The Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate, founded after the Ghurid conquests at the turn of the thirteenth century, created the first sustained Islamic state in north India. Its five dynasties — Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi — built a new administrative system based on iqta land assignments and a central army. A concrete example is Alauddin Khalji, who fixed market prices, paid soldiers in cash and repelled Mongol invasions, showing both the strength and the strain of Sultanate centralisation.