RISE OF THE KHALJIS 95 paralysis of the Sultan. The officers who remembered the stern order of Balban's rule found even greater severity, but none of the order, under the arrogant vizir. A series of murders, beginning with Balban's heir-desig- nate, the son of the " martyr prince," followed by an insidious inquisition from which no man was safe, roused an opposition which developed into a war of races. Besides the Turks who had held most of the offices of state since the days of Aybek, there were a large number of adventurers of other races in the service of the Slave Kings. Many of these were Afghans, or Turks so mixed and associated with Afghans that they had absorbed their character and customs. These were known as Patans or Pathans, a term loosely used, much as Moghul was in later times, to describe the white men from the northwest mountains. The clan of Khaljis, named after the Afghan village of Khalj, though prob- ably of Turkish origin, had become Afghan in character, and between them and the Turks no love was lost. Khaljis had conquered Bengal and ruled there, and Khaljis held many posts in other parts. These formed a strong party, and rallied round Jalal-ad-din, the mus- ter-master or adjutant-general, an old Khalj i who had been marked for destruction by the Turkish adherents of the vizir. The Khaljis were not popular, but the vizir was hated; the choice of evils, however, did not lie with the people, and on the death of the paralytic Sultan the reaction against the Turks brought the Khaljis into power, and set Jalal-ad-din upon the throne
