Feroz Shah Tughlaq

Two 1,600-year-old stone pillars were dragged across North India on bullock carts, wrapped in silk. This article covers Feroz Shah Tughlaq, remembered for canals and monuments more than conquest.

A Builder, Not a Conqueror

MedHist0028

1351 CE

Becomes Sultan

Succeeds his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq

1351-1388 CE

Builds a Vast Canal Network

Includes a 120 km Sultanpur canal; founds four new towns

1356 CE

Ashokan Pillars Moved to Delhi

Two pillars carried by bullock cart; one erected at Feroz Shah Kotla

1388 CE

Dies; Succession Disputes Follow

His sons and grandsons contest the throne for years afterward

The trade-off: a reign remembered for canals and monuments, but also religious intolerance and a fragile succession.

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Timeline

• 1351 CE: Feroz Shah Tughlaq becomes Sultan, succeeding his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• 1351-1388 CE: He builds one of medieval India’s largest canal networks, including a 120 km channel linking the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers. He founds four new towns: Jaunpur, Hisar, Fatehabad and Firozabad.
• 1356 CE: He has two ancient Ashokan pillars carried to Delhi by bullock cart, wrapped in silk. One is re-erected at his palace complex, Feroz Shah Kotla.
• 1388 CE: Feroz Shah dies. Succession disputes among his sons and grandsons follow for years.

Accession and a New Direction Need to Know

• Feroz Shah Tughlaq ruled from 1351 to 1388 CE, succeeding his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s reign was chaotic. It brought a forced capital shift to Daulatabad, a failed token-currency experiment, and a disastrous Himalayan campaign. See MedHist0027 — Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• Feroz Shah took a more conservative, welfare-focused course instead. He replaced risky experiments with steady public works: canals, welfare departments and new towns.
• The Tughlaq dynasty itself was founded decades earlier by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s father. See MedHist0026 — Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq.

Canals and Irrigation Works Need to Know

• Feroz Shah is remembered as one of medieval India’s great canal-builders, sometimes called the “Father of Irrigation.”
• He built five major canals, watering large tracts of dry land in what is now Haryana and Punjab.
• Two large canals ran from Karnal: one from the Yamuna, called Rajabwah after his father Rajab, and one from the Sutlej, called Ulughkhani. Both fed his new city of Hisar.
• A further stretch, about 120 km long and sometimes called the Sultanpur canal, linked the Yamuna and Sutlej systems.
• The longest single canal ran from the Sutlej to Hansi, close to 200 km — among the longest waterways built by a single medieval Indian ruler.
• Parts of this network survived for centuries. Mughal emperor Akbar had the Yamuna canal repaired, and in 1817 the British restored it again as the Western Yamuna Canal, still in use today.

Religious Policy and the Jizya Need to Know

• Feroz Shah took a stricter, more orthodox line on religious policy than several earlier Delhi Sultans.
• He was the first Sultan to impose Jizya on Brahmins. Earlier rulers had generally exempted Brahmins from this tax on non-Muslims, treating them as a scholarly class.
• He also made Jizya a separately assessed tax, rather than a charge folded into other levies — a more systematic approach than earlier practice.
• Contemporary chronicles, including those of court historian Ziauddin Barani, record his enforcement of this policy. They also record the destruction of some Hindu temples and idols during his reign.
• Historians treat this as a real hardening of religious policy compared to several of his predecessors, not simply a continuation of existing practice.

Welfare, Towns and Public Works Good to Know

• He created Diwan-i-Khairat, a charity department, and Diwan-i-Bandagan, a department managing his large establishment of slaves.
• Diwan-i-Khairat funded marriages for poor Muslim girls, part of Feroz Shah’s broader public-welfare focus. He also destroyed official records of farmer debts, effectively cancelling them.
• He founded four new towns: Jaunpur, Hisar, Fatehabad and Firozabad. His palace complex at Firozabad, Feroz Shah Kotla, still stands in Delhi today.
• In 1356 CE, he transported two ancient Ashokan pillars to Delhi by bullock cart, wrapped in silk. One stands today at Feroz Shah Kotla.
• For the wider Tughlaq dynasty, see MedHist0005 — The Tughlaq Dynasty.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Feroz Shah Tughlaq became Sultan in 1351 CE, succeeding which cousin?

Muhammad bin Tughlaq

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq

Firishta

Khusrau Khan

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Legacy and Contradictions Great to Know

• Feroz Shah’s reign followed Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s turbulent experiments almost deliberately. Canals, welfare departments and monuments replaced token currency, forced migrations and failed campaigns.
• Moving 1,600-year-old stone pillars across hundreds of kilometres, without modern machinery, was itself a major engineering feat. It shows real state capacity, even when directed at symbolism rather than conquest.
• His welfare measures and his religious intolerance sat side by side in the same reign. A ruler funding poor girls’ marriages was also the first to tax Brahmins and destroy temples — a real contradiction worth holding onto rather than resolving.
• Earlier Delhi Sultans, from centralizer Balban to trailblazing Razia Sultana, mostly ruled through military campaigns and raw authority. Feroz Shah’s canals and welfare departments marked a shift toward long-term public works instead. See MedHist0051 — Balban and MedHist0025 — Razia Sultana.
• His public-works legacy did not protect his dynasty. Succession disputes after his death in 1388 weakened the Tughlaqs badly, leaving them vulnerable within a few decades to Timur’s invasion and the dynasty’s eventual collapse.