This paper analyzes the role of khidma (lit. “service”) relationships, within the general concepts of loyalty and contracted rights and duties, in the construction and functioning of the Ghūrid polity. This far-flung and transient empire (ca. 545–612/1150–1215), which stretched from Khurāsān to west Bengal, was heir to a variety of political and social traditions. Its rapid construction necessitated a decentralized and highly heterogeneous polity that often incorporated or utilized existing political structures, over which was grafted the Ghūrids’ unique imperial system. While previous studies have explored the functioning and theoretical underpinnings of “acquired loyalties” (particularly under the Būyids and Seljuqs), and have described the emergence of new elites in the early Delhi Sultanate, no one has analyzed how the concepts of loyalty, service and benefit worked in practice within the Ghūrid context. The main thesis is that binary khidma relationships--a normative social institution of reciprocal obligations and benefits between a superior and his retainer--played a central role in Ghūrid state formation. Furthermore, the very flexibility and scalability of the khidma concept was crucial to the success of the Ghūrid expansion across northern India and to the incorporation of “Rajput” elites into the Ghūrid imperial system. This suggests that the Ghūrid conquests were far from a decisive break in northern India, but rather a process of flexible adaptation involving a large degree of continuity in administrative and political structures. The first section analyzes the role of khidma bonds in the Ghūrids’ tripartite sultanate and between local dynasties, Ghūrī amīrs, tribal leaders, and mamlūk commanders. It is demonstrated that these types of relationships derive from or have antecedents in the late Seljuq Empire and in the Ghūrīs own clan-based social arrangements. The second part describes the role of khidma relationships in the Ghūrids’ military expansion across northern India. Finally, the paper examines how existing power holders within the Hindu kingdoms of northern India, including ṭhakkuras/rāṇakas (subordinate rulers) and rājaputras (“princes” or petty chiefs), were integrated into the Ghūrid polity. A wide array of sources will be employed to sustain the argument, including the standard Persian and Arabic chronicles (Jūzjānī, Ibn al-Athīr, ʿAṭāʾ-Malik Juwaynī) as well as Sanskrit literature, inscriptions and foundation texts, and numismatic evidence. The most important literary source for khidma relationships in northern India is Ḥasan-i Niẓāmī’s Tāj al-Maʾāthir (ca. 614/1217), which embeds deeds of appointment and other official documents into its discursive narrative.