enormous booty in . Ala-ud-din’s Internal Reforms The vast annexation of territories was followed by extensive administrative reforms aimed at stabilising the government. Ala-ud- din’s first measure was to deprive the nobles of the wealth they had accumulated. It had provided them the leisure and means to hatch conspiracies against the Sultan.
Marriage alliances between families of noble men were permitted only with the consent of the Sultan. The Sultan ordered that villages held by proprietary right, as free Attack of Mongols Military Campaigns The inability of the Sultanate to effectively harness the agrarian resources of its North Indian territories to sustain its political ambitions was evident in its relentless military campaigns in search of loot and plunder. Ala-ud-din’s campaigns into Devagiri ( , , ), Gujarat ( – ), Ranthambhor ( ), Chittor ( ) and Malwa ( ) were meant to proclaim his political and military power as well as to collect loot from the defeated kingdoms. It was with the same plan that he unleashed his forces into the Deccan.
The first target in the peninsula was Devagiri in the western Deccan. Ala-ud-din sent a large army commanded by The Forty System (Chahalgani) The nobles occupied a position next only to the king in status and rank. Enjoying high social status and commanding vast resources they at times became strong enough to challenge the king. In the Delhi Sultanate, nobles were drawn from different tribes and nationalities like the Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Egyptian and Indian Muslims.
Iltutmish organized a Corps of Forty, all drawn from Turkish nobility and selected persons from this Forty for appointments in military and civil administration. The Corps of Forty became so powerful to the extent of disregarding the wishes of Iltutmish, and after his death, to place Rukn-ud-Din Firoz on the throne. Razziya sought to counter the influence of Turkish nobles and defend her interest by organizing a group of non- Turkish and Indian Muslim nobles under the leadership of Yakut, the Abyssinian slave. This was naturally resented by the Turkish nobles, who got both of them murdered.
Thus in the absence of rule of primogeniture, the nobles