Muhammad bin Tughlaq

A Himalayan campaign sent 100,000 soldiers into the mountains. Chroniclers say almost none came back. This article covers Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the most learned Sultan of Delhi and its boldest experimenter. Historians still argue over whether he was a visionary who ran out of luck, or simply reckless.

Four Experiments, Four Failures

MedHist0027

1327 CE

Capital Moved to Daulatabad

Reversed by 1335 CE, after years of upheaval

1330 CE

Token Currency Introduced

Copper coins declared equal to silver; forged on a mass scale

1334 CE

Doab Tax Hike Sparks Revolt

Taxes raised up to 50%, mid-famine; peasants flee to jungles

C. 1335 CE

Qarachil Expedition Disaster

A Himalayan campaign of 100,000 troops, nearly wiped out

The reputation: brilliant in theory, catastrophic in execution — nearly every major idea unravelled within a decade.

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Timeline

• 1327 CE: Muhammad bin Tughlaq shifts his capital roughly 1,100 km, from Delhi to Daulatabad in the Deccan. He abandons the move and returns to Delhi by 1335 CE.
• C. 1329-1330 CE: He introduces token currency, declaring copper and brass coins equal in value to silver. Mass forgery quickly undermines it.
• C. 1332-1333 CE: He withdraws the token coins, reportedly redeeming them for silver and gold at the treasury’s own cost.
• 1334 CE: He raises land tax in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab by up to 50%, during a famine. Peasants flee to the jungles rather than pay.
• Around 1335 CE: His Qarachil expedition, roughly 100,000 troops sent into the Himalayan foothills, ends in catastrophic losses from rain, disease and ambush.

Reign and the Historians’ Debate Need to Know

• Muhammad bin Tughlaq ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1325 to 1351 CE. Chroniclers called him the “most learned” of the Delhi Sultans, trained in logic, mathematics, and Persian poetry.
• Historians disagree sharply on how to judge him. Some read him as a genuine visionary, an unusually thoughtful ruler whose bold ideas were let down by poor execution and bad timing. Others read him as impulsive and erratic, a Sultan who launched huge schemes without preparing for their real costs.
• Both readings agree on one pattern. His major policies were coherent in theory, backed by real strategic or economic logic. But each one caused serious hardship once it met reality on the ground.

The Capital Shift to Daulatabad Need to Know

• In 1327 CE, he shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (formerly Devagiri) in the Deccan, a journey of roughly 1,100 km by land.
• The stated aim was better control of a huge empire from a more central point, spanning both the north and the newly-conquered south. A well-maintained road with regular halting stations connected the two cities during the move.
• Large numbers of officials, nobles, and scholars were ordered to relocate, along with parts of the general population. Many died along the way from the length and hardship of the journey.
• Some later chronicler accounts, most famously Ibn Battuta’s, describe Delhi as left almost entirely empty. Most historians now treat this as rhetorical exaggeration rather than a literal count. Two Sanskrit inscriptions from 1327-1328 CE show Delhi’s population still active and prosperous around that time, which cuts against a total-evacuation reading.
• The move was reversed by 1335 CE. After roughly eight years, Muhammad bin Tughlaq brought his court back to Delhi.

Tax Revolt and the Qarachil Disaster Need to Know

• In 1334 CE, he sharply raised land tax in the Doab region, between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, during a famine. The resulting hardship triggered widespread unrest and peasant flight into the jungles.
• His Qarachil expedition, around 1335 CE, sent roughly 100,000 troops into the Himalayan foothills of present-day Uttarakhand. The goal was to subdue hill kingdoms near the Tibetan border. Rain, disease, and ambush by local forces destroyed nearly the entire force.

The Token Currency Experiment Good to Know

• Around 1329-1330 CE, he introduced token currency: bronze and copper coins, declared by decree to be worth the same as silver tanka coins.
• The likely motive was a genuine silver shortage, combined with the heavy cost of his military campaigns. He may also have drawn on reports of paper currency used in Mongol-ruled China, though he chose copper tokens instead of paper.
• The mechanism depended entirely on the state’s ability to control who could mint coins. It had no reliable way to do that, and no protection against forgery.
• Ordinary people were able to strike counterfeit tokens at home, using cheap copper and brass. Fake coins flooded the market, and the tokens’ real value collapsed.
• He withdrew the scheme by the early 1330s. He reportedly redeemed the token coins for silver and gold from the royal treasury, at heavy cost to the state.
• This was a real, historically significant early experiment in fiat-style currency. It failed for an identifiable practical reason, weak anti-counterfeiting controls, not simply royal whim.

Administration and the Chroniclers Good to Know

• He established a new agricultural department, Diwan-i-Kohi, and offered farmers loans called Takkavi to encourage cultivation.
• Ibn Battuta served as qazi of Delhi under Muhammad bin Tughlaq and recorded this period as an eyewitness. His account, the Rihla, is a major source for the reign. It was also written with real rhetorical flourish. Specific claims from it are best checked against other evidence, not taken as literal fact. See MedHist0022 — Foreign Travelers and Chroniclers of Medieval India.
• He succeeded his father Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, whose death remains historically disputed. See MedHist0026 — Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq.
• His cousin Feroz Shah Tughlaq succeeded him in 1351 CE. See MedHist0028 — Feroz Shah Tughlaq.
• For the wider dynasty, see MedHist0005 — The Tughlaq Dynasty.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In 1327 CE, Muhammad bin Tughlaq shifted his capital from Delhi to which city in the Deccan?

Daulatabad

Bijapur

Warangal

Gulbarga

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Judging Muhammad bin Tughlaq Great to Know

• Four major initiatives, all within about eight years, all failed or reversed. That density of ambitious, poorly-executed policy is rare even by Delhi Sultanate standards.
• The Daulatabad shift and the Doab tax hike share a common flaw. Each was a reasonable idea on paper, but each ignored the real cost the population would bear in practice.
• Token currency failed for a specific, avoidable reason. Without a way to prevent counterfeiting, declaring a cheap metal equal to silver by decree could not hold once forgers caught on.
• The Qarachil expedition’s scale, roughly 100,000 troops, shows Muhammad bin Tughlaq thought in extremes. Ambitious ideas, at ambitious scale, magnified the cost whenever the execution went wrong.
• The “mad Sultan” label is largely a product of hostile chroniclers writing after his death. Modern historians read the same events more carefully, and see an original mind whose plans consistently outran his ability to carry them out.