In 1236 the male nobles, or emirs, of the sultan’s court would not tolerate this and chose to ignore it, elevating Razia’s debauched younger brother Ruknuddin to rule in her stead. So, 730 years before Jawaharlal Nehru’s only child, Indira Gandhi, became India’s first female prime minister, Iltutmish nominated from his deathbed his 30-year-old daughter Razia to rule his kingdom. Razia’s father, Iltutmish, had accomplished the 12th century’s version of going from the mailroom to the boardroom by rising from slavery to the throne of the Delhi sultanate, and he had learned to prize competence above all else. But they were just never consulted on such matters as long as a brother or father drew breath. You see, it was not so uncommon when Razia was born in 1205 for Sultanate princesses to be trained in the arts of war and administration.
But Razia, a Muslim princess whose Turkish ancestors had invaded northern India in the 11th century, had one advantage denied so many young women in India today: an education.
No statistics on discrimination, rape or abuse were kept, yet it was indisputably a man’s world – even if you were the daughter of a sultan. Razia Sultana’s Delhi was not unlike New Delhi today.
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