Razia Sultana

Delhi’s nobles crowned a king first. He failed within months. Then they turned to the ruler Iltutmish had actually wanted.

This article covers Razia Sultana, the only woman ever to rule the Delhi Sultanate.

1. Razia’s Rise and Reign

1.1 How did Razia actually come to the throne?

Razia Sultana, throne name Raziyyat-ud-Din, was the daughter of Iltutmish. He had nominated her as his successor before he died. Nobles instead first installed her half-brother Rukn-ud-din Firuz, who was deposed within months for misrule. Only then did Razia take the throne, ruling from 1236 to 1240 CE as the first and only woman to hold it.

1.2 How did she actually rule, day to day?

• She governed directly: taking charge of administration herself and rewarding officials on merit rather than birth or Turkish ancestry.
• She dropped purdah: appearing unveiled in public, wearing male royal dress, a cloak called qaba and a cap called kulah, instead of ruling from behind a screen.
• She held court and led armies in person: riding through Delhi on an elephant and personally leading campaigns, including expeditions toward Ranthambore and Gwalior.
• She asserted authority through her coinage: her early coins carried her father’s name, but by 1237-38 CE she issued coins solely in her own name.

Contemporary chroniclers also record that she deliberately used the masculine title “Sultan,” not “Sultana,” to assert full ruling authority.

2. Yaqut, the Nobles, and the Rebellion

2.1 Why did the nobles turn against her?

Turkish nobles, known as the Chahalgani or Chalisa, resented being ruled by a woman. This resentment is well documented by contemporary chroniclers. Razia also appointed Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian noble, as Amir-i-Akhur, Superintendent of the Royal Stables, a senior post that had traditionally gone to Turkish nobles. The Chahalgani saw his promotion as a direct threat to their hold on high office.

Later chroniclers also claimed Razia and Yaqut had a personal relationship, and her rivals used this claim against her. Modern historians treat it as a hostile rumour recorded well after the fact, not a settled, proven fact.

2.2 How did Altunia’s revolt actually unfold?

In April 1240, Ikhtiyar-ud-din Altunia, governor of Bathinda, rebelled against Razia. During this revolt, her own army killed Yaqut and imprisoned her. Afterward, Altunia’s fellow nobles pushed to install a rival candidate instead of rewarding him. He then allied with Razia instead, and married her later in 1240.

3. Disputed Death and Legacy

3.1 How exactly did Razia’s reign end?

Razia and Altunia raised an army and marched on Delhi in October 1240 to reclaim her throne. Forces loyal to her brother, the new Sultan Bahram Shah, defeated them decisively. What happened next is disputed among sources. One account says captors executed Razia and Altunia soon after their defeat. Another says local robbers killed them as they fled near Kaithal. Sources also differ on the exact date, placing it anywhere from 13 to 15 October 1240.

3.2 Where is she actually buried?

A tomb attributed to Razia stands near Turkman Gate in Old Delhi. A separate tradition places her original grave at Kaithal. Historians are not fully agreed on which site is authentic.

3.3 What does her downfall really tell us?

The nobles’ first choice, Rukn-ud-din Firuz, failed within months. That failure, not any change of heart about a woman ruling, is what actually opened the door for Razia. Her downfall then came from two directions at once: resentment over her gender combined with resentment over Yaqut’s promotion, making the two causes hard to separate. After her death, Bahram Shah continued as Sultan, and no woman held the Delhi Sultanate’s throne again.

4. Three Medieval Queens, Three Strategies

4.1 What did Razia’s own chronicler actually think of her?

Minhaj-i-Siraj, the era’s chronicler, admitted Razia was more capable than all her brothers, yet still opposed her rule as a woman. He wrote that since her “account did not fall under the column of men,” her excellent qualities should not have mattered. That line shows his bias in his own words, not a later historian’s summary.

4.2 Did every medieval queen rule the way Razia did?

• Razia ruled openly as a woman: her inscriptions and coins openly named her as Sultan Iltutmish’s daughter.
• Rudramadevi ruled disguised as a man: the Kakatiya queen of Warangal (1262-1289 CE) changed her name on her own inscriptions and presented herself as male.
• Didda ruled long enough to become family: Queen Didda of Kashmir (980-1003 CE) took her title from “didi,” elder sister, an affectionate name her own subjects gave her.

5. What the PYQs Keep Testing

5.1 What do exam questions usually ask about Razia’s rise and fall?

Exam questions on Razia typically test the same core sequence: her father’s identity (Iltutmish), the deposed half-brother who ruled first (Rukn-ud-din Firuz), the noble whose promotion deepened opposition (Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut), the governor who imprisoned then married her (Ikhtiyar-ud-din Altunia), the year her reign ended (1240), and the town near which she died (Kaithal). Each detail has appeared as a distinct trap across different papers, so treat this sequence as a single connected chain rather than isolated facts.