Although often considered to be a minaret attached to one of the earliest extant mosques in India (the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, which is also part of this complex) the Minar was actually built as a "Victory Tower" to commemorate the defeat of the Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, in 1192 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, viceroy of Emperor Muhammad Ghori. Aibak later became the first Sultan of the Mamluk dynasty, which was a period of "slave rule" in Delhi by an ethnically-diverse people who were former slaves and indentured mercenaries.