Ala al-Din Khalji

Ruler of the Sultanate of Delhi from 1296 to 1316. He confiscated most of the private lands of secular and religious feudal lords, and he attempted to introduce a monetary form of payment to his army instead of the iqta land-holding system. He established a land tax amounting to one-half of the harvest. He maintained a huge army, which repelled the invasions of the Moghuls and conquered the Deccan States and a large part of southern India.