While Shalimar Gardens are famous partially for being the final resting place of their founder, the late Mughal King, Jehangir; Anarkali Bazaar, the other famous landmark of Lahore, plays host to another great muslim ruler- Sultan Qutub-uddin Aibak.

Born into a Turk family in Central Asia, Aibak was sold into slavery to a local chieftain as a young boy. The chief treated Aibak like his own son and taught him the fine art of military maneuvers and horsemanship. After the chief’s death, his sons, jealous of Aibak’s special treatment, sold him to Mohd Khan Ghauri.

As Ghauri started conquering parts of India, he appointed Aibak, who had rapidly risen through the ranks to become Ghauri’s most trusted general, as his Governor to oversee the new territory.

In 1191, Aibak took control of this land and administered it till his master’s death in 1206, after which he became the supreme ruler of the region till his own death four years later and in doing so, he became the first-ever Muslim ruler the Indian subcontinent.

Aibak initially chose Lahore as his seat of command, but later on moved the capital to Delhi. Hence, his rule came to known as the Delhi Sultanate. Being originally a slave, he was succeded by nine other ‘slave’ kings and in due course the ruling dynasty became famous as the ‘Slave Dynasty of Northern India’.

Qutub-uddin Aibak was a keen builder and in his short reign, managed to erect some of the finest architectural monuments in current day India and Pakistan – two of which are the Qutub Minar and Quwat-ul-Islam mosque, both in Delhi.

Though the Qutub Minar was partially constructed by him, it not named after him as commonly believed, but in honour of Khwaja Qutub-ud-din Bakhtiar Kaki, a saint from Baghdad, who came and settled here.

An avid polo player, Aibak died while playing the game, in Lahore in 1210 A.D. His original tomb was destroyed during the Mongol attack in 1241 but was reconstructed during Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government in 1971.