conspire against him to overthrow his rule. Therefore, he had a group of
faithful slaves to protect him. This group was known as Amir-i-
Chahalgani or the Forty.
They were assigned important posts and became very influential and
powerful as time passed. During
Iltutmish"s rule, they served him quite faithfully but, after his death, they
became notorious and intrigued against nearly all his successors. They
wanted to keep every new ruler under their thumb in order to keep on
enjoying the full taste of power.
Their intrigues, lust for power and greed for wealth led to disorder and
complete chaos in the country. The Forty had become so powerful that no
ruler could defy them; and if any ruler failed to fulfil their demands, they
overthrew his rule and placed their own candidate on the throne.
Historian Ziauddin Barani writes that since the Forty were slaves of
Iltutmish and were posted on high ranks at the same time, they considered
themselves important and were not ready to recognise any of their
colleagues as superior. The members also competed with other members
of the group who were in control of the army, possessing property and
wealth. As a result, there was strong rivalry and conflict among them too.
When Balban, one among them, assumed power, he fully realised that he
could not become the real ruler in presence of other members of the group.
Being a part of the group, he was fully mindful of their strengths as well as
weaknesses, besides being aware of their intrigues which he understood
how to encounter. He carefully made a plan and started to eliminate them
one by one, not sparing even his cousin.
With the elimination of the Forty, the role of the Turkish slaves in the
Indian politics came to an end. Though the institution of slavery
continued, a majority of slaves were non-Turks, and, since the rulers relied
heavily on the support of slaves, these non-Turks also played an active
role in history.
Ala-ud-din’s Measures
Desire to Found a New Religion According to Barani, Ala-ud-din wanted