Ghiyas-ud-din Balban was the ruler with an iron hand of the Slave Dynasty. Initially he was the prime minister under the rule of Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, eighth ruler of Slave dynasty from 1246-1266. Although Ghiyas-ud-din Balban was born to a wealthy family of Turk Ilbari tribe yet life was not that much easy going for Balban. When he was a child the Mongol captured him and sold in Bagdad. He was brought to Delhi and Iltutmish purchased him. His potentials brought him to the good books of the Sultan. He was promoted as the `Chalgan` or `chihalgani`, the group of most important and powerful forty nobles of the court. During the time of Nasir-ud-din Mahmud he became most powerful amongst the Chalgans as the Sultan spend most of his time in prayers. Nasir-ud-din married to Balban`s daughter, thus he became more powerful. After Nasir-ud-din died in 1266, Balban declared himself as the Sultan of Delhi.

Chihalgani`s were more powerful during the tenure of Nasir-ud-din Mahmud. To make himself rather powerful Sultan Balban then crushed the power of "Chihalgani". Although The Mewatis, Jats and Rajputs often revolted against the Balban government but they were crushed brutally in order to strengthen the rule of Balban.

Ghiyas-ud-din Balban considered himself as the deputy of God on earth. His court was organized on the patterns of Irani Kings. Nobody could even dare to smile during the court. He established the intelligence department. His spies were spreaded throughout the country to gather information about all political development and conspiracies against him. In order to protect the Empire from the Mongols, Balban built new forts and repaired the old ones between the river Indus and Delhi.

Tughral Baig, the governor of Bengal revolted against Balban. Balban was very old then. But he decided to lead the army. Balban made the situation under control and appointed his son Bughra Khan as the governor of Bengal.

Prince Muhammad was the favorite son of Balban. He died during the war against the Mogols. That was the greatest setback for Ghiyas-ud-din Balban. He realized that his centralized monarchy would dissolve without his son Prince Muhammad. He never recovered from this realization and died in 1287 with a broken heart. As his successors were incompetent, Jalal-ud-din Khilji captured the throne in 1290. This further ended the the Slave dynasty.