Balban

Al-Sultan al-Azam Ghiyath al-Dunya Wal Din Abu'l Muzaffar Balban al-Sultan (Persian: السلطان الاعظم غیاث الدنیا والدین ابوالمظفر بلبن السلطان; 1216 – 13 January 1287), more famously known as Ghiyath al-Din Balban or simply Balban, was the ninth Mamluk sultan of Delhi. He had been the regent of the last Shamsi sultan, Mahmud, until the latter's death in 1266. On death of Sultan Mahmud, Balban became sultan and ruled Delhi. Balban consolidated the ruling set up of the empire. following which he declared himself sultan of Delhi. His original name was Baha-ud-Din. He was an Ilbari Turk. When he was young, he was captured by the Mongols, taken to Ghazni, and sold to Khawaja Jamal-ud-din of Basra, a Sufi. The latter then brought him to Delhi in 1232 along with other slaves, and all of them were purchased by Iltutmish. Balban belonged to the famous group of 40 Turkic slaves of Iltutmish. Ghayas made several conquests, some of them as wazir. He routed the people of Mewat that harassed Delhi and reconquered Bengal, all while successfully facing the Mongol threat, during which his son died. After his death in 1287, his grandson Qaiqabad was nominated sultan, though his rule undermined the success made under his grandfather's reign. In spite of having only a few military achievements, Balban reformed civil and military lines that earned him a stable and prosperous government, granting him the position, along with Shams ud-Din Iltutmish and the later Alauddin Khalji, one of the most powerful rulers of the Delhi Sultanate.