Razia Sultana ascends in Delhi

1236

Iltutmish's daughter, passed over in favor of her brothers, seized the Delhi throne after a year of palace chaos. She rode at the head of her own troops, signed coins in her own name, and scandalized the Turkish aristocracy before being overthrown in 1240. Her brief reign remains one of the few instances of a Muslim woman ruling a major sultanate, a precedent her successors refused to repeat.