Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī, also known as Bakhtiyar Khalji, was a Turko-Afghan military general who led the Muslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar and established himself as their ruler.
Khalji’s invasions the Indian subcontinent between A.D. 1197 and 1206 led to mass flight and murder of Buddhist monks, and caused grave damage to the traditionally Buddhist institutions of higher learning in Northern India. In Bengal, Khalji’s reign was responsible for displacement of Buddhism by Islam. His rule is said to have begun the Islamic rule in Bengal, most notably those of Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal.
Bakhtiyar also launched the Tibet campaign, in which he was killed in 1206. He was succeeded by Muhammad Shiran Khalji.
Early life
Bakhtiyar Khalji was born and raised in Garmsir, Helmand, in present-day southern Afghanistan. He was member of the Khalaj tribe, a tribe of Turkic origin that was going through a process of Pashtunization after being settled in south-eastern Afghanistan for over 200 years, which eventually led to the creation of the Ghilji tribe.
He was head of the military force that conquered parts of eastern India at the end of the 12th century and at the beginning of the 13th century.
Rise
Tradition has it that Khalji’s conquest of Bengal at the head of 18 horsemen was foretold. He was of common birth, had long arms extending below his knees, a short physical stature, and an unfavorable countenance. He was first appointed as the Dewan-i-Ard at Ghor. Then he approached India in about the year 1193 and tried to enter in the army of Qutb al-Din Aibak, but was refused rank. Then he went further eastward and took a job under Malik Hizbar al-Din, then in command of a platoon at Badayun in northern India. After a short period he went to Oudh where Malik Husam al-Din, recognised him for his worth. Husam gave him a landed estate in the south-eastern corner of modern Mirzapur district. Khalji soon established himself there and carried out successful raids into weakly-defended regions to the east.
Conquests
Khalji’s career took a new turn when he subjugated Bihar in 1200. This effort earned him political clout in the court at Delhi.
In that same year, Khalji took his forces into Bengal. As he came upon the city of Nabadwip, it is said that he advanced so rapidly that only 18 horsemen from his army could keep up. He conquered Nabadwip from the old emperor Lakshmana Sena in 1203 only with those 18 horsemen and entered the city unchallenged. Khalji and his 18 horsemen were so quick that they took the emperor and his military forces by shock and as a result, the defending forces fled from the city. Khalji subsequently went on to capture the capital and the principal city of Bengal, Gaur, and intruded into much of Bengal.
Bakhtiyar Khalji’s invasions are believed to have severely damaged the Buddhist establishments at Odantapuri, and Vikramashila. Minhaj-i-Siraj’s Tabaqat-i Nasiri suggests that Bakhtiyar Khalji destroyed a Buddhist monastery which the author equates in his description with a city he calls “Bihar”, from what the soldiers learn is called a vihara. According to American scholar Hartmut Scharfe, the Tibetan sources suggest that this monastery was the one at Vikramashila; historian André Wink believes that this monastery must have been Odantapuri. According to the early 17th century Buddhist scholar Taranatha, the invaders massacred many monks at Odantapuri, and destroyed Vikramashila.
Death and aftermath
Ikhtiyar al-Dīn Muḥammad Khalji left the town of Devkot in 1206 to attack Tibet, leaving Ali Mardan Khalji in Ghoraghat Upazila to watch the eastern frontier from his headquarters at Barisal. Khalji’s forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Tibetan guerrilla forces at Chumbi Valley during his Tibetan expedition through an unfamiliar mountainous terrain, which forced him to retreat. Khalji then returned to Devkot with about one hundred surviving soldiers. Upon Ikhtiyar Khalji’s return while he was lying ill at Devkot, he was assassinated by Ali Mardan.
The Khalji noblemen then appointed Muhammad Shiran Khalji as Bakhtiyar’s successor. Loyal troops under Shiran Khalji avenged Ikhtiyar’s death, imprisoning Ali Mardan. Eventually Ali Mardan fled to Delhi and provoked the Sultan of Delhi Qutb al-Din Aibak to invade Bengal. Ali Mardan returned with the governor of Oudh, Kayemaz Rumi, and dethroned Shiran. Shiran fled to Dinajpur where he later died. Ghiyas-ud-din Iwaz Khalji became the successor. Ali Mardan escaped and was made Governor of Bengal by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, but was killed in 1212. Ghiyas-ud-din again assumed power and proclaimed his independence.
His rule
Al Mahmud, a leading Bangladeshi poet, composed a book of poetry titled Bakhtiyarer Ghora (Horses of Bakhtiyar) in the early 1990s. He depicted Khalji as the praiseworthy hero of Muslim conquest of Bengal. During Bakhtiyar Khalji’s reign, Islam gained a large number of converts in India. Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji had the Khutbah read and coins struck in his own name. Mosques, madrasas, and khanqahs arose in the new abode of Islam through Bakhtiyar’s patronage, and his example was imitated by his Amirs. His conquest began 500 years of Muslim rule over Bengal which ended with the Battle of Plassey.