Corps of Forty

The Corps of Forty (Persian: گروه چهارده, Urdu: گروہِ چالیس), also known as Dal Chalisa or Turkan-e-Chahalgani, was a council of 40 mostly Turkic slave emirs who administered the Delhi Sultanate as per the wishes of the sultan. However, their number was not always 40, Barani clearly mentions that Turkan-e-Chahalgani numbered 25 as well. It was a regular ministerial body in the Muslim history of the Indian subcontinent. Although all power was vested in the sultan, as the head of state, head of government, commander of the sultanate's armies and the final decision-maker in the judicial system, he needed help ruling his kingdom effectively.^[1]

It was initially formed by Shamsuddin Iltutmish, the third ruler of the Mamluk dynasty.^[2] After Iltutmish's death, the balance of power shifted and the sultan became a puppet of these emirs. They would enthrone and depose Iltutmish's children and grandchildren, often murdering them when they proved troublesome.^[3] It would take a brutal man like Sultan Balban, one of Iltutmish's slaves and former member of the Corps, to break the power of the emirs and restore the power & stature of the sultan. This destruction of the Corps would prove to be a double-edged sword. Without the Chahalgani around to maintain a Turkic monopoly on power, this left them vulnerable to the Khalji faction, which took power through a series of assassinations,^[4] and ultimately overthrew the Turks in the Khalji Revolution. The Turkan-i-Chahalghani were broken up and fled to and settled down in the different villages in the region of Katehr.^[5]