Razia Sultan - The First Queen to Rule Delhi

Believed to be the grave of Razia Sultan, The ground breaking female ruler, in a man's world, a queen who ruled from Delhi in the early 13th century. An amazingly radical leader of her times, she was the first woman ruler who not only reigned over Delhi, but also led men in battles! She became a ruler in her own rights, she didnt replace a dead husband, wasn't covering for her son or nephew or any male ruler that existed at the time.


Iltutmish on his death-bed around 1236 was a worried man. His sons were incapable of taking his position to take over the kingdom he built with so much passion and hard work. So, he nominated his daughter Razia instead, to sit on his throne. Thus began another bloody chapter of intrigues and power struggles in Delhi! To start with, the nobility didn't accept a woman as a ruler, and therefore handed over the throne her brother Ruknuddin. The father, now dead, knew very well the traits of this son!! The kingdom became neglected, the citizens were unhappy and chaos prevailed as Ruknuddin remained busy whiling away his time in the company of nautch girls..The nobility soon realized their mistake, put the brother to death within 6 months, and brough back the sister Razia to the throne of Delhi a bit reluctantly, as there seemed to be no other choice.

Now, Razia was a remarkable woman, not only surprisingly secular for the times, she also was an able warrior, a shrewd politician who kept her citizens happy, was capable of playing the rebellious nobles against one another, and dealt with the politics of politics with remarkable elan. She fearlessly abandoned the veil as she believed that as a queen, she needed to be an approachable figure for all. She had even promised to her subjects that if as a ruler she didnt meet their expectations, they were free to depose her. And she did fulfill their expectations. She was a good ruler by all yardsticks!

All was going well with her and for the future of her empire, depite severe opposition from many conservative male nobles of her times - but something went wrong! 

She became close friends with an Etiopian slave (Habshi) named Jamaluddin Yaqut! There's a bit of controversy around the subject of whether or not Razia and Yaqut were lovers or just close friends, but whatever be the relationship between them, it made the court nobles really upset. And around that, hell broke lose.

The jealous male nobility around her anyway could not tolerate the fact that she had been chosen by her father above the heads of her brothers, and were looking for an opportunity like this, to strike back!

First of all, the court nobles were enraged about a woman of pure Turkish blood liaiasing with a slave from Ethiopia. They would tolerate none of it! On top of that, as Razia appointed Yaqut, the in-charge of the royal stables they grew even more jealous. Discontent grew into serious rebellion and a childhood friend of Razia, named Altuniya, (who according to some sources was also in love with her) led the angry nobles to fight a battle against the queen and Yaqut. In this momentous battle, Yaqut was killed, Razia taken prisoner and eventually she married Altuniya to save herself from being killed.

Delhi lost its first and only queen as her brother Muizuddin usurped the throne. Razia, ironically aided by Altuniya, made one final attempt to take over Delhi… and was defeated. They both then fled the capital, fell into the hands of robbers, and were killed.

And thus in the year 1240, with Razia Sultan's death, Delhi went back to dealing with incompetent rulers for another 20 odd years…

Alas!! The world certainly hasn't changed! Be it racial differences during the Sultanates or apartheid later on.

Officially, this historic queen lies in a simple grave, down the alleys near Turkman Gate of Old Delhi, surrounded on all sides by houses! The other grave is said to be that of Razia’s sister Shazia, unknown to history.