Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic Mamluk slave general of the Ghurid Empire from Central Asia, formed the Mamluk dynasty, also known as the slave dynasty, in Northern India. The first of five unrelated dynasties to rule as the Delhi Sultanate until 1526 was the Mamluk dynasty, which lasted from 1206 until 1290.

Between 1290 and 1320, the Turco-Afghan dynasty known as the Khalji or Khilji dominated the Delhi sultanate and a sizable portion of the Indian subcontinent. As the second dynasty to dominate the Delhi Sultanate of India, it was established by Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji. It gained control through a revolution that saw the power of Turkic nobles be replaced by an Indo-Muslim nobility.

In medieval India, the Delhi sultanate was ruled by the Turkic Muslim Tughlaq dynasty, often called Tughluq or Tughluk. The reign officially began when Ghazi Malik ascended to the throne in Delhi in 1320. Between 1330 and 1335, the dynasty was at its height due to a military campaign directed by Muhammad ibn Tughluq. Most of the Indian subcontinent was under its authority.

Four kings ruled the Sayyid dynasty, the fourth of the Delhi Sultanate, from 1414 to 1451. Khizr Khan, the dynasty’s first monarch and a Timurid vassal of Multan, seized Delhi in 1414. Under Mubarak Shah, the rulers referred to themselves as the Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate.

From 1451 to 1526, the Lodi dynasty ruled over the Delhi Sultanate. When Bahlul Khan Lodi took over from the Sayyid dynasty, he established the fifth and last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.