Timeline of His Reign

Firoz Shah Tughlaq ascends to the Delhi Sultanate throne after the death of his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq. His first act is to declare himself a champion of orthodox, conservative Islamic governance — signaling his intent to reverse the "liberal" policies of his predecessor and implement strict Islamic law across the sultanate. He immediately begins expanding the slave workforce in his household, which will eventually reach 180,000.

Firoz Shah conducts his first major military campaign into Bengal to suppress the breakaway Ilyas Shah dynasty. His forces conduct extensive slave raids throughout Bengal and Bihar. Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi records that thousands of Hindus are captured and brought back to Delhi as slaves — both to serve in the royal household and to be distributed among nobles. The campaign establishes a pattern that will repeat throughout his reign: military victory followed by mass enslavement of the Hindu population.

In an unprecedented move, Firoz Shah Tughlaq imposes jizya (non-Muslim poll tax) on Brahmins — a step never taken by any previous Delhi Sultanate ruler. All previous sultans, including Alauddin Khilji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq, had recognized Brahmins as a special class exempt from jizya. When Delhi's Hindu population protests, Firoz Shah's response is to arrest the protest leaders, bring them before the sultan, and publicly burn them alive. Contemporary accounts record the sultan watching these executions as lessons for would-be resisters.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq leads a campaign into Orissa. His forces reach the sacred Puri Jagannath temple — one of the four dhams and most sacred sites in Hinduism. The temple's idols are seized. According to Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, Firoz Shah had the idols of Jagannath and other deities taken back to Delhi, where they were buried under the steps of mosques so that Muslims would be able to tread on them when entering for prayer. This deliberate act of desecration was a statement of religious triumphalism documented by his own historian.

Firoz Shah personally leads a military expedition to Nagarkot (Kangra) in present-day Himachal Pradesh and raids the Jwalamukhi temple. Beyond the usual idol destruction, his forces seize the temple's vast library — 1,300 books of Sanskrit knowledge covering science, philosophy, astronomy, and Hindu theology. These are taken to Delhi. Court scholars are commissioned to "translate" them — a process that effectively destroyed the originals as the Sanskrit knowledge systems were stripped of their original context and reformulated. Firoz Shah boasts about this in his Futuhat-i-Firoz Shahi.

Firoz Shah leads a second major campaign into Bengal. Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi records extensive slave raids, with thousands more Hindus captured and brought to Delhi. The sultan's personal slave army grows further toward its eventual total of 180,000 individuals — a figure that makes it the largest slave force in Delhi Sultanate history, dwarfing even the armies of sultans like Alauddin Khilji.

Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi records a landmark event in Firoz Shah's religious persecution: Hindus attempting to perform public worship are arrested, brought before the sultan, and publicly burned alive. Afif writes: "Whenever a zimmi (non-Muslim) persisted in his infidelity after being warned, Firoz Shah would send for a quantity of wood, pile it before the offender, set fire to it and throw the zimmi into the flames. Many Hindus were thus burned alive." This account, from Firoz Shah's own court historian, is the documented record of state-sanctioned religious murder in medieval India.

Firoz Shah campaigns in Sindh (present-day Pakistan) and conducts extensive temple destructions across the region. Local Hindu and Jain temples are demolished, idols destroyed, and sacred sites repurposed or abandoned. The campaign also generates more captured slaves who are added to the royal household.

Firoz Shah issues orders for the demolition of newly-constructed Hindu temples in Delhi and its suburbs. In Futuhat-i-Firoz Shahi, he personally records this event: "Some Hindus had erected new temples in the city and its suburbs... I gave orders that these new temples should be demolished." This is significant because it shows temple destruction was not just a wartime activity but a peacetime domestic policy actively applied to his own capital city.

In the later years of his reign, Firoz Shah institutionalized financial incentives for Hindus to convert to Islam. Converts received remission of jizya, preferential treatment in the palace hierarchy, and access to state patronage networks. Simultaneously, those who refused to convert faced increasing jizya burdens. This carrot-and-stick approach to mass conversion is documented as deliberate policy in Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq dies on September 20, 1388 CE, leaving behind the Delhi Sultanate in political chaos. His death triggers a succession crisis that ultimately leads to Timur's devastating invasion of Delhi in 1398 CE. His legacy: 37 years of systematic religious persecution, 180,000 slaves, temples destroyed across Bengal to Thar Desert, Sanskrit manuscripts seized from sacred libraries, and a documented autobiography boasting of these achievements. His canals remain; the civilizational damage he inflicted on India's Hindu majority was permanent.