The Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526)- Polity, Economy, Society and Culture

This book, written in a simple and accessible manner for students and lay readers attempts to provide an integrated view of the Delhi Sultanate government from 1206 to 1526. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the political events and the dynastic history of the Sultans and the second part with the administration, different land issues, social life including two major religious movements and other cultural aspects including architecture and sculpture. The growth of the city of Delhi has been shown here perhaps for the first time in a textbook of this kind.

Most of the books on Delhi Sultanate mainly narrate the political events. Here other aspects have been included to show the real character of the Sultanate. It may be mentioned that the English officials from the end of the eighteenth Century had termed the medieval period of India as a 'dark age' - a statement that has been accepted by several Indian writers. It is to negate this view that an integrated narrative has been provided here.

Aniruddha Ray was born at Calcutta in 1936. He passed his M.A. in 1958. After teaching in Charu Chandra College for several years, he went to the University of Paris, Sorbonne (France) in 1964 for research and returned at the end of 1967 with a Ph.D. degree. He joined the Department of Islamic History & Culture, Calcutta University in 1968 and retired from there in November 2001.

After occupying several posts at the Indian History Congress, he was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 2011. He was also the President of Paschim Banga Itihas Sansad for six years. He has published more than 36 books and a large number of articles in English and Bengali. He was awarded a Gold Medal with citation by The Asiatic Society, Calcutta for his lifelong achievement. He passed away in December 2018.

Basing principally on the narratives of the European travellers in India, the English officials started writing their propaganda from the second half of the eighteenth century. They harped on the condition of the Mughal Empire preceding the rule of the English Company to show that the condition of people had improved under the rule of the English Company. They termed the entire medieval period as the `Dark Age'. Some Indian writers then had followed this terminology It is not surprising therefore that a course of study on the medieval period of India was not there in postgraduate syllabus of most Indian universities. Since independence, many universities had started medieval History along with the history of two or three centuries prior to the Sultanate of Delhi which mainly devoted to political events emphasizing the activities of some rulers. Since there were some writings by eminent historians on the Mughal period, I decided to write on the Sultanate of Delhi. In early 2016 when I was about to write on the Sultanate after finishing other books, I found myself seriously handicapped by my fading eyesight that severely restricted my mobility and kept me confined to my flat. I therefore thought that I would write in a simple manner a brief monograph for the general mass of students, giving not only the descriptions of the changing dynasties and the activities of the successive Sultans of Delhi but also include other features of the Sultanate rule. Prof. Satish Chandra's excellent book on the Sultanate of Delhi had appeared in 2000 but I had been told by some students that they found it rather heavy going and of a higher standard than what they were used to. Other books and articles by learned scholars which appeared in recent times have been taken into consideration in this monograph and could be seen in bibliography at the end. As stated earlier, due to my near blindness no endnotes could be inserted with page numbers for which I crave the indulgence of the more scholarly readers.