Muiz-ud-Din Bahram Shah was the third son of Iltutmish. He was put on the throne on the j definite understanding that he would give a free hand to the Turkish Maliks and Amirs to j administer the country without any interference on his part.

The new post of Naib-i-Mamlikat was created and Ikhtiyar-ud-Din Aeitigin was appointed to that post. Although Muhazab-ud-Din continued to be the Wazir he occupied a secondary position. All power was in the hands of the j nobles and their nominee.

Ikhtiyar-ud-Din Aeitigin began to exercise all those powers which formerly were exercised by the king. He even exercised the prerogatives of the king. He married a sister of the king and began to consider himself more powerful than the king himself. This was obviously too much for the king to put up with and no wonder he got him murdered.

Badr-ud-Din Sunqar was the Amir-i-Hajib and he was one of the forty nobles in the court. He appropriated all the powers which were formerly exercised by the Naib-i-Mamlikat. Bahram Shah could not put up with this and consequently made common cause with the Wazir and banished Sunqar. As the latter came back to the court without permission, he was arrested and put to death.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The deaths of Aeitigin and Sunqar alarmed the Turks and they joined hands with the Ulema against the Sultan. A conspiracy was hatched and in pursuance of that, Bahram Shah was captured and put to death in May 1242.

During the reign of Bahram Shah, the Mongols attacked India under Tair in 1241. Their first j target was Multan but the Governor of Multan, Kabir Khan Ayaz, put up stiff resistance. Without capturing Multan, the Mongols marched towards Lahore and captured it in December 1241. The Government of Lahore was taken unawares and unprepared.

The garrison was ill- equipped on account of mutual dissensions. The merchants and people of Lahore, who traded with Central Asia and had to get passports and other facilities from the Mongols, did not like the idea of opposing them. An army was sent by Bahram Shah under Wazir Nizaam-ul-Mulk but nothing came out of it.

Malik Qaraqush, Governor of Lahore, defended the city for some time but finding his position hopeless, escaped from the city. The city was captured and plundered. The residents of Lahore were massacred and after that the Mongols retired.