Trust Based Relations in Delhi Sultanate Power Politics

Abstract

Trust and distrust were the edifice on which the relational matrix of the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1399/605-801) power structure was constructed. Every sultan promoted trusted elements within nobility that he nurtured through an active process of procurement and selection. Present article takes into account trust-based relations in the Delhi Sultanate and the process through which nobility was acquired, cultivated and sustained. The treatment of trusted elements can be juxtaposed with the treatment of distrusted elements in order to understand power relations among the ruling elite. The article argues that although the sultans made every possible effort to promote trusted nobility however, they could never completely trust them and this distrust resulted in an extremely centralized and highly unstable power-structure that was knitted around the personality of the sultan and the power structure crumbled as soon as the latter disappeared.