| Ikhtiyar al-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Governor of Bengal | |||||
| Reign | c. 1203 – 1206 | ||||
| Predecessor | Position established | ||||
| Successor | Muhammad Shiran Khalji | ||||
| Born | c. 1150 Garmsir,Helmand,Afghanistan | ||||
| Died | c. 1206 Devkot,South Dinajpur,West Bengal | ||||
| Burial | 1206 Pirpal Dargah, Narayanpur,Gangarampur,West Bengal | ||||
| |||||
| Clan | Khilji | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
| Occupation | Military general ruler | ||||
Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī,[2] also known asBakhtiyar Khalji,[3][4] was aTurko-Afghan[5][6] military general of theGhurid rulerMuhammad of Ghor,[7] who led theMuslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions ofBengal and parts ofBihar and established himself as their ruler.[8][9][10][11] He was the founder of theKhalji dynasty of Bengal, ruling Bengal for a short period, from 1203 to 1227 CE.
Khalji's invasions of theIndian subcontinent between A.D. 1197 and 1206 led to mass flight and massacres of monks, and caused damage to the traditional Buddhist institutions of higher learning in Northern India.[12] In Bengal, Khalji's reign was responsible for the displacement of Buddhism.[13][14] The leading centre of teaching for Mahayana Buddhism wasNalanda. At the end of the 12th century, Bakhityar Khalji demolished the monastery in a brutal sacking,[15][16][17] Some historians reason that Bakhtiyar's attacks weren't on the Buddhist viharas, and the actual Buddhist sites were already abandoned or in declining state.[18]
His rule is said to have begun theMuslim rule in Bengal, most notably those ofBengal Sultanate andMughal Bengal.[19]
Bakhtiyar launched an ill-fatedTibet campaign in 1206 and was assassinated upon returning to Bengal.[20][21] He was succeeded byMuhammad Shiran Khalji.
Bakhtiyar Khalji was born and raised inGarmsir,Helmand, in present-day southernAfghanistan. He was member of theKhalaj tribe,[22] which was originally ofTurkic origin.[23]After being settled in south-eastern Afghanistan for over 200 years, it led to the creation of thePashtun Ghilji tribe, with Bakhtiyar seen as aTurko-Afghan. Later in theKhalji Revolution, the Khaljis faced discrimination and were looked down upon by other Turks for Afghan barbarians.[24][25][26][27]
Bakhtiyar during his early years went in search of employment toGhazni andDelhi. At the latter, he was rejected due to his ugly appearance. Afterwards, he moved towardsBadaun in present-dayUttar Pradesh, where he obtained his first employment. Accounts differ regarding who initially took Bakhtiyar into his service.[28]
Bakhtiyar did not come from an obscure background. His uncle Muhammad bin Mahmud had fought in theSecond Battle of Tarain againstPrithviraja III. Mahmud was later honoured with the iqta of Kashamandi. After the death of his uncle, the iqta was passed to Bakhtiyar. However, Bakhtiyar did not stay in Kashamndi for long. He approached the commander ofBenaras, Husamudin Aghul Bek, who was impressed with his gallantry and bestowed on him the iqtas of Bhagwat and Bhilui (present-dayMirzapur district).[29]
In his early career, before the expeditions in Bengal andBihar, Bakhtiyar displaced the minor Gahadavala chiefs in the region of present-day Uttar Pradesh and from there raidedManer and Bihar where he looted a large amount of booty. These successful raids increased Bakhtiyar's fame and manyKhaljis joined in his service.Qutb ud-Din Aibak also honoured him.[29]
Khalji was head of the Ghurid military force that conquered parts of eastern India at the end of the 12th century and at the beginning of the 13th century.[30]
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He subjugated much of Bihar in 1200.[34] His invasions destroyed the university establishments at Odantapuri andVikramashila Mahaviras.[35][12] Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani'sTabaqat-i Nasiri documents Bakhtiyar Khalji's sack of a Buddhist monastery,[12] which the author equates in his description with a city he calls "Bihar", from the soldiers' use of the wordvihara.[36] According to the early 17th-century Buddhist scholarTaranatha, the invaders massacred many monks at Odantapuri, and destroyed Vikramashila.[36] HistoriansSatish Chandra,Mohammad Habib and others have directly or indirectly implicated Bakhtiyar in the destruction of the Mahaviharas in their writings, but others likeD.N. Jha andNamit Arora have reasoned that Nalanda may not have been destroyed by him.[37][38]
In 1203, Khalji invaded Bengal. With theoctogenarian emperorLakshmana Sena at the helm, theSena dynasty was in a state of decline and could not provide much resistance. As Khalji came upon the city ofNabadwip, it is said that he advanced so rapidly that only 18 horsemen from his army could keep up.[39] The small horde entered the city unchallenged and took the emperor and his army by shock.[40][41] This caused Lakhsmana Sena to flee with his retainers to east Bengal.[42][43][44] Khalji subsequently went on to captureGauda (ancient Lakhnauti), the capital and the principal city of Bengal[45] and intruded into much of Bengal.[46]
Muhammad Bakhtiyar's rule was related byMinhaj al-Siraj, as he visited Bengal about 40 years later:[47]
After Muhammad Bakhtiyar possessed himself of that territory he left the city ofNudiah in desolation, and the place which is (now)Lakhnauti he made the seat of government. He brought the different parts of the territory under his sway, and instituted therein, in every part, the reading of thekhutbah, and the coining of money; and, through his praiseworthy endeavours, and those of hisAmirs,masjids [mosques], colleges, and monasteries (forDervishes), were founded in those parts.
— Account of the conquest of Bengal,Minhaj al-Siraj.[47]
Bakhtiyar Khalji left the town ofDevkot in 1206 to attack Tibet, leavingAli Mardan Khalji inGhoraghat Upazila to guard the eastern frontier from his headquarters atBarisal. Bakhtiyar Khalji's forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Tibetan guerrilla forces atChumbi Valley, which forced him to retreat to Devkot with only about a hundred surviving soldiers. This was first and shameful defeat of Khalji.[48]
As Bakhtiyar Khalji lay ill and exhausted in Devkot after defeated by Tibetans, he was assassinated by Ali Mardan Khalji.[20][21]
The Khalji noblemen then appointedMuhammad Shiran Khalji as Bakhtiyar's successor. Loyal troops under Shiran Khalji and Subedar Aulia Khan avenged Ikhtiyar's death, imprisoning Ali Mardan Khalji. Eventually Ali Mardan fled to Delhi and provoked the Sultan of DelhiQutb al-Din Aibak to invade Bengal, who sent an army under Qayemaz Rumi, the governor ofAwadh, to dethrone Shiran Khalji. Shiran fled to Dinajpur where he later died.[49]
Ghiyas-ud-din Iwaz Khalji assisted the invasion and assumed the governorship of Bengal in 1208. But shortly after, he yielded power to Ali Mardan willingly, when the latter returned from Delhi in 1210. However, the nobles of Bengal conspired against and assassinated Ali Mardan in 1212. Iwaj Khalji assumed power again and proclaimed his independence from the Delhi sultanate.[50]
Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji had theKhutbah read and coins struck in his name.Mosques,madrasas, andkhanqahs arose through Bakhtiyar's patronage, and his example was imitated by his successors.[51][52]
| Islam in Bangladesh |
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Ideology/schools of thought |
Hussain argues ... was actually named Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji and not the broadly used Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji
Turk-Afghan Rule: Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji's invasion to Bengal marked the advent of Turk-Afghan rule in Bengal.
Although the Afghans formed a large group in the army of the Delhi Sultanat, only few Afghan nobles had been accorded important positions. That is why Bakhtiyar Khalji who was part - Afghan had to seek his fortune in Bihar and Bengal.
Tradition gives him credit for the conquest of Bengal but as a matter of fact he could not subjugate the greater part of Bengal ... All that Bakhtyār can justly take credit for is that by his conquest of Western and a part of Northern Bengal he laid the foundation of the Muslim State in Bengal. The historians of the 13th century never attributed the conquest of the whole of Bengal to Bakhtyār.
The Turkish arms penetrated into Bihar and Bengal through the enterprising efforts of Ikhtiyaruddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji ... he started plundering raids into Bihar and, within four or five years, occupied a large part of it ... Nadia was sacked by the Turks and a few districts of Bengal (Malda, Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Birbhum) were occupied by them ... Bathtiyar Khalji could not retain his hold over Nadia and made Lakhnauti or Gaur as his capital.
Nalanda, together with the colleges at Vikramasila and Odantapuri, suffered gravely during the conquest of Bihar by the Muslim general Muhammad Bhakhtiyar Khalji between A.D. 1197 and 1206, and many monks were killed or forced to flee.
The Khiljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, and adopted Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans inDelhi Court
Indeed, it seems very likely that [the Khalaj] formed the core of the Pashto-speaking Ghilji tribe, the name [Ghilji] being derived from Khalaj.
His ancestors, after having migrated from Turkistan, had lived for over 200 years in the Helmand valley and Lamghan, parts of Afghanistan called Garmasir or the hot region, and had adopted Afghan manners and customs. They were, therefore, wrongly looked upon as Afghans by the Turkish nobles in India as they had intermarried with local Afghans and adopted their customs and manners. They were looked down as non-Turks by Turks.
The prejudice of Turks was however misplaced in this case, for Khaljis were actually ethnic Turks. But they had settled in Afghanistan long before the Turkish rule was established there, and had over the centuries adopted Afghan customs and practices, intermarried with the local people, and were therefore looked down on as non-Turks by pure-bred Turks.
The Khaljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, had adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court. They were regarded as barbarians. The Turkish nobles had opposed the ascent of Jalal-ud-din to the throne of Delhi
Obverse: horseman to left holding a mace, margin with date in Nagari Samvat 1262 Bhadrapada . Reverse : legend in Nagari śrīmat mahamada sāmaḥ . Issued in AD 1204
Bakhtyār led his army a second time in the direction of Bihar in the year following the sack of the fortified monastery of that name. This year,i.e. 1200 A.D., he was busy consolidating his hold over that province.
After the arrival of Islam, the universities such as Nalanda and Vikramshila were no longer existent. The destruction of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji was the last nail in this pre-Islamic Indic university, which had survived three major destructions
Bakhtyār fairly completed his conquest of the Varendra tract with the ... city of Gaur before the year 599 A.H.
| Preceded by | Khalji dynasty of Bengal 1204–1206 | Succeeded by |