Khalji dynasty
second dynasty in Delhi Sultanate
The Khalji or Khilji dynasty was the second ruling house of the Delhi Sultanate, covering large parts of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three decades between 1290 and 1320. Founded by Jalal-ud-Din Khalji, it is best known for the reign of Alauddin Khalji, under whom the Sultanate reached its greatest territorial extent and underwent significant military, administrative, and economic reforms.
Origins
The Khalji dynasty was of Turko-Afghan origin whose ancestors, the Khalaj, are said to have been initially a Turkic people who migrated together with the Hunas and Hephthalites from Central Asia, into the southern and eastern regions of modern-day Afghanistan as early as 660 CE, where they ruled the region of Kabul as the Buddhist Turk Shahis. According to R.S. Chaurasia, the Khaljis slowly inherited many Afghan habits and customs, and that they were treated as Afghans by the Turkic nobles of the Delhi Sultanate. Even to the point where Turkic nobles in the Delhi Sultanate opposed Jalal-ud-din's ascension to the throne of Delhi after the Khalji Revolution.
According to The New Cambridge History of Islam in the thirteenth century the Khalji were regarded as a separate people distinct from the Turks. The so-called “Khalji revolution” was the transfer of power from a Turkish ruling elite to a non-Turkish one. André Wink however, states that Khaljis were a Turkicized group and remnants of early Indo-European nomads such as Kushans, Hephthalites, and Sakas who later merged with the Afghans. Also, stating that "at that time they were not perceived as Turks or Mongols. Contemporary historians clearly distinguish the Khaljis from the Turks" The Khalaj are, according to Doerfer, perhaps of Sogdians who were Turkicized.
“Khalji dynasty” enters the record as second dynasty in Delhi Sultanate. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Khalji, dynasty and second can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Khalji dynasty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.