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  • 4 - Razia Sultan of India: “Queen of the World Bilqis-i Jihan”

  • from Part II - Medieval Queens: Dynasty and Descent
  • Shahla Haeri, Boston University
  • Book:
    The Unforgettable Queens of Islam
    Published online:
    17 March 2020
    Print publication:
    26 March 2020, pp 106-138

  • Summary

    Chapter 4 focuses on the dynastic rise and fall of Razia Sultan to political leadership in thirteenth-century India. Daughter of Iltutmish, the founder of the Delhi Sultanate, Razia was favored by her father to succeed him. But at his death the contestation of the transition of power was rapid, relentless, and ruthless. It all happened in less than a year after the sultan’s death. His son Rukh al-Din wore the crown for only six months and twenty-eight days before being defeated and dethroned by his sister Razia. At the age of thirty-one and unmarried, Razia became the first and only female sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, preceded and succeeded by her half-brothers. Razia Sultan ruled a little over three years, during which time she was able to expand the state’s territory, bring a certain level of peace and prosperity to her people, patronize the arts, and support educational institutions. She was toppled through the treachery of some of her close advisers and her jealous brothers. The alleged Prophetic hadith was never invoked and there was no institutional religious opposition to her leadership.