Punjab in the Age of Sultans c. 1206–1526 CE
For more than three centuries, Punjab stood between the Delhi Sultanate and the powers of Central Asia.
Its cities guarded the roads into the subcontinent. Its people faced Mongol invasions, shifting borders and struggles between distant sultans and powerful regional leaders. While Lahore, Sirhind and Dipalpur were governed from Delhi, Multan eventually emerged as the capital of its own sultanate.
By the early sixteenth century, Punjab had become the route through which another empire would enter India.
The Delhi Sultanate
In 1206, the former Ghurid commander Qutb al-Din Aibak established the Delhi Sultanate. Over the next three centuries, Delhi was ruled by five successive dynasties: the Mamluks, Khaljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids and Lodis.
Punjab formed the Sultanate’s northwestern frontier.
The roads through Lahore and the Punjab plains connected Delhi with Afghanistan, Persia and Central Asia. Whoever controlled these routes could protect the capital, move armies across the region and collect revenue from its farms, markets and trading cities.
Yet Delhi’s authority was never equally strong across Punjab. Sultans relied upon governors, military commanders and local landholders whose loyalty could weaken whenever the government in Delhi became unstable.
The Cities of the Frontier
Punjab was not governed from a single centre.
Lahore remained an important administrative and military city, although repeated invasions prevented it from enjoying continuous prosperity. Dipalpur became a major defensive base against attacks from the northwest, while Sirhind guarded the road between Punjab and Delhi.
Multan followed a different path.
Located near routes leading towards Sindh, Afghanistan and Central Asia, it became a thriving centre of trade, scholarship and religious life. Its distance from Delhi also allowed its governors to exercise considerable independence.
Together, these cities formed a chain of strongholds across the region, but the countryside between them was often controlled through negotiation with local chiefs and communities.
Local Power and Resistance
The Delhi sultans did not rule an empty frontier.
The Khokhars were among the most powerful communities of northern Punjab. Based around the Salt Range and surrounding regions, they had resisted earlier Ghurid expansion and continued to challenge the authority of Delhi.
At different times, Khokhar leaders fought the sultans, controlled important routes or supported competing claimants to power. Other local chiefs, landholders and tribal groups also retained influence throughout the countryside.
Punjab therefore became part of the Delhi Sultanate without losing its own centres of regional power. Control depended upon alliances, military force and the personal strength of each governor.
The Mongol Invasions
During the thirteenth century, the Mongol conquests transformed Asia.
In 1221, Genghis Khan reached the Indus while pursuing the Khwarazmian - extinct Eastern Iranian language prince Jalal al-Din. Although the main Mongol army did not continue towards Delhi, this marked the beginning of a much longer threat.
Lahore was captured and devastated in 1241. Further Mongol forces repeatedly crossed into Punjab, attacking settlements and threatening the roads towards Delhi.
The sultans strengthened forts, stationed armies at frontier cities and appointed experienced commanders to govern the region. Under Balban and Alauddin Khalji, Punjab became the Sultanate’s main line of defence.
These campaigns made the region deeply unstable. Some western territories slipped beyond Delhi’s effective control, while cities and farmland suffered from recurring warfare. Nevertheless, the Sultanate prevented the Mongols from permanently conquering Delhi and the central Gangetic plain.
A Changing Society
Political instability did not bring everyday life to a halt.
Punjab’s villages continued to depend upon agriculture, livestock and the waters of its rivers. Merchants carried textiles, horses, grain and other goods between India, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Persian became the principal language of government and elite culture, while Punjabi continued to develop as the language of ordinary life. New communities settled in the region, and military service created opportunities for soldiers, commanders and local chiefs.
Sufi centres also became increasingly influential. Figures such as Baba Farid at Ajodhan and Bahauddin Zakariya at Multan attracted followers from across society. Their shrines helped make Punjab an important centre of Islamic learning and devotion while interacting with the region’s older religious traditions.
Medieval Punjab was becoming more culturally diverse, but its transformation occurred gradually rather than through the sudden replacement of one society by another.
Timur and the Collapse of Authority
By the late 1300s, the Delhi Sultanate had been weakened by rebellions, succession struggles and rival regional powers.
In 1398, the Central Asian conqueror Timur invaded through Punjab on his march towards Delhi. Towns along his route were attacked, local resistance was crushed and Delhi was brutally sacked.
Timur did not remain in India, but his invasion shattered what remained of the Tughlaq dynasty’s authority. Across Punjab, governors and local rulers gained greater independence.
One of Timur’s former representatives, Khizr Khan, had established his power around Multan and Punjab. In 1414, he captured Delhi and founded the Sayyid dynasty - showing how control of Punjab could become a path to the throne itself.
The Langah Sultanate of Multan
Delhi never fully recovered its earlier control over the entire region.
During the fifteenth century, Multan emerged as the centre of an independent kingdom. In 1445, Rai Sahra Langah took power under the name Sultan Qutb al-Din and founded the Langah dynasty.
Under Sultan Husayn Langah, Multan’s influence extended across parts of southern and western Punjab. The city prospered through agriculture and long-distance trade, while merchants travelled between Multan, Kandahar and markets far beyond the region.
The Langah Sultanate demonstrates that late-medieval Punjab was not simply a province of Delhi. Different parts of the region followed their own political paths, and Multan remained independent when Babur first entered Punjab.
The Afghan Lodis
In eastern Punjab, power increasingly passed to Afghan nobles.
Bahlul Lodi first established himself as governor of Sirhind before capturing Delhi in 1451 and founding the Lodi dynasty. Punjab’s roads, soldiers and Afghan political networks had helped place another provincial leader upon the throne.
The Lodis restored some of the Sultanate’s authority, but their government depended upon cooperation between the sultan and powerful Afghan chiefs.
When Ibrahim Lodi became sultan in 1517, he attempted to bring these nobles under tighter control. His policies created opposition within his own dynasty and among provincial governors, including Daulat Khan Lodi in Punjab.
Their disputes created an opportunity for a ruler who was already looking beyond the mountains towards India.
Babur Crosses Punjab
Babur was a Timurid prince who had established a kingdom in Kabul after losing his ancestral territories in Central Asia.
Beginning in 1519, he made repeated expeditions into Punjab. He claimed territories once conquered by Timur, but he also recognised that Punjab was the gateway to the wealth and political power of northern India.
Opponents of Ibrahim Lodi eventually appealed to Babur for assistance. They expected him to weaken the sultan and support their own ambitions. Babur, however, intended to establish a kingdom of his own.
He captured Lahore in 1524 and returned with his main army the following year. After crossing Punjab, he met Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat on 21 April 1526.
Babur’s victory ended the Delhi Sultanate and founded the Mughal Empire, although Multan and other parts of Punjab would not immediately fall under Mughal control.
For centuries, Punjab had guarded the road between Central Asia and India. In 1526, that road carried Babur towards a new empire.
