Qutb ud-Din Aybak (?-1210) was the founder of the empire now known as the Delhi Sultanate. The sultanate was the first of the Muslim dynasties that dominated India until the arrival of European colonists.
Qutb ud-Din Aybak was of Turkic origin. He was enslaved when he was still a child. Qutb ud-Din became the property of Muhammad of Ghor, the Persian ruler of Afghanistan, and became a member of his household. He was later appointed to military duties. From 1193 onward, he was instrumental in the establishment of Muhammad of Ghor’s control over northern India, and he eventually became governor of the region.
In 1206, Muhammad of Ghor was assassinated. Qutb ud-Din asserted his authority in the region, and consolidated his rule through a series of political marriages. Although he is recognized as the founder of the Delhi Sultanate, Qutb ud-Din ruled from Lahore, now in Pakistan, for strategic reasons. He died in Lahore after an accident during a polo match. His son-in-law, Iltutmish, succeeded him.
The Qutb Minar, a 240-foot- (73-meter-) high minaret of red sandstone that stands in Delhi, commemorates Qutb ud-Din’s victories. Its construction began in 1193, the year when Qutb ud-Din occupied Delhi. Qutb ud-Din was not tolerant of the religion of the peoples he conquered. Other monuments to his reign are mosques that he had built from the stones of Hindu temples that he destroyed.
