Malik Saif ad-Dīn Aibak Yughantat ( bn, মালিক সাইফুদ্দীন আইবক, fa, سیف الدین آیبک) was a governor of
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
(
Lakhnauti) under the
Mamluk dynasty of Delhi
The Mamluk dynasty ( fa, سلطنت مملوک, Salṭanat Mamlūk) was founded in Northern India by Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic Mamluk slave-general of the Ghurid Empire from Central Asia. The Mamluk dynasty ruled from 1206 to 1290; it was th ...
from 1232 to 1236. He was the first of the slave-officers to govern Bengal.
Early life
Aibak was a
Khitan of the
Turco-Persian tradition
The composite Turko-Persian, Turco-Persian
''Turko-Persia in historical perspective'', Cambridge University Press, ...
. He was purchased as a slave by
Iltutmish
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish ( fa, شمس الدین ایلتتمش; died 30 April 1236, ) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus ...
from the heirs of Ikhtiyar ad-Din Chust Qaba. Through his hard work and efforts, he managed to rise through the ranks, becoming the more powerful amongst the Maliks and titled Amir al-Majlis. He was given the
iqta'
An iqta ( ar, اقطاع, iqṭāʿ) and occasionally iqtaʿa ( ar, اقطاعة) was an Islamic practice of tax farming that became common in Muslim Asia during the Buyid dynasty. Iqta has been defined in Nizam-al-Mulk's Siyasatnama. Administrato ...
of 28
wilayat
A wilayah ( ar, وَلاية, wālāya or ''wilāya'', plural ; Urdu and fa, ولایت, ''velâyat''; tr, vilayet) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as " governorate". The word comes f ...
in
Sursuti by 1227.
He was later stationed in
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
.
Governor of Bengal
After the dismissal of
Alauddin Jani
Alauddin Jani ( bn, আলাউদ্দিন জানি, fa, ) was a governor of Bengal from 1232 until 1233 during the time of Mamluk dynasty.
History
Alauddin assisted Nasiruddin Mahmud to suppress the revolt of Iwaz Khalji in 1227.
...
, the Sultan appointed Aibak to be the next governor of Bengal. During his governorship, Aibak took on an expedition to
South Bengal
South Bengal ( bn, দক্ষিণবঙ্গ/দক্ষিণ বাংলা) is a term used for the southern parts of Bengal including Southern Bangladesh and Southern West Bengal, state in India.
The Bangladesh part denotes the Khulna ...
with the intention of capturing elephants. His expedition was successful, capturing a number of elephants, and dispatching several of them to the Sultan.
Iltutmish
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish ( fa, شمس الدین ایلتتمش; died 30 April 1236, ) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus ...
was pleased with Aibak and conferred him the title of "Yughantat". Aibak married his daughter to Malik Qamaruddin Kiran Timur Khan.
Death
It is said that he was assassinated or poisoned in April 1236 AD by a rebellious courtier named
Awar Khan Aibak. Awar Khan was quickly defeated and Sultan
Iltutmish
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish ( fa, شمس الدین ایلتتمش; died 30 April 1236, ) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus ...
commanded
Tughral Tughan Khan
Tughral Tughan Khan ( bn, তুগরল তুগান খান, fa, طغرل طوغان خان), later known as Mughith ad-Din Tughral ( bn, মুগিসউদ্দীন তুগরল, fa, مغيث الدين طغرل), was an offi ...
, who had succeeded Saifuddin in Bihar, to succeed as governor of Bengal following Saifuddin's death.
King Lists, Bengal (History Files)
/ref>
See also
*List of rulers of Bengal
This is a list of rulers of Bengal. For much of its history, Bengal was split up into several independent kingdoms, completely unifying only several times. In ancient times, Bengal consisted of the kingdoms of Pundra, Suhma, Vanga, Samatata a ...
*History of Bengal
The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam's Karimganj ...
*History of Bangladesh
Civilisational history of Bangladesh previously known as East Bengal, dates back over four millennia, to the Chalcolithic. The country's early documented history featured successions of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms and empires, vying for region ...
*History of India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
References
Governors of Bengal
1236 deaths
13th-century Indian Muslims
13th-century Indian monarchs
Year of birth unknown
{{Bangladesh-politician-stub