Mamluks, Conquest and Culture: The Ghurid Empire and Early Delhi Sultanate C.1150-1236 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781916846760)

The Ghurids have their origins in the mountainous region of modern central Afghanistan, from where they established the first Islamic state in India. Some of their ghulams, primarily nomadic Turks from Central Asia, were to become independent rulers, leading to the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate. At its height, in the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries, their domain extended from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and from the Straits of Hormuz to the River Oxus. Mamluks, Conquest and Culture covers both the military and political history of the dynasty and the Persianate cultural world they inhabited and propagated on the subcontinent. The collapse of the Great Seljuk Empire allowed them to expand westwards into Iran. Extensive use of ghulams played a crucial role in their success, and this cavalry was to prove decisive in the campaigns against the Indian dynasties. Their conquests reunited territories to create a transregional empire for the first time in a millennium.

Author: Mark Kerr-Smiley
ISBN-10: 1916846769
ISBN-13: 9781916846760
Publisher: Unicorn Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 05/23/2025
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.40w x 1.00d