1206-1320 CE
From 1206 to 1320 CE, the Delhians forged India's first Muslim empire from conquest and compromise — Qutb ud-Din raising his victory tower over Hindu temples, Iltutmish consolidating a sultanate that stretched from Bengal to the Punjab. Turkish slaves became sultans; Mongol invasions were beaten back; and in Delhi's new mosques, the call to prayer echoed across a land that had never heard it before.