Talk:Jalal-ud-Din Khalji

WP:INDIA Banner/Delhi Addition
Note: WP India Project Banner with Delhi workgroup parameters was added to this article talk page because the article falls under Category:Delhi or its subcategories. Should you feel this addition is inappropriate, please undo my changes and update/remove the relavent categories to the article -- Amartyabag   TALK2ME  15:43, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Article name change
Why was this article's name changed without any reason? Every reliable source calls him "Jalaluddin". On what basis was this page moved? I tried moving it to "Jalaluddin Khalji" but I'm not able to. Why? - Almeda64 (talk) 19:36, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

References with Turko Pashtun word or even Pashtun for Khilji dynasty ?
W28394 Please quote the references and the statements used in those sources which refer to either Pashtun origin of Khiljis or Jalal ud din Khalji ? All the sources used are pointing to Turkish tribe etc. Kami2018 (talk) 04:13, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

Kami2018 I have already answered all of this in the Khalji Dynasty talk page [] but will do it here for the sake of other moderators you have been tagging all over wiki.

There is no doubt about the origin of the Khaljis as a Turkic group. However, this article is about the Khalji DYNASTY of DELHI SULTANATE and NOT Khaljis as a whole. So lets get that clear first. Secondly, there is also NO DOUBT that Khaljis over centuries became Pashtunized and today, they are known purely as Pashtuns.

Having established two undisputed facts, lets move on to the dispute at hand. The question here is, were the Khaljis Pashtunized enough by the time Jalaluddin Khalji took the throne? Or were the Khaljis of Delhi Sultanate purely Turkic, like you imply, when they took the throne? The simple answer is NO. There is no doubt over the lineage of proper turkic dynasties like the Mamluks who were the rulers of the Delhi Sultante prior to the Khaljis. The Mamluk turks the Khaljis served and ruled later on also did not consider them turks. Why? Because they were Pashtunized by the time and were more Pashtun than their ancestors, who were more Turkic. The historians you quote rightly mention the Khaljis being of Turkic stock. However, they are also referring to the ANCESTORS of the Khaljis of Delhi. Not Khaljis themselves. They very clearly mention the Khaljis having been Pashtunized to a great extent due to which they were not looked upon as Turkic by Turk proper. Therefore, calling the Khalhi Dynasty pure turk instead of Turkic-Pashtun is historically ignorant. Even Lodi Dynasty and Hotaki Dynasty was ruled by Khalji Pashtuns and are rightly called Afghan/Pashtun Dynasties because they had entirely Pashtunized by then. Would you change their history because their ancestors were Turkic?

Also, I do not know if you are genuinely ignorant about Khalji/Ghilji/Ghilzai Pashtuns being the largest Pashtun confederacy today or whether you chose to ignore that fact? The ancestors of Khalji/Ghilji/Ghilzai Pashtuns were of Turkic stock 1200 to a 1000 years ago but were Pashtunized and are entirely Pashtun today, not Turkic. The same goes for Khalji/Gilji Lodis and Hotaki dynasties (both called Afghan/Pashtun dynasties) and to a great extent, to the Khalji dynasty (who were Pashtunized enough to be rejected as Turks by the Turkic nobility). This is a non issue now.

Your counter argument to that was;

''Clearly all the sources mention them as Turkic settled in afghanistan. I have reported your edit to the admin and i think you should read the references and then perform constructive edits. Once again:'' Statements from the references used within the article:
 * His ancestors, after having migrated from Turkistan, had lived for over 200 years in the Helmand valley and Lamghan, parts of Afghanistan called Garmasir or the hot region, and had adopted Afghan manners and customs. They were, therefore, wrongly looked upon as Afghans by the Turkish nobles in India as they had intermarried with local Afghans and adopted their customs and manners. They were looked down as non Turks by Turks
 * The prejudice of Turks was however misplaced in this case, for Khaljis were actually ethnic Turks. But they had settled in Afghanistan long before the Turkish rule was established there, and had over the centuries adopted Afghan customs and practices, intermarried with the local people, and were therefore looked down on as non-Turks by pure-bred Turks.
 * The Khaljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, had adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court. They were regarded as barbarians.
 * This dynasty, like the previous Slave dynasty, was of Turkish origin, though the Khaljī tribe had long been settled in Afghanistan. Its three kings were noted for their faithlessness, their ferocity, and their penetration to the South of India

To your counter argument, I replied (after which you have not replied).

1) You are confusing ethnicity with genetics/ancestry when ethnicity is much more than that. An ethnicity is the state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. It is not limited to genetics or ancestry.

2) This article is about the Khalji dynasty of Delhi. NOT the Khalaj people who were the ancestors of the Khalji Dynasty.

3) Like I said in my explanation earlier, Khaljis without a doubt descended from a Turkic tribe BUT were adopted into the Pashtun/Afghan ethnicity about a thousand years ago. BEFORE the Khalji Dynasty took the throne in Delhi. You ASSUME that due to Khaljis being descendants of the Khalaj people, they remained Turkic forever. Which is extremely ignorant given the fact that;

4) Pashtuns are NOT a homologous group of people. Pashtuns have historically descended from different groups of people. From the hephthalites to the khaljis. Today, the Khaljis/Ghilzais are the largest tribal confederacy among the Pashtun ethnicity and are nowhere to be found among the Turkic people. They re purely called Afghan/Pashtun, not Turkic. Some popular Khaljis today are/were Ashraf Ghani (President of Afghanitsan) and Mullah Omar (Ex Taliban Chief), they are referred to as Pashtuns, not Turks.

5) The main question here is whether the Khaljis of the DELHI SULTANATE were Pashtunized by the time they ascended the throne and the obvious answer is YES.

6) Like the sources state, "They were looked upon as Afghans by the Turkish nobles in India as they had intermarried with local Afghans and adopted their customs and manners". 'Wrongly' does not matter in this context as we have already established the above points about the identity of the Khalaj people, who were the ancestors of the Khalji Dynasty, and the identity of the Khalji Dynasty itself.

7) Other sources reestablish the FACT that the Khalji Dynasty of Delhi were more Afghan/Pashtun than their ancestors, the Khalaj, and that they had adopted the Afghan/Pashtun ethnicity. "The Khaljis had over the centuries adopted Afghan customs and practices, intermarried with the local people, and were therefore looked down on as non-Turks by pure-bred Turks" and "The Khaljis were a Turkic tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, had adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court. They were regarded as barbarians"

8) Going by all the above statements, you will have to completely lack comprehension skills to NOT see that the Khalji Dynasty was NOT a Turkic dynasty but a Pashtun/Afghan dynasty of Turkic descent which was entirely Pashtunized by the time it took the throne from the pure bred Turks. If you have any doubt, refer to point 1 again. Thanks.

W28394 (talk) 17:34, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

Controversial/Debatable Issues
The origin of the jalaludun Khilji is debatable among turko-Afghan, and he's from Khilji Tribe not Khalaj tribe. Semijan0 (talk) 05:18, 4 September 2023 (UTC)