r/IndianMuslimHistory

The seal of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb

The central circle reads:

ابو الظفر محی الدین محمد عالمگیر پادشاه غازی — ۱۲ — ۱۰۷۹

Abū al-Ẓafar Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿĀlamgīr Pādshāh Ghāzī — 12th regnal year — 1079 AH

The surrounding inscriptions are read clockwise, beginning with the upper-right medallion, they are read like that :

ابن شاه جهان پادشاه

ibn Shāh Jahān Pādshāh

ابن جهانگیر پادشاه

ibn Jahāngīr Pādshāh

ابن اکبر پادشاه

ibn Akbar Pādshāh

ابن همایون پادشاه

ibn Humāyūn Pādshāh

ابن بابر پادشاه

ibn Bābur Pādshāh

ابن عمر شیخ شاه

ibn ʿUmar Shaykh Shāh

ابن سلطان ابو سعید شاه

ibn Sulṭān Abū Saʿīd Shāh

ابن سلطان محمد شاه

ibn Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh

ابن میران شاه

ibn Mīrān Shāh

ابن امیر تیمور صاحب قران

ibn Amīr Tīmūr Ṣāḥib-Qirān

Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1325 to 1351 CE and belonged to the Tughlaq dynasty. He was highly educated and known for ambitious ideas, but several of his policies proved extremely difficult to implement.

Around 1327 CE, Muhammad bin Tughlaq decided to move the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Devagiri) in the Deccan. One major reason was its strategic position. Daulatabad was considerably farther south and more centrally positioned within the Sultanate’s expanding territories, particularly after Delhi’s conquest of large parts of the Deccan. It could also help the Sultan maintain stronger control over these southern regions.

The problem was that Tughlaq did not merely establish Daulatabad as another administrative centre. He ordered large numbers of people from Delhi, including nobles, officials, scholars and ordinary inhabitants, to relocate there. The journey was extremely long(1300-1500kms) and the forced movement created substantial hardship and resentment.

After several years, Tughlaq eventually returned the capital to Delhi. Daulatabad nevertheless remained an important city and administrative centre. The episode became one of the most famous examples of Tughlaq’s reign: the underlying strategic idea had some merit, but the scale and manner of its implementation caused enormous problems.

This is why Muhammad bin Tughlaq is often portrayed as a ruler who had very ambitious ideas but struggled to translate them into workable policies. His capital experiment was not simply a random decision; it was an attempt to solve genuine strategic and administrative problems, but it was executed in an extremely disruptive way.