Khizr Kahn was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty. After the death of Mahmud Tughluq, the last ruler of the Tughluq dysasty, Daulat Khan Lodhi was enthroned by the nobles. But Khizr Khan who had been appointed by Timur as governor of Lahore, defeated him and occupied the throne in 1414. Although Khizr Khan attained sovereign power, he preferred to rule as viceroy of Timur’s successor Shah Rukh and paid him tribute. The Sultanate was now reduced to Sind and the Punjab regions of West Pakistan and Western Utter Perdesh in India. Other so many states, independent of and/or antagonistic to the Sultanate, grew up all around. These fall into four groups. The group consisted of Hindu states of Rajputana with the ruler of Mewar as their leader. The Muslim states of Gujrat and Malwa comprised the second group. The third group included the southern states, the Behmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms. The fourth group consisted of the eastern states –Gondwana, Orissa, Bengal and Jaunpur.
It was not possible for Khizr Khan to take stern measures as Balban did to reclaim the former provinces of the Delhi Empire. That was beyond his acumen and resources. But there were refractory chiefs near Delhi and it was only natural that he should attempt to subdue them. In the year of his succession his wazir, Taj-ul-Mulk led a series of expeditions against the Rajput princes of Katehar and Etawah. Other expeditions sent to Kampil. Patiali, Jalesar, Gwalior, Biyana and Mewat. These expeditions met with temporary success but failed to produce any positive result. The people in the capital recovered as he helped the poor resettle.
Khizr Khan fell ill in one of his expeditions and on his return to Delhi died on 20 May 1421.
This article was last updated on Monday, Jan 03, 2005
