These two were the first monarchs of what historians have called the Delhi Sultanate, a rubric for the three-century rule over much of India by four dynasties—Slave, Khilji, Tughlaq and Lodhi (or Lodi)—the first three predominantly Turkic and the last one Afghan, though some claim an Afghan origin for the Khiljis too. However, influenced as they were by Persian culture, India’s Turkic rulers employed Persian as the Sultanate’s court language.
