Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani finished his extensive general history on the early Delhi Sultanate around 1260. Named after and officially dedicated to the ruling Sultan, Nasir al-Din Mahmud Shah (r. 1246-66), it covers Islamic history from its early beginnings until the author’s time. Focusing on Central Asia and India, it follows a distinct textual structure derived from the Persianate historiographical tradition of Greater Khorasan. As such, fixed sets of personal virtues and behaviors are ascribed to sultans and their dignitaries in order to sustain a normative hierarchy and to legitimize their Herrschaft. This leads to outright eulogies, especially when depicting the sultan of the age. However, Juzjani does not only highlight Nasir al-Din but obviously equates him on a textual level with his foremost malik and former slave Ghiyath al-Din Balban, who succeeded him later on by constituting a new dynasty in 1266. Despite a potential anachronism, this led researchers to ask repeatedly whether Balban might have already ascended the throne when Juzjani finished his work. Instead of looking to historical circumstances, one can find the reason for this ongoing debate on a literary level: In contrast to other maliks, the striking depiction of Balban equates the ideal of a perfect sultan on so many levels that one is left wondering about his actual position in the reign of sultan Nasir al-Din. But why did Juzjani choose this seemingly problematic way of presenting Balban? This paper pursues a literary approach in order to argue that Juzjani might have depicted Balban as a person of ideal abilities intentionally so that his later ascension to the throne could be legitimized in advance. This seems to be necessary since Balban constituted a new dynasty. There must be a reason that Juzjani was referring to Nasir al-Din’s proper heirs only in nebulous terms. The paper examines sets of personal virtues and behaviors that legitimize a ruler with a special focus on Balban, who could not draw on descent or designation to justify his claims. Further, I will ask which narrative strategies were used by Juzjani in order to depict Balban as the perfectly qualified successor of Nasir al-Din? This will lead to a better understanding of one of the most important sources on the early Delhi Sultanate.