Coinage of Rukn al-Din ‘Ali Mardan 1210-1212 CE. Obverse: Horseman with mint and date formula around. Reverse: Name and titles of Rukn al-Din ‘Ali Mardan in five lines.
Rukn ad-Dīn ʿAlī Mardān Khaljī (Bengali: রোকনউদ্দীন আলী মর্দান খলজী, Persian: ركن الدین علی مردان خلجی) was a 13th-century governor of Bengal, a member of the Khalji dynasty of Bengal.
Ali Mardan Khalji returned to Bengal in 1210 and replaced Iwaz Khalji as the region's governor. However, he only ruled for two years as his cruelty and brutality produced disgust among the courtiers. Some of his actions included banishing popular nobles from Bengal who he did not get along with. The Khalji nobles plotted against him and he was assassinated by them in 1212, and Iwaz Khalji was restored as Bengal's governor.[8]
^the Khiljī tribe had long been settled in what is now Afghanistan ...Khalji Dynasty. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 August 2010.
^Sarkar, Jadunath, ed. (1973) [First published 1948]. The History of Bengal. Vol. II. Patna: Academica Asiatica. pp. 3, 8. OCLC924890.
^Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava (1966). The History of India, 1000 A.D.-1707 A.D. (Second ed.). Shiva Lal Agarwala. p. 98. OCLC575452554. 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.
^Abraham Eraly (2015). The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate. Penguin Books. p. 126. ISBN978-93-5118-658-8. 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.
^Radhey Shyam Chaurasia (2002). History of medieval India: from 1000 A.D. to 1707 A.D. Atlantic. p. 28. ISBN81-269-0123-3. 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.
