It has been mentioned above that the Qutb Minar is 238 ft tall and hence can be seen from a far away place. After arriving Delhi in 1193, Qutb-ud-din got extremely fascinated by the beauty and grandeur of the pillar and immediately went to the place with his men. They enquired about the name of the pillar, and someone replied "Meru Stambha".[1] In Arabic, the word qutb stands for the Pole Star and the interpreter said to Qutb-ud-din that the name of the pillar was Qutb Minar. So, in this way the word qutb was associated with the pillar "Meru Stambha" and it becomes evident that, till then, it was not linked with Sultan Qutb-ud-din. It may be mentioned here that, Qutb-ud-din means the Pole Star of Islam. It was nearly 200 years after the death of Qutb-ud-din, his name was linked, for the first time, to Qutb Minar by a Muslim chronicler called Shams-i-shiraj [2]

Like other diabolical Muslim rulers, Qutb-ud-din was also a monster iconoclast. During his reign, he demolished thousands of Hindu temples. So, his court chronicler Hasan Nijami, in his Taj-ul-masir, writes, "Qutb-ud-din built the Jam-i-Masjid in Delhi and adorned it with the stones and gold obtained from temples which had been demolished by elephants and covered it with inscriptions in Toghra containing the divine cammands (of Koran)" [3]

In 1194, Muhammad Ghori launched a military campaign against Benaras when Qutb-ud-din accompanied his master to play the partner of sodomy. In this context, it may be mentioned that in those days, lecherous Muslim rulers used to purchase young slaves for doing sodomy. However, after occupying Benaras, Qutb-ud-din ordered his troops to destroy temples and to narrate that destruction Minhaj-us-shiraj in his Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, writes, "They destroyed nearly one thousand temples and raised mosques on their foundations".[4] ..."Religion (i.e. Islam) was established, the road of rebellion was closed, infidelity was cut off and foundations of idol worship were utterly destroyed."[5]

In 1196 AD., Kutubuddin Aibak invaded the fort at Gwalior . To describe the incident, Minhaz-us-Siraj in his Tabakat-I-Nasiri writes, "In compliance with the divine (i.e. Koranic) injunction of holy war (jihad), they drew out their blood-thirsty swords before the enemies of religion (i.e. Hindus)".[5]  To describe the same incident, Hassan Nizami in his Taj-ul-masir writes, "The army of Islam was completely victorious and one lacks Hindus were swiftly dispatched to the hell of fire. ... He (Kutubuddin) destroyed the pillars and foundations of idol temples and built their stead mosques, colleges and precepts of Islam"[6].

In 1197, Kutubuddin invaded the fort at Naharwala in Gujrat. On the way a battle was fought with the king Karan Singh. Describing the incident, Minhaj-us-Siraj in his Tabakat-I-Nasiri writes, "Nearly fifty thousand infidels (Hindus) were dispatched to the hell by the sword and from the heaps of the slain, hills and the plain became one level".[7] Regarding the capture of the Kalinjar Fort by Kutubuddin in 1202, Minhaz writes, "... fifty thousand men came under the collar of slavery and the plain became as black as pitch with the blood of Hindus".[8]

In a similar manner, Qutb-ud-din conducted a large scale destruction in the area, now known as the Qutb Complex. He demolished all the above mentioned 27 temples, dedicated to 27 Asterisms and built the Qutb-ul-Islam mosque with the raw materials obtained by the demolition of those temples. Even today, one observes the entire area of the Qutb Complex strewn with remains of demolished buildings and temples.

Last update : 20-07-2009 15:42

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