Who was called ‘a slave of a slave’?

The correct answer is D) Iltutmish. He was a slave of Qutubuddin Aibak, who was himself a slave of Muhammad Ghori, so Iltutmish is the ‘slave of a slave’. Aibak bought him in the slave market of Delhi, and he rose through service to become Amir-i-Shikar and then governor of Badaun. After Aibak's death, Iltutmish took the throne in 1211 by deposing Aram Shah, and he later received the Abbasid caliph's investiture in 1229, which gave his rule legitimacy.

Why the others are wrong:

• Mohd. Ghori was the founder-level invader and the master of Aibak, not a slave. He was a ruler of the Ghurid dynasty.
• Qutubuddin Aibak was the slave of Ghori, so he is the ‘slave’ in the chain, not the ‘slave of a slave’.
• Balban was a slave of Iltutmish, and Balban later became the powerful Sultan of the Mamluk dynasty. He is not usually given this label, though his own origin is in the same slave chain.

Core concept: the Mamluk (Slave) dynasty, where slave origin often led to power. This links to Mains GS-I on medieval polity and to the theme of the Delhi Sultanate's early consolidation.

Trap: Balban was also a slave of Iltutmish, so aspirants who think of him as the ‘slave of a slave’ in a loose sense pick C. The standard answer is Iltutmish.