A Muslim dynasty of Turkish origin which seized power in northern India in 1290. Its three kings successively ruled the Delhi sultanate for the next 30 years. Ala ud-Din (1296–1316), the second sultan, was the most successful. His armies held off Mongol threats, subdued large parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, then carried Islam to Madurai in the extreme south of the subcontinent. Their object was pillage rather than permanent empire, yet Khalji expansion began a new era of Muslim penetration of Hindu southern India. On Ala ud-Din’s assassination the dynasty declined, to be replaced in 1320 by the Tughluq dynasty.