Malik Kafur

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Malik Kafur (fl. 1296 - 1316), an Indian, became a general in the army of Alauddin Khilji, ruler of the Delhi sultanate from 1296 to 1316. He was originally seized by Alauddin’s army after the army conquered the city of Khambhat. The story goes that Alauddin Khilji fell in love with the beauty of Malik Kafur, who was an eunuch and took him to his court in Delhi. In Delhi after conversion to Islam, Malik Kafur was made the head of invading armies to the south.

Kafur rose quickly in the army. In 1294 he led the sultan’s army against the capital city of the Yadava kingdom, Devagiri. He led further invasions southward into the Kakatiya dynasty and eventually into the Pandyan Kingdom in far southern India, winning immense riches for the sultanate. Kafur’s invasion of Pandya was the farthest south that any Muslim invasion would ever reach in India.