Qutb-ud-din Aibak crowned in Delhi

1205

A Turkish slave-general of the Ghurids declared himself sultan on the banks of the Yamuna, founding the Mamluk line of the Delhi Sultanate. Construction began on the red sandstone victory tower that still bears his name, a minaret pointed at the Indian sky. His brief reign inaugurated three centuries of Turkic Muslim rule across northern India, reshaping the subcontinent's political and cultural geography.