06). One of his slaves named Kutb-ud-Din Ibak became his
general and viceroy and, when Muhammad died, founded at Delhi the
dynasty known as Slave Sultans. They were succeeded by the Khilji
Sultans (1290-1318) the most celebrated of whom was the capable but
ferocious Ala-ud-Din and these again by the Tughlak dynasty. Muhammad
Adil, the second of this line, attempted to move the capital from Delhi
to Daulatabad in the Deccan. In 1398 northern India was convulsed by the
invasion of Timur who only remained a few months but sacked Delhi with
terrible carnage. Many years of confusion followed, and a dynasty known
as the Saiyids ruled in greatly diminished territories. But in 1451
arose the Lodi or Afghan dynasty which held the Panjab, Hindustan and
Bundelkhand until the advent of the Mughals. These five royal houses do
not represent successive invasions from the west. Their founders, though
of diverse origin, were all leaders engaged in the troubled politics of
northern India, and they all reigned at Delhi, round which a tradition
of Empire thus grew up. But the succession was disputed in almost every
case; out of thirty-four kings twelve came to a violent end and not one
deserved to be called Emperor of India. They were confronted by a double
array of rivals, firstly Hindu states which were at no period all
reduced to subjection, and, secondly, independent Mohammedan states, for
the governors in the more distant provinces threw off their allegiance
and proclaimed themselves sovereigns. Thus Bengal from the time of its
first conquest by Muhammad Bakhtyar had only a nominal connection with
Delhi and declared itself independent in 1338. When Timur upset the
Tughlak dynasty, the states of Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa and Khandesh
became separate kingdoms and remained so until the time of Akbar. In the
south one of Muhammad Adil's generals founded the Bahmani dynasty which
for about a century (1374-1482) ruled the Deccan from sea to sea. It
then split up into five sultanates with capitals at Bidar, Bijapur,
Golkonda, Ahmadnagar and Elichpur.

In the twelfth century, the Hindu states were not quite the same as
those noticed for the previous period. Kanauj and Gujarat were the most
important. The Palas and Senas ruled in Bengal, the Tomaras at Delhi,
the Chohans in Ajmer and subsequently in Delhi too. The Mohammedans
conquered all these states at the end of the twelfth century. Their
advance was naturally less rapid towards the south. In