Shams ud-Din Iltutmish (Persian: شمس الدین ایلتتمش, 1192 – 30 April 1236) was the third Sultan of Delhi from 1211 to 1236. He was from the Mamluk dynasty, who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus considered the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
Sold into slavery as a young boy, Iltutmish spent his early life in Bukhara and Ghazni under multiple masters. In the late 1190s, the Ghurid slave-commander Qutb ud-Din Aibak purchased him in Delhi, thus making him the slave of a slave. Iltutmish rose to prominence in Aibak's service, and was granted the important iqta' of Badaun. His military actions against the Khokhar rebels in 1205–1206 gained attention of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor, who manumitted him even before his master Aibak was manumitted.