The Sultan Ulugh Khan-i-Azam, otherwise called Ghiyas-ad-din Balban, belonged to the stock of the Khakans of Albari. His father was khan over ten thousand houses (khanah), and the family was well known in Albari, among the Turkish tribes of Turkistan. Now, inasmuch as the Almighty desired to grant a support to the power of Islam and strength to the Mohammedan faith, to extend His glorious shadow over it, and to preserve Hindustan within the range of his favour and protection. He removed Ulugh Khan in his youth from Turkistan, separating him from his race and kindred, and from his tribe and relations, and conveying him to the country of Hindustan, for the purpose of curbing the Moghuls. God conducted him to Baghdad, and from that city to Gujarat, where Khwaja Jamal-ad-din Basri, a man remarkable for piety and integrity, ability and worth, purchased him and brought him up carefully like a son. Intelligence and ability shone out clearly in his countenance, and his patron, Jamal, looked upon him with an eye of kindness and treated him with especial consideration.
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