SAYYID DYNASTY

rulers of India's Delhi sultanate (c. 141451) as successors of the Tughluq dynasty until displaced by the Afghan Lodis; this family claimed to be sayyids, or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. The central authority of the Delhi sultanate had been fatally weakened by the invasion of Timur (Tamerlane) and his sack of Delhi in 1398. For the next 50 years, North India was virtually divided among a number of military chiefs, the strongest of whom were the Sharqi sultans of Jaunpur. The first Sayyid ruler of Delhi was Khizr Khan (reigned 141421), who had been governor of the Punjab. He and his three successors occupied themselves in raids to collect revenue, barely maintaining themselves against the Sharqi sultans to the east and the Khokars to the northwest. Khizr's successor, Mubarak Shah, had some success, but, after the latter's assassination in 1434, his two successors, Muhammad Shah and 'Alam Shah, proved incapable. 'Alam Shah abandoned Delhi for Badaun in 1448, and three years later Bahlul Lodi, already ruler of the Punjab, seized Delhi and inaugurated the Lodi, the last dynasty of the Delhi sultanate.