Mamluks, Conquest and Culture

The Ghurids have their origins in the mountainous region of modern central Afghanistan, from where they established the first Islamic state in India. Some of their ghulams, primarily nomadic Turks from Central Asia, were to become independent rulers, leading to the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate. At its height, in the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries, their domain extended from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and from the Straits of Hormuz to the River Oxus. Mamluks, Conquest and Culture covers both the military and political history of the dynasty and the Persianate cultural world they inhabited and propagated on the subcontinent. The collapse of the Great Seljuk Empire allowed them to expand westwards into Iran. Extensive use of ghulams played a crucial role in their success, and this cavalry was to prove decisive in the campaigns against the Indian dynasties. Their conquests reunited territories to create a transregional empire for the first time in a millennium.

Mark Kerr-Smiley read History at University College London and has taught and lectured there. His particular interests have always been linked to the wider medieval world. He worked for over thirty years in the City of London. Mamluks, Conquest and Culture is his first book. He lives in London.