Amir Khusraw Dihlavi was born in 1253 in Patiyali, Kasganj district, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India. At the time, it was part of the Delhi Sultanate. His father was of Turkic descent, and his mother, Bibi Daulat Naz, was from India. There was a Sunni Muslim named Amir Saif ud-Din Mahmud. He grew up in the small town of Kesh, which is near Samarkand in what is now Uzbekistan. When he was young, Genghis Khan's invasion of Central Asia had ruined and destroyed the area. Many people moved to other countries, with India being a popular choice. A group of families, including Amir Saif ud-Din's, left Kesh and went to Balkh, which is now in northern Afghanistan and was a relatively safe place. From there, they sent messengers to the Sultan of faraway Delhi to ask for safety and help. This was okayed, and the group then went to Delhi. Sultan Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, who was in charge of Delhi, was also Turkic, just like them. He had grown up in the same part of Central Asia and had been through some similar things in his past. That's why they came to him in the first place. Iltutmish not only let the refugees stay at his court, but he also gave some of them high positions and land. Amir Saif ud-Din was given a fief in the Patiyali area in 1230.
