Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1324 to 1351, Muhammad ibn Tughluq was one of the most ambitious and controversial rulers of medieval India. A bold reformer, he attempted to relocate the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and to introduce copper currency — projects that failed and ruined the sultanate.
Mohammed ben Toughlouq
Muhammad ibn Tughluq
8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- 1324: ascends to the throne of the Delhi Sultanate following the death of his father Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq
- 1327: orders the transfer of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Deccan), a disastrous undertaking
- 1329–1330: introduces copper currency to replace silver, triggering an economic crisis
- 1333: receives Ibn Battuta at his court, who would describe him in his travel accounts
- 1351: dies during a military campaign against a rebellion
Works & Achievements
Muhammad ibn Tughluq had copper coins minted to replace silver, hoping to multiply the sultanate's resources without depleting its precious metals. The experiment quickly failed due to widespread counterfeiting and had to be abandoned at great cost to the treasury.
A pharaonic project aimed at shifting the sultanate's centre to the Deccan in order to better control southern India. The forced march of Delhi's entire population over 1,500 km is remembered as one of the most controversial acts of his reign.
The fourth city of Delhi built by Muhammad ibn Tughluq, Jahanpanah linked the older parts of the city into a single fortified whole. It stands as a testament to his urban ambitions before his plans to relocate the capital took over.
An attempt to boost state revenues by doubling the land tax on the fertile plains between the Ganges and the Yamuna. Poorly implemented during a period of drought, it triggered famine, revolts, and the abandonment of farmland by peasants.
Muhammad ibn Tughluq raised an army of several tens of thousands of men to extend his empire as far as China. The expedition ended in military disaster in the Himalayas, costing the lives of nearly the entire army sent.
Anecdotes
In 1327, Muhammad ibn Tughluq made the astonishing decision to move the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, more than 1,500 kilometres to the south. He ordered the entire population — nobles, merchants, artisans, and beggars alike — to abandon everything and march to the new capital. Ibn Battuta reports that residents who refused to leave were forced out. A few years later, the sultan reversed the decision himself: Daulatabad was abandoned and Delhi repopulated, but the double migration had exhausted and impoverished the country.
To finance his campaigns without depleting his gold and silver reserves, Muhammad ibn Tughluq introduced around 1329 a copper currency intended to replace silver coins. But the sultan found no way to prevent counterfeiting: almost anyone could strike copper coins at home. The currency lost all value, the treasury was flooded with forgeries, and the sultan was forced to reimburse in real silver everyone who returned their copper coins to him — further ruining the sultanate's finances.
Ibn Battuta, the great Berber traveller of the 14th century, spent several years at the court of Muhammad ibn Tughluq, who appointed him qadi (judge) of Delhi. In his memoirs, he describes a sultan of considerable learning who had mastered philosophy, mathematics, and medicine, and was capable of scholarly debate in Persian and Arabic. Yet he also bears witness to terrible fits of rage: public executions were frequent, even for minor offences, and those around the sultan lived in constant fear of falling from favour.
In 1337, Muhammad ibn Tughluq dispatched an army of several tens of thousands of men toward China, through the Himalayan passes. The expedition ended in disaster: ambushed in the mountains by local peoples, the army was almost entirely destroyed. This rout cost the sultanate a fortune in men and equipment, illustrating the tragic gap between the sultan's boundless ambitions and the realities of his time.
Primary Sources
Sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq is the most generous ruler in India toward foreigners, yet also the quickest to punish. His gates are never closed to petitioners or criminals alike, and one may see at the same time those who are tortured and those who are rewarded.
The sultan, in his desire to subjugate the entire world, scattered his armies to the four corners of the earth and emptied his treasury in endless expeditions. His projects, though grandiose, brought ruin to the sultanate rather than glory.
When the sultan ordered the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad, not a single house remained inhabited in Delhi. The entire city was emptied of its people, as though death itself had breathed upon it.
Muhammad ibn Tughluq is a sultan said to be learned in philosophy, logic, and mathematics, speaking Persian and Arabic with ease, yet whose tyranny is feared by all his subjects.
Key Places
The sultanate's main capital, Delhi was the political center of Muhammad ibn Tughluq both before and after the aborted attempt to relocate to Daulatabad. The city endured a forced exodus and subsequent repopulation, and bears witness to his reign through the city of Jahanpanah that he had built there.
A Deccan fortress chosen by Muhammad ibn Tughluq as his new capital in 1327. The project forced the entire population of Delhi to march 1,500 km, but was abandoned a few years later, leaving the city half-empty.
A city in the Deccan conquered during the Tughluq dynasty's reign, it reflects the sultanate's military expansion into southern India in the period leading up to Muhammad ibn Tughluq's rule.
A province in northwestern India where Muhammad ibn Tughluq died in 1351 during a military campaign against rebel tribes, bringing an end to a reign of twenty-six years.
A Himalayan region through which the Tughluq army attempted to pass during the disastrous expedition toward China in 1337, where it was met by hostile mountain peoples who nearly annihilated the entire force.
Typical Objects
A currency created by Muhammad ibn Tughluq to replace silver, it stands as a symbol of one of his most disastrous reforms. Widespread counterfeiting by the population bankrupted the royal treasury and forced the sultan to abandon the experiment.
A document bearing the sultan's seal, through which Muhammad ibn Tughluq issued his orders across the sultanate. The transfer of the capital and the introduction of the new currency were both imposed through such decrees.
The emblematic weapon of the Delhi Sultans, inherited from the Turco-Persian military tradition. Muhammad ibn Tughluq personally led many campaigns at the head of his cavalry armies.
A sultan renowned for his learning, Muhammad ibn Tughluq was well versed in philosophy, logic, and mathematics. Ibn Battuta reports that he composed and debated scholarly texts in Persian and Arabic with the learned men of his court.
The raised seat from which the sultan dispensed justice and received ambassadors and petitioners during grand public audiences. It was from this throne that Muhammad ibn Tughluq handed down decisions that could be as generous as they were fearsome.
The mode of transport used by rulers moving through the sultanate, it accompanied the lengthy migrations imposed on the court during the forced relocation to Daulatabad.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Daily Life
Morning
The sultan began his day with the dawn prayer (fajr) according to the Hanafi Sunni rite practiced at the Delhi Sultanate. He then held a private audience with his ministers (diwan) to handle urgent military and administrative matters, sometimes at sunrise.
Afternoon
The afternoon was devoted to grand public audiences (darbar), where the sultan received ambassadors, petitioners, and condemned men. Ibn Battuta describes these sessions as unpredictable: some left laden with gifts, while others were led to execution at a mere gesture from the sultan.
Evening
In the evening, Muhammad ibn Tughluq withdrew to study: renowned as a philosopher and scholar, he read treatises on logic, medicine, and astronomy in Persian and Arabic. Learned discussions with the scholars of his court and visiting Sufis could stretch late into the night.
Food
Like the court of the Delhi Sultanate, Muhammad ibn Tughluq followed a diet shaped by Persian and Indian influences: rice, flatbread, grilled or slow-cooked meats in sauce, dried fruits, and honey-based confections. Pork was forbidden under Islamic law, and royal banquets featured refined dishes sometimes brought from afar.
Clothing
The sultan wore the ceremonial garments of Indo-Persian sovereigns: long embroidered robes (qaba) in silk or fine cotton, a jewel-adorned turban, and a gem-studded belt. On military campaigns, he donned armor and a helmet in the tradition of Turco-Mongol horsemen.
Housing
Muhammad ibn Tughluq resided in the palace of Jahanpanah in Delhi, a fortified palace-city comprising audience halls, private apartments, inner mosques, irrigated gardens, and royal stables. On campaign, he lodged in a richly decorated royal tent, surrounded by his guards and his mobile court.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Réforme monétaire : introduction du tanka de cuivre
vers 1329
Transfert de la capitale à Daulatabad
1327
Construction de la cité de Jahanpanah
vers 1326-1327
Réforme agraire et hausse du kharaj dans le Doab
vers 1333
Expédition militaire vers la Chine et le Khorasan
1337-1338
