Chapter two covers the extension of Ghurid authority over much of north India and the subsequent growing authority of the early rulers of the Delhi Sultanate including Iltutmish, Raziya, and Balban. Monuments such as the Qutb Minar and their messages are discussed. The role of leading Sufis in Indian society is evaluated as well as the poetry of the Indian Persian poet Amir Khusrau. The subsequent rise to power of the Khalji and Tughluq sultans is also explored. The Delhi Sultanate’s expansion into south India is examined as well as its political decline in the late fourteenth century. A consideration of the impact of the Delhi Sultanate and the place of India in a growing world system concludes this chapter.

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.