The Delhi Sultanates were a series of five different dynasties that ruled northern India between 1206 and 1526. Muslim former slave soldiers, or mamluks, from the Turkic and Pashtun ethnic groups established each of these dynasties in turn. Although they had important cultural impacts, the sultanates themselves were not strong and none of them lasted particularly long. 

The Delhi Sultanates began a process of assimilation and accommodation between the Muslim culture and traditions of Central Asia, and the Hindu culture and traditions of India, which would later reach its apogee under the Mughal Dynasty (1526 - 1857).

  That heritage continues to influence the Indian subcontinent to this day.

Five families ruled the Delhi Sultanates over the centuries:

1. The Mamluk Dynasty (1206 - 1290);
2. The Khilji Dynasty (1290 - 1320);
3. The Tughlaq Dynasty (1320 - 1414);
4. The Sayyid Dynasty (1414 - 1451); and
5. The Lodi Dynasty (1451 - 1526).

Qutb-ud-din Aybak founded the Mamluk Dynasty in 1206. He was a Central Asian Turk and a former general for the crumbling Ghurid Sultanate, an Persian dynasty that had ruled over what is now Iran, Pakistan, northern India, and Afghanistan. The second of the Delhi Sultanates, the Khilji Dynasty, is most famous for fending off Genghis Khan's descendants and keeping the Mongols out of India. The Tughlaq Dynasty managed to extend its control south over much of modern-day India. However, under its watch Timur (Tamerlane) invaded India in 1398, sacking and looting Delhi, and massacring the people of the capital city.

In the chaos that followed the Timurid invasion, a family claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad took control of northern India.

Despite these important connections, the Sayyid Dynasty did not last long.  Its fourth sultan abdicated the throne in 1451 in favor of Bahlul Khan Lodi, founder of the ethnic-Pashtun Lodi Dynasty out of Afghanistan. Lodi was a famous horse-trader and warlord, who re-consolidated northern India after the trauma of Timur's invasion.  His rule was a definite improvement over the weak leadership of the Sayyids.

The Lodi Dynasty fell after the First Battle of Panipat (1526), in which Babur defeated the far larger Lodi armies and killed Ibrahim Lodi. Yet another Muslim Central Asian leader, Babur founded the Mughal Empire, which would rule India until the British Raj brought it down in 1857.