Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (Persian: غیاث الدین تغلق), or Ghazi Malik[a] (غازی ملک; died 1 February 1325[5]) was the Sultan of Delhi from 1320 to 1325.

[14] Tughluq's court poet Badr-i Chach attempted to find a Sassanid genealogy for his family from Bahram Gor, which seems to be the official position of the Delhi Sultanate.

[16] Khusrau states that Tughluq first distinguished himself in the early 1290s, during the Siege of Ranthambore, in which the Khalji forces were led by Ulugh Khan.

[16] Khusrau suggests that Tughluq was reduced to obscurity for a brief period after Jalaluddin was killed by his nephew Alauddin Khalji.

[20] During the 1306 Mongol invasion, Tughluq led the vanguard of the Khalji army, which was commanded by general Malik Kafur, and defeated the invaders.

Ibn Battuta's Rihla mentions an inscription at the Jama masjid of Multan, which recorded Tughluq's 29 victories over the Tatars (Turko-Mongols).

[24] Alauddin's elder son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah then took control of the administration, and sent Tughluq to Chittor with a message asking Multani to continue his march to Gujarat.

Tughluq then returned to Delhi, and advised Mubarak Shah to send firmans (royal mandates) confirming his position to Multani's officers.

[24] In July 1320, Mubarak Shah was murdered as a result of a conspiracy by his general Khusrau Khan, who became the ruler of Delhi.

He convened a secret meeting of his friends in Delhi, and then sent his messenger Ali Yaghdi to Dipalpur, asking his father for assistance in the matter.

[27] In response, Tughluq asked him to come to Dipalpur with the son of the Uchch governor Bahram Aiba, who was also opposed to Khusrau Khan.

Tughluq sent his officer Muhammad Sartiah to take control of the Sirsa fort on the Delhi-Dipalpur route to secure a safe passageway for his son.

[29] According to Amir Khusrau, Tughluq's relatively small army consisted of warriors from a variety of ethnicities, including "Ghizz, Turks, Mongols, Rumis (Greeks), Rusi (Rus'), Tajiks, and Khurasainis."

According to historian Banarsi Prasad Saksena, Khusrau's enumeration of these ethnicities is "an official disguise" for the Hindu communities that fought for Tughluq, who claimed to be fighting for the "glory of Islam".

[32] Meanwhile, in Delhi, to discourage any further conspiracies, Khusrau Khan consulted his counsellors, and ordered killings of Alauddin's three sons - Bahauddin, Ali, and Usman - who had earlier been blinded and imprisoned.

[36] In 1323 he appointed his son Muhammad bin Tughluq as his heir and successor and took a written promise or agreement to the arrangement from the ministers and nobles of the state.