the sultan is not shown by likeness; the subject of the scene is the court itself, before the rising minaret of the Qutb.
Further reading & cross-references
Minhaj al-Siraj al-Juzjani, Tabaqat-i Nasiri (13th c.): The contemporary Persian Muslim history; the principal source for Razia's accession, her qualities, her reign and her fall. The historian served at her court.
Ibn Battuta, Rihla (14th c.): The Maghribi traveller, in Delhi about a century after Razia, preserves her memory and the popular regard for her tomb; a later witness to her reputation, not to the events.
Later Indo-Muslim histories of the Delhi Sultanate: Used for the framing of Razia's exceptional reign and the opposition of the Turkic aristocracy (the Forty).
Modern histories of the Delhi Sultanate (academic): Used for the chronology of the reign and the political context of the early sultanate. Non-confessional cross-reference.
The Qutb complex and Quwwat al-Islam mosque at Delhi (material context): The standing minaret and the arcaded mosque enclosure constrain the depiction of early Delhi; in 1236 the minaret stood only to its lower Ghurid and Iltutmish storeys, without the later Tughluq marble bands and cupola. The specific audience hall of Razia does not survive.
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