Delhi Sultanate Administration (Iltutmish Period)

Timeline

1. 1211–1220Delhi · IndiaIltutmish defeated Yizhiz and Qabacha, established Delhi as the sultanate's sole capital, carried out silver coinage reform, and built a central bureaucracy of Turkish officers cooperating with Indian scribes; iqta grants began replacing earlier predatory distributions.
2. 1221–1230Delhi · IndiaIn the 1220s the iqta transformed from temporary military fiefs into hereditary administrative-military units; the sultan appointed iqtadars to oversee local taxation and garrisons, forming an effective Delhi-centered control network over Punjab, Sindh, and the Ganges plain.
3. 1229–1230Baghdad (source of investiture) · IraqIn 1229 Iltutmish received formal investiture as sultan from Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir, granting the Delhi regime legitimacy in the Islamic world and giving the administrative system religious-political authority beyond mere military conquest.
4. 1230–1236Delhi · IndiaIltutmish relied on the Forty (Chihalgani) group of Turkish officers in court and military decisions, naming his daughter Razia as successor on his deathbed; tension between the administrative power structure and the military nobility became the main line of later sultanate politics.