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Kamal al-Din Gurg


Malik Kamāl al-Dīn "Gurg" (died late 1315 or early 1316), was a general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He played an important role in Alauddin's conquest of the Siwana (1308) and the Jalore (1311) forts. He was killed while trying to suppress a revolt in Gujarat.

Kamal al-Din (also transliterated as Kamaluddin) belonged to a family that originated from Kabul in present-day Afghanistan, and was known as "Gurg" ("the wolf").

After other generals of Alauddin failed to capture the Siwana fort in the preceding years, in 1308, he personally led an expedition to Siwana. Kamal al-Din accompanied Alauddin in this campaign, and held charge of the siege engines (munjaniqs). After the Delhi army captured the fort, it was renamed Khayrabad, and assigned to Kamal al-Din.

In 1311, Alauddin launched an army to capture Siwana's neighbour Jalore. After his other generals failed to capture the fort, he dispatched Kamal al-Din to conquer it. Kamalauddin captured the fort after a siege that resulted in the deaths of the defending ruler Kanhadadeva and his son Viramadeva. After this victory, Kamal al-Din held the iqta' of Jalor.

During the last days of Alauddin's reign, Kamal al-Din allied with Alauddin's slave-general Malik Kafur, who held the executive power during Alauddin's sickness. The two men were probably part of a group of non-Khalaj officers that tried to seize power from the Khalaj establishment of the Sultanate. According to the chronicler Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi, in 1315, Kamal al-Din participated in Malik Kafur's murder of Alp Khan, an influential rival nobleman and the governor of Gujarat. Alp Khan had been accused of conspiring to kill Alauddin, but this may have been Kafur's propaganda.


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