The Turkan-i-Chahalgani (Chalisa), a corps of forty influential Turkish nobles…

Concept

In the early Delhi Sultanate, a ruler needed a dependable body of senior nobles to extend authority beyond the court and stabilize administration.

The Turkan-i-Chahalgani, also called the Chalisa, was an elite group of forty Turkish nobles associated with the consolidation of the Mamluk, or Slave, dynasty.

Application

1. First place the four rulers in chronology: Qutb-ud-din Aibak ruled from 1206 to 1210, Iltutmish from 1211 to 1236, Balban from 1266 to 1287, and Alauddin Khalji from 1296 to 1316.

2. Historical accounts associate the organization of the group of forty Turkish nobles with Iltutmish, who used this corps while consolidating the Sultanate.

Contrast

• Alauddin Khalji belonged to the later Khalji dynasty and ruled in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

• Balban had earlier been connected with the Chahalgani and later curbed the political power of powerful nobles as Sultan.

• Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded Mamluk rule in Delhi, but his short reign preceded the institutional consolidation associated with the group.

• Iltutmish consolidated Mamluk rule and is credited with organizing the Chahalgani.

Result

Therefore, the ruler was Iltutmish.