Qutb ud-Din Aibak

Qutb ud-Din Aibak (c. 1150–1210) was a Turkic slave-general of the Ghurid sultan Muhammad of Ghor who laid the foundations of the Delhi Sultanate. Sold young to a qazi in Nishapur, he was resold to Muhammad at Ghazni and became stable-master.

After victory over Prithviraja III at Tarain in 1192, he took charge of Indian lands. He took Delhi that year, deposed its local vassal in 1193 and forced Kalinjar fortress to terms in 1202.

After Muhammad's assassination in 1206, Lahore called him to power, and in 1208–1209 Mahmud recognised him as ruler of Hindustan. His generosity earned him the epithet lakh-bakhsh, and he founded the Qutb Minar in Delhi. In 1210 he died at Lahore after a fall at polo, the saddle pommel piercing his ribs. He named no heir; his former slave and son-in-law Iltutmish took the throne and made the Ghurid lands the Delhi Sultanate.