Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji
Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī, (, ) also known as Bakhtiyar Khalji, was a Turko-Afghan military general of the Ghurid Empire, who led the Muslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar and established himself as their ruler. He was the founder of the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, which ruled Bengal for a short period, from 1203 to 1227 CE. Khalji's invasions of the Indian subcontinent between A.D. 1197 and 1206 led to mass flight and murder of Buddhist monks, and caused grave damage to the traditional Buddhist institutions of higher learning  in Northern India. In Bengal, Khalji's reign was responsible for displacement of Buddhism by Islam. His rule is said to have begun the Islamic rule in Bengal, most notably those of Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal. Bakhtiyar launched an ill-fated Tibet campaign in 1206 and was assassinated upon returning to Bengal. He was succeeded by Muhammad Shiran Khalji. Early life. Bakhtiyar Khalji was born and raised in Garmsir, Helmand, in present-day southern Afghanistan. He was member of the Khalaj tribe, which is of Turkic origin, but went through a process of Pashtunization, and after being settled in  south-eastern Afghanistan for over 200 years, eventually led to the creation of the Ghilji tribe. Bakhtiyar Khalji was of common birth, had long arms extending below his knees, a short physical stature, and an unfavorable countenance. He was first appointed as the "Dewan-i-Ard" at Ghor. Then he approached India in about the year 1193 and tried to enter in the army of Qutb al-Din Aibak, but was refused rank. Then he went further eastward and took a job under Malik Hizbar al-Din, then in command of a platoon at Badayun in northern India. After a  short period he went to Oudh where Malik Husam al-Din, recognised him for his worth. Husam gave him a landed estate in the south-eastern corner of modern Mirzapur district. Khalji soon established himself there and carried out successful raids into weakly-defended regions to the east. Conquest of Bengal. Khalji was head of the Ghurid Empire military force that conquered parts of eastern India at the end of the 12th century and at the beginning of the 13th century. He subjugated Bihar in 1200. His invasions severely damaged the Buddhist establishments at Odantapuri, Vikramashila, and destroyed Nalanda University . Minhaj-i-Siraj's "Tabaqat-i Nasiri" documents Bakhtiyar Khalji's sack of a Buddhist monastery, which the author equates in his description with a city he calls "Bihar", from the soldiers' use of the word "vihara". According to the early 17th century Buddhist scholar Taranatha, the invaders massacred many monks at Odantapuri, and destroyed Vikramashila. In 1203, Khalji took his forces into Bengal. With the octogenarian emperor Lakshmana Sena at the helm, Sena dynasty was in a state of decline, and could not provide much resistance. As Khalji came upon the city of Nabadwip, it is said that he  advanced so rapidly that only 18 horsemen from his army could keep up. The small horde entered the city unchallenged and took the emperor and his army by shock . This caused Lakhsmana Sena to flee with his retainers to east Bengal. Khalji subsequently went on to capture Gauda (ancient Lakhnauti), the capital and the principal city of Bengal and intruded into much of Bengal. Muhammad Bakhtiyar’s rule was related by Minhaj al-Siraj, as he visited Bengal about 40 years later: Death and aftermath. Ikhtiyar al-Dīn Muḥammad Khalji left the town of Devkot in 1206 to attack Tibet , leaving Ali Mardan Khalji in Ghoraghat Upazila to guard the eastern frontier from his headquarters at Barisal. Bakhtiyar Khalji's forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Tibetan guerrilla forces at Chumbi Valley, which forced him to retreat to Devkot with only about a hundred surviving soldiers. As he lay ill and exhausted in Devkot, Bakhtiyar Khalji was assassinated by Ali Mardan Khalji. The Khalji noblemen then appointed Muhammad Shiran Khalji as Bakhtiyar's successor. Loyal troops under Shiran Khalji and Subedar Aulia Khan avenged Ikhtiyar's death, imprisoning Ali Mardan Khalji. Eventually Ali Mardan fled to Delhi  and provoked the Sultan of Delhi Qutb al-Din Aibak to invade Bengal, who sent an army under Qayemaz Rumi, the governor of Awadh, to dethrone Shiran Khalji . Shiran fled to Dinajpur where he later died. Ghiyas-ud-din Iwaz Khalji assisted the invasion and assumed the governorship of Bengal in 1208. But shortly after, he yielded power to Ali Mardan willingly, when the latter returned from Delhi in 1210. However, the nobles of Bengal conspired against and assassinated Ali Mardan in 1212. Iwaj Khalji assumed power again and proclaimed his independence from the Delhi sultanate. Legacy. Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji  had the Khutbahread and coins struck in his name. Mosques, madrasas, and khanqahs arose in the new abode of Islam through Bakhtiyar's patronage, and his example was imitated by his subordinates. Khalji's conquest began 500 years of Muslim rule over Bengal which ended with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Al Mahmud, a leading Bangladeshi poet, composed a book of poetry titled "Bakhtiyarer Ghora" ("Horses of Bakhtiyar") in the early 1990s, in which Khalji was depicted as the praiseworthy hero of Muslim conquest of Bengal.