Kaiqubad (1287-90), Last Ruler of the Slave Dynasty

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Before his death in 1287, Balban had nominated his grandson Kai Khusrav as his successor after his son Bughra Khan declined the offer. Kai Khusrav was the son of Muhammad (another son of Balban), who was killed in the fight with Mongols in 1285. But disregarding Balban’s wish, the nobles of the Slave dynasty placed Kaiqubad (Qaiqabad), son of Bughra Khan, on the throne.

Kaiqubad, brought up under the watchful eyes of Balban, himself a strict disciplinarian, was seventeen when he became Sultan. He soon plunged himself into debauchery. Real power of the kingdom came into the hands of Nizam-ud-din, son-in-law of Fakhr-ud-din, the Kotwal of Delhi. Confusion and chaos reigned supreme. Nizam-ud-din was poisoned by Kaiqubad when the former hesitated to obey the latter's diktat to transfer Nizam-ud-din to Multan. Matters were made worse by the struggle for supremacy between the nobles of the Turkish party and those belonging to the Khalji party.

Excess of wine and pleasure made Kaiqubad physically challenged. He was murdered in his palace of mirrors at Kilokhri by a Khalji noble whose father had been done to death on Sultan’s orders. Respect for sultan had reached to such a low that his corpse was thrown into the Jumna river. The Khalji nobles, under the leadership of Malik Jalal-ud-din Firuz, stamped their authority in the ongoing struggle. After killing Kayumars, an infant son of Kaiqubad, MalikJalal-ud-din Firuz ascended the Delhi Sultanate throne on the 13th June, 1290 at an age of seventy and the dynasty he founded came to be known as Khilji dynasty.

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