Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji

The Pala Empire, which had eventually disintegrated in the twelfth century under the attack of the Sena dynasty, had been the last empire of India’s middle kingdoms whose capital was Patliputra (modern Patna).The Bihar region was largely in ruins when visited by Hsüan-tsang, the famous Buddhist monk from China, and had suffered further damage at the hands of Muslim raiders in the twelfth century.

With the advent of the foreign aggression and eventual foreign subjugation of India, Bihar passes through very uncertain times during the medieval period.

Muhammad of Ghor has attacked this region of the Indian subcontinent many times.

Muhammad’s armies have destroyed many Buddhist institutions, including the great Nalanda university.

The Buddhism of Magadha is finally swept away in 1197 by the Islamic invasion under Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of Qutb-ud-Din's generals, who destroys monasteries fortified by the Sena armies.

During this invasion, many of the viharas and the famed universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila are destroyed, and thousands of Buddhist monks are massacred.

Muhammad of Ghur is assassinated while returning in 1206 to Afghanistan.

Qutb-ud-Din remains in India and declares himself sultan of Delhi, the first of the Mamluk (Slave) dynasty.

Concurrent with the exploits of Muhammad of Ghur, an obscure adventurer, Ikhtiyar-ud-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji of the Ghurid army, conquers Nadia, the capital of the Sena kings of Bengal, in 1202.

Within two years, Bakhtiyar had embarked upon a campaign to conquer Tibet in order to plunder the treasure of its Buddhist monasteries as well as to gain control of Bengal's traditional trade route leading to Southeast Asian gold and silver mines.

After the attempt ends in disaster, Bakhtiyar manages to return to Bengal with a few hundred men and dies there in 1206.

India’s Hindu population, regarded by the Muslim minority, after extensive plundering, as docile, do not rebel against the Ghorids, despite the overbearing rule of Sultan Muhammad Ghori, possibly because Muslim émigrés bring rumors of Mongol fighting in Persia.

Muhammad is assassinated, however, in Lahore in 1206.

(The historians Hasan Nizami and Ferishta record the killing of Ghori at the hands of the Gakhars, a Punjabi tribe.

However, Ferishta is known to have often confused them with the Khokhars, a Rajput clan, and other historians have alluded the killing to a band of Hindu Khokhars of the Salt Range, as many campaigns had been undertaken against the Khokhars by Ghori in the Punjab.)

Ghori reportedly had trained thousands of Turkic slaves in the art of warfare and administration.

Most of his slaves had been given an excellent education: during his reign many hardworking and intelligent slaves have risen to positions of excellence.

The childless sultan’s kingdom is divided upon Ghori’s death into many parts by his slaves: …

…Taj-ud-Din Yildoz becomes the ruler of Ghazni; …

…Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, a member of the Turkic Khilji, who had headed the armies that conquered much of northeastern India, receives Bengal; and …

…Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha, the Governor of Uch and Multan, becomes the king of Multan.