Ghiyas ud din Balban

Ghiyas ud din Balban (1216–1286, reigned: 1266–1286) (; Hindi: ग़ियास उद-दीन बलबन; IAST: Ghiyās ud-Dīn Balban) was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi. Ghiyas ud Din was the regent of the last Shamsi sultan, Nasiruddin Mahmud. He got rid of his predecessor Imaduddin Raihan and also got rid of this rivals in the court. His original name was Baha Ud Din. He was an Ilbari Turk. When he was young he was captured by the Mongols, taken to Ghazni and sold to Khawaja Jamal ud-din of Basra, a Sufi. The latter then brought him to Delhi in 1232 along with other slaves, and all of them were purchased by Iltutmish. Balban belonged to the famous group of 40 Turkic slaves of Iltutmish. Ghiyas made several conquests, some of them as vizier. He routed the people of Mewat that harassed Delhi and reconquered Bengal, all while successfully facing the Mongol threat, during which his son died. After his death in 1287, his grandson Qaiqabad was nominated sultan, though his rule undermined the success made under his grandfather's reign. In spite of having only a few military achievements, Balban reformed civil and military lines that earned him a stable and prosperous government granting him the position, along with Shams ud-din Iltutmish and the later Alauddin Khalji, one of the most powerful rulers of Delhi Sultanate. He was the son of a Central Asian Turkic noble. As a child, he was captured by the Mongols and sold as a slave to Khwaja Jamal ud-din Basri.Khwaja brought him to Delhi where he and the other slaves were bought by Sultan Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, himself a captured Ilbari Turk in origin in 1232. Balban was first appointed as a simple water carrier, but quickly rose to the position of Khasdar (king's personal attendant) by the Sultan. He became one of the most notable of the forty Turkic nobles of Delhi, or the Chalissa. During the reign of Razia Sultan, he was the amir-i-shikar or lord of the hunt, a position of some importance at the time, having military and political responsibilities.