Dismissed as short and ugly by Sultan Iltutmish, Balban the slave from Turkistan was determined to make his master sit up and take note of him. And that he did. With his shrewd intelligence Balban took the steps that carried him from the position of water-carrier to Sultan of India. Though he ascended the throne at the age of sixty-one, he ruled the land with an iron fist and gave his people twenty-one years of peace and security.