Although inscriptions, coins and architecture provide a lot of information, especially valuable “histories”, tarikh (singular) / tawarikh (plural), written in Persian, the language of administration under the Delhi Sultans.
The authors of tawarikh were learned men: secretaries, administrators, poets and courtiers, who both recounted events and advised rulers on governance, emphasising the importance of the just rule.
Rather than appointing aristocrats and landed chieftains as governors, the early Delhi Sultans, especially Iltutmish, favoured their special slaves purchased for military service, called bandagan in Persian.
Slaves and clients were loyal to their masters and patrons, but not to their heirs.
New Sultans had their own servants.
As a result of the accession of a new monarch often saw conflict between the old and the new nobility.
The patronage of these humble people by the Delhi Sultans also shocked many elites and the authors of Persian tawarikh criticised the Delhi Sultans for appointing the “low and base-born” to high offices.