page_title: Ghiyas ud din Balban
hierarchical_section_title: Ghiyas ud din Balban
caption_attribution_description: English: Colonial Photograph of a Miniature of Sultan Ghayas ud din
context_page_description: Ghiyas ud din Balban; was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi.
  Ghiyas ud Din was the wazir of the last Shamsi sultan, Nasiruddin Mahmud. He reduced the power of the treacherous nobility and heightened the stature of the sultan. Despite having only few military achievements, he was the most powerful ruler of the sultanate between Shamsuddin Iltutmish and Alauddin Khalji.
  His original name was Baha Ud Din. He was an Ilbari Turk. When he was young he was captured by the Mongols, taken to Ghazni and sold to Khawaja Jamal ud-din of Basra, a Sufi. The latter then brought him to Delhi in 1232 along with other slaves, and all of them were purchased by Iltutmish.
  Balban belonged to the famous group of 40 Turkic slaves of Iltutmish.
  Ghiyas made several conquests, some of them as vizier. He routed the Mewats that harassed Delhi and reconquered Bengal, all while successfully facing the Mongol threat, a struggle that cost his son and heir's life. So it came to pass that upon his death in 1287, his grandson Qaiqubad was nominated sultan, undermining the achievements of his grandfather.
context_section_description: Ghiyas ud din Balban (reigned: 1266–1287) (Urdu: غیاث الدین بلبن‎); (Hindi: ग़ियास उद-दीन बलबन Ghiyās ud-Dīn Balban) was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi.
  Ghiyas ud Din was the wazir of the last Shamsi sultan, Nasiruddin Mahmud. He reduced the power of the treacherous nobility and heightened the stature of the sultan. Despite having only few military achievements, he was the most powerful ruler of the sultanate between Shamsuddin Iltutmish and Alauddin Khalji.
  His original name was Baha Ud Din. He was an Ilbari Turk. When he was young he was captured by the Mongols, taken to Ghazni and sold to Khawaja Jamal ud-din of Basra, a Sufi. The latter then brought him to Delhi in 1232 along with other slaves, and all of them were purchased by Iltutmish.
  Balban belonged to the famous group of 40 Turkic slaves of Iltutmish.
  Ghiyas made several conquests, some of them as vizier. He routed the Mewats that harassed Delhi and reconquered Bengal, all while successfully facing the Mongol threat, a struggle that cost his son and heir's life. So it came to pass that upon his death in 1287, his grandson Qaiqubad was nominated sultan, undermining the achievements of his grandfather.
  In spite of having only a few military achievements, Ghiyas ud-din made civil and military reforms that earned him the position of the strongest ruler between Shams ud-din Iltutmish and the later Alauddin Khalji, whose military achievements rest on the order established within the sultanate by Ghiyas ud din Balban.
caption: Grave in Balban's tomb enclosure, Mehrauli
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