Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji

Jalaluddin Khalji
Sultan
Imaginary portrait of Sultan Firuz Khalji, Khwaja Hasan, and a dervish (c. 1640)
Reign	13 June 1290 – 19 July 1296
Coronation	13 June 1290
Predecessor	Shamsuddin Kayumars
Successor	Alauddin Khalji
Died	20 July 1296 Kara
Spouse	Malika-i-Jahan
Issue	Khan-i-Khan (Mahmud), Arkali Khan, Qadr Khan (later Sultan Ruknuddin Ibrahim)
House	Khalji dynasty

Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji (r. 1290-1296; died 19 July 1296) was the first sultan of the Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

Jalaluddin started his career as an officer of the Mamluk dynasty, and rose to an important position under Sultan Muiz ud din Qaiqabad. After Qaiqabad was paralyzed, a group of nobles appointed his infant son Shamsuddin Kayumars as the new Sultan, and tried to kill Jalaluddin. Instead, Jalaluddin had them executed, and became the regent. A few months later, he deposed Kayumars, and became the new Sultan.

As a Sultan, he repulsed a Mongol invasion, and allowed many Mongols to settle in India after their conversion to Islam. He captured Mandawar and Jhain from the Chahamana king Hammira, although he was unable to capture the Chahamana capital Ranthambore. During his reign, his nephew Ali Gurshasp raided Bhilsa in 1293 and Devagiri in 1296.

Jalaluddin, who was around 70 years old at the time of his ascension, was known as a mild-mannered, humble and kind monarch to the general public. During the first year of his reign, he ruled from Kilokhri to avoid confrontations with the old Turkic nobles of the imperial capital Delhi. Several nobles considered him as a weak ruler, and unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow him at different times. He meted out lenient punishments to the rebels, except in case of a dervish Sidi Maula, who was executed for allegedly conspiring to dethrone him. Jalaluddin was ultimately assassinated by his nephew Ali Gurshasp, who subsequently ascended the throne as Alauddin Khalji.

Jalaluddin was an ethnic Turk of Khalji ancestry. His ancestors had migrated from Turkestan to Afghanistan, where they had lived in Helmand and Laghman for over 200 years, adopting Afghan customs in the process. Because of this, when his family migrated to India, the Turkic nobles of Delhi wrongly believed them to be Afghans.