The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of South Asia for 320 years. Following the invasion of the subcontinent by the Ghurid dynasty, five dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty, the Khalji dynasty, the Tughlaq dynasty, the Sayyid dynasty, and the Lodi dynasty. It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.
An age of chaos, an age of violence, and an age of wrath, the years when the Delhi Sultanate ruled over most of India were some of the most turbulent years. In many ways, it paved the way for India to become the high seat of Mughal power, and the grand throne on which the British Empire seated itself for nearly four centuries thereafter. Hindu culture mixed with Islam, ceding way to something that was a not-too-sublime version of everything. A version which has no other word for it, except perhaps to be called Indian. Architecture, literature, music, food, clothing and religion interspersed freely, and this led to the India we all know and love. However, it was not without price. Many were massacred, and many more oppressed in the name of religion and in the war for power. India emerged, but only to fall into the hands of an invading Timur the Lame, also called Tamerlane. The high seat of Mughal power was ready, and the Mughals ascended it. This book sings the story of an India unsung, the India of the Tughlaqs, and the India which was called the mythic jewel of the east.