Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/108

78 THE TUEKS IN DELHI % to the follies of youth: none of them is fit to be king and rule this country, and you will find there is no one better able to do so than my daughter." Raziya sat on the throne of Delhi for only three years and a half (1236-40). She did her best to prove r TOMB OF ALTAMISH AT DELHI. herself a man, wore manly dress, and showed her face fearlessly as she rode her elephant at the head of her troops. But nothing could convince the Turkish chiefs that a woman could or should lead them. The Arabian Prophet had truly said that " the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman," but he had also said that " the people that makes a woman its ruler will not find salvation." Raziya was clearly impossible, and her preference for the Abyssinian Yakut, though