As a child and adolescent, Razia had had little contact with the women of the harem, so she had had little opportunity to learn the customary behavior of women in the Muslim society that she was born into. With reluctance, the nobility next agreed to allow Razia to reign as sultana of Delhi. On November 9, 1236, both Ruknuddin and his mother Shah Turkaan were put to death-after only six months in power.

With Iltutmish's widow Shah Turkaan for all practical purposes running the government, Ruknuddin abandoned himself to the pursuit of personal pleasure and debauchery, to the considerable outrage of the citizenry. (According to one source, Iltumish's eldest son had initially been groomed as his successor, but had died prematurely.) But the Muslim nobility had no intention of acceding to Iltutmish's disregard of tradition in appointing a woman as heir, and after the sultan died on April 29, 1236, Razia's brother, Ruknuddin Feroze Shah, was elevated to the throne instead. Iltutmish became the first sultan to appoint a woman as his successor when he designated his daughter Razia as his heir apparent. Iltutmish had introduced important reforms to the Delhi sultanate-including a monarchy, a ruling class, and coinage-and had left a legacy as a patron of the arts. As sultan, he had consolidated Turkish control of northern India and his empire extended from Prashar in the northwest to the Brahmaputra River in Bengal and Gujurat and Orissa in the south. Upon Qutb-ud-din's death, Iltutmish had the backing of the Amirs-the Turkish nobility-to succeed Qutb-ud-din as sultan.ДЄt the time of Iltutmish's death in 1236, he had been in power for 26 years. After gaining the confidence of his master, Qutb-ud-din, he rose to become a provincial governor.

Following an abbreviated reign, Qutb-ud-din's son-in-law, Shamsuddin Iltutmish, assumed power. Qutb-ud-din is best remembered for his destruction of Hindu and Jain temples and for building mosques.ДЄlthough Qutb-ud-din's son Aram Baksh inherited the throne in 1210 following the death of his father, he quickly proved himself to be incompetent. Qutb-ud-din's reign marked the beginning of the Delhi sultanate under the Slave dynasty-so named because many of the sultans of this time were former slaves. When Ghur died in 1206 without leaving an heir, Qutb-ud-din declared himself Sultan of Delhi. After establishing his reign, Ghur returned to Afghanistan, leaving his conquest in the hands of his trusted slave, Qutb-ud-din Aibak. In 1192 A.D., the Turkish leader, Muhammad of Ghur, defeated the Rajputs at the second battle of Tarain, gaining control of the Kingdom of Delhi. Razia reigned for approximately three and a half years (1236-1240), and although she made important reforms in government, she was ultimately unable to reconcile her Muslim nobility to her ruling as a woman.

A descendant of the Moslems of Turkish extraction who invaded India in the eleventh century, Razia (died 1240) was the only woman ever crowned in the Delhi sultanate, which ruled parts of India from 1210 to 1526.

Life history of razia sultan