The Delhi Sultanate was the first Islamic state to be established in India. In a broad-ranging, accessible narrative, Peter Jackson traces the history of the Sultanate from its foundation in 1210 to its demise in 1400 at the sack of Delhi by the Central Asian conqueror, Tamerlane. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Sultanate was the principal bastion of Islam in the subcontinent. While the book focuses on military and political affairs, tracing the Sultanate's resistance to formidable Mongol invasions from the north-west and the administrative developments that underpinned these exploits, it also explores the Sultans' relations with their non-Muslim subjects. As a comprehensive treatment of the period, the book will make a significant contribution to the literature on medieval Indo-Muslim history. Students of Islamic and Indian history, and those with a general interest in the region, will find it a valuable resource.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Medieval History at Keele University. He is editor of The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods (1986); translator and joint editor of The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck (1990); author of The Delhi Sultanate: a political and military history (1999) and of numerous articles on the Mongols, the Crusades and the eastern Islamic world in the Middle Ages.