Iltutmish Administration

Iltutmish was one of the most outstanding rulers of Medieval India. In true terms, history of the Muslim sovereignty in India begins with him. He gave the sultanate a capital, a legitimate sovereign state (he got an investiture from Caliphate, and that was a proof of sovereignty in that time) , monarchical form of government and a governing class or nobility called Chahalgani or Turkan-i-Chalgani or Chalisa (a group of forty) which was the ruling  elite  of  the period. The majority of the nobles in IItutmish’s nobility were Turks followed by Tajiks who were Iranians from the transoxiana and Khurasan regions. He divided his empire into numerous big and small iqtas, as assignment of land in lieu of salary, which he distributed to his Turkish officers. IItutmish also used this institution as an instrument for liquidating the feudal order of the Indian society and linking up the far-flung parts of the empire to one centre.