Books & Authors Quiz: Court Chronicles of the Sultanate and Mughal Period

The correct answer is B, Abul Fazl, one of the nine jewels of Akbar’s court, who wrote the Akbarnama in three volumes; the Ain-i-Akbari is its third volume and is a gazetteer of the empire in five books, describing the departments, the provinces, the revenue, the coinage, the army and the customs of the people. Option A is wrong because Abdul Qadir Badauni wrote the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, also called the Tarikh-i-Badauni, which criticises Akbar’s religious policy and is read as a counterweight to Abul Fazl. Option C is wrong because Nizamuddin Ahmad wrote the Tabaqat-i-Akbari, another history of the same reign. Option D is wrong because Faizi, Abul Fazl’s brother, was the poet laureate of the court and wrote verse, not this administrative record. The safest way to hold this set is to remember that one reign produced three histories with three tempers: Abul Fazl writing as an admirer, Badauni as a critic, and Nizamuddin Ahmad as a plain annalist.

The correct answer is A, Minhaj-us-Siraj, also known as Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani, who wrote the work in the reign of Nasiruddin Mahmud of the Slave dynasty and named it after that sultan. It traces history from the beginning of the world down to his own day and is the main source for the early sultans of Delhi, including Razia. Option B is wrong because Hasan Nizami wrote the Tajul-Maasir, taken as the first official history of the Sultanate, covering Qutbuddin Aibak and Iltutmish. Option C is wrong because Ziauddin Barani belongs to the Tughlaq period and wrote the Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari. Option D is wrong because Amir Khusrau was the poet of the Khalji court and wrote the Khazain-ul-Futuh among many other works. Note too that Minhaj held judicial office under the sultans, so his account reflects what the court itself believed about the succession of rulers after Iltutmish.

The correct answer is B, Amir Khusrau, the poet called Tuti-i-Hind or the parrot of India, who served under several sultans of Delhi; the work is also known as the Tarikh-i-Alai after Alauddin’s title. His other works include the Qiran-us-Sadain on the meeting of Bughra Khan and Kaiqubad, the Miftah-ul-Futuh on Jalaluddin Khalji, the Nuh Sipihr in praise of India, and the Tughlaq Nama. Option A is wrong because Shams-i-Siraj Afif wrote a Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi on the reign of Firoz Shah Tughlaq. Option C is wrong because Abbas Khan Sarwani wrote the Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi on Sher Shah Suri. Option D is wrong because Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi wrote the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi on the Sayyid dynasty. Khusrau also wrote in Hindavi besides Persian and is remembered for his contribution to Indian music, so when his name appears in a paper it is worth recalling the whole list of his works at once, because the examiner may pick any single title from it.

The correct answer is C, Gulbadan Begum, a daughter of Babur and a half-sister of Humayun, who wrote the Humayun-nama at Akbar’s request. Its value lies in what the official chronicles leave out: the life of the household, the journeys of the women of the family and the quarrels among the princes, described by someone who was present. Option A is wrong because Nur Jahan, Jahangir’s queen, wielded great political influence and had coins struck in her name but wrote no chronicle. Option B is wrong because Jahanara, Shah Jahan’s daughter, wrote on Sufism and built in Delhi and Agra, but not this book. Option D is wrong because Zeb-un-Nissa, Aurangzeb’s daughter, was a poet who wrote under the pen name Makhfi. Remember also that Gulbadan Begum wrote at Akbar’s own request, which is the reason the book survives at all, and that Abul Fazl drew on it while compiling the Akbarnama, so a chronicle by a woman of the household became a source for the official history itself.

The correct answer is C, Chagatai Turkish, which was Babur’s mother tongue; the memoirs are also called the Tuzuk-i-Baburi, and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan translated them into Persian during Akbar’s reign, which is how they reached the wider Mughal court. Option A is wrong because Persian was the official language of the Mughal administration and of almost every other chronicle of the period, which is exactly why this question is asked. Option B is wrong because Arabic was used for religious and legal scholarship rather than for imperial memoirs. Option D is wrong because Urdu as a literary language developed much later, long after Babur’s time. Note the contrast with Jahangir, whose own memoirs, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, were written in Persian. The Baburnama is prized as much for its plain description of the fruits, birds, rivers and seasons of Hindustan as for its account of the battles of Panipat and Khanua, and that mixture of natural observation with campaign narrative is what makes it unlike the official chronicles that followed.

The correct answer is B. The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri is Jahangir’s own memoir, written by the emperor in Persian and carried forward by others once his health failed, and it is notable for its close observation of plants, animals and paintings as much as for its politics. Option A is wrong because Mutamad Khan wrote the Iqbalnama-i-Jahangiri, a separate work on the same reign, and confusing the two is the usual error here. Option C is wrong because Shah Jahan’s reign is covered by the Padshahnama of Abdul Hamid Lahori and by the Amal-i-Salih of Muhammad Salih Kambo. Option D is wrong because Barani’s treatise on kingship is the Fatwa-i-Jahandari, from the Tughlaq period. The three royal autobiographies to remember are Babur’s, Jahangir’s and Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s.

The correct answer is A, Abdul Hamid Lahori, who followed the method Abul Fazl had established and produced the official chronicle of Shah Jahan’s reign; a work of the same title by Muhammad Amin Qazwini belongs to the same court, and the Amal-i-Salih of Muhammad Salih Kambo is a further history of the reign. Option B is wrong because Khafi Khan wrote the Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, and he wrote it without sanction because Aurangzeb had stopped official history writing. Option C is wrong because Mirza Muhammad Kazim wrote the Alamgirnama, which covers only the first ten years of Aurangzeb’s reign. Option D is wrong because Ishwardas Nagar, a Hindu official writing in Persian, wrote the Futuhat-i-Alamgiri. Lahori’s chronicle is also the work from which the celebrated illustrated manuscripts of Shah Jahan’s court take their name, and it is the main written source for the building of the new capital at Shahjahanabad and for the court ceremonial of the reign.

The correct answer is B, Ziauddin Barani. Two different books carry the title Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, and the difference between them is the commonest trap in this topic: Barani’s runs from the reign of Balban down to the early years of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, while the other, by Shams-i-Siraj Afif, is devoted to the reign of Firoz Shah alone. Barani also wrote the Fatwa-i-Jahandari on the ideals of kingship. Option A is wrong for that reason, since Afif wrote the second of the two. Option C is wrong because Firishta wrote the Tarikh-i-Firishta, also called Gulshan-i-Ibrahimi, at the Bijapur court. Option D is wrong because Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri in the Slave dynasty period. Barani’s account is valued for its detail on Alauddin Khalji’s market control and on the administration of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, although he writes as a partisan of the old nobility and judges sultans by how far they defer to it, which is why historians use him with caution.

The correct answer is B, Khafi Khan. Aurangzeb ended official history writing after the first ten years of his reign, which the Alamgirnama of Mirza Muhammad Kazim had covered, so Khafi Khan wrote his history privately; his very name is understood to mean the one who wrote in secret. Option A is wrong because Saqi Mustaid Khan wrote the Maasir-i-Alamgiri, which was completed after Aurangzeb’s death and is the standard account of the later years. Option C is wrong because Abdul Hamid Lahori belongs to Shah Jahan’s reign and wrote the Padshahnama. Option D is wrong because Nizamuddin Ahmad wrote the Tabaqat-i-Akbari in Akbar’s reign, three generations earlier. Khafi Khan’s history is therefore the fullest continuous account of the later Mughals left by a contemporary, and it carries the narrative past Aurangzeb’s death into the reigns that followed, which is exactly the stretch the official chronicles leave blank.

The correct answer is B, Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan, who was a scholar of comparative religion; besides having the Upanishads rendered into Persian as the Sirr-i-Akbar, or the greatest secret, he wrote the Majma-ul-Bahrain, the mingling of two oceans, on the common ground between Hindu and Islamic thought. Option A is wrong because Akbar had the Mahabharata translated into Persian as the Razmnama and set up a translation bureau, but the Upanishads project was his great-grandson’s. Option C is wrong because Aurangzeb, who defeated and executed Dara in the war of succession, was opposed to such work. Option D is wrong because Abul Fazl wrote the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari and did not translate the Upanishads. Dara’s learning is part of the reason the war of succession is remembered as a contest of outlook as well as of arms, and his Persian version of the Upanishads later reached Europe in further translation, carrying Indian philosophy westward.