Indian History Quiz: Delhi Sultanate

The correct answer is A, Khilji. The Khalji or Khilji dynasty held the throne of Delhi only from 1290, when Jalaluddin Khalji seized power, to 1320, when Khusrau Khan was overthrown by Ghazi Malik. That is about thirty years, the shortest run of the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate, even though it produced its most powerful ruler in Alauddin Khalji. Option B is wrong because the Tughlaq dynasty ruled from 1320 to 1414, roughly ninety-four years, which is the longest of the five. Option C is wrong because the Sayyid dynasty, founded by Khizr Khan in 1414, lasted until 1451, about thirty-seven years, which is longer than the Khalji span. Option D is wrong because the Lodi dynasty ruled from 1451 to 1526, about seventy-five years, ending with Ibrahim Lodi's defeat at Panipat. For comparison, the Slave dynasty itself lasted about eighty-four years, from 1206 to 1290.

The correct answer is B, Iltutmish. Shamsuddin Iltutmish, who ruled from 1211 to 1236, moved the seat of government from Lahore to Delhi, completed the Qutb Minar that his father-in-law had begun, issued the silver tanka and the copper jital, organised the iqta system of land assignments and formed the Turkan-i-Chihalgani, the corps of forty Turkish nobles. He is therefore called the real consolidator of the Sultanate. Option A is wrong because Qutbuddin Aibak founded the dynasty in 1206 and kept Lahore as his centre; he only began the Qutb Minar and died in 1210. Option C is wrong because Balban came much later, from 1266 to 1287, and is remembered for the sijda and paibos ceremonies and for breaking the power of the Forty. Option D is wrong because Jalaluddin Khalji founded a different dynasty in 1290, long after the capital had moved.

The correct answer is D, Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak. The Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra stands at Ajmer in Rajasthan and was raised on the site of an earlier Sanskrit college by Qutbuddin Aibak, the founder of the Slave dynasty and the first Sultan of Delhi. The same ruler built the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi and began the Qutb Minar, so Aibak is the name to attach to the earliest Sultanate mosques. Option A is wrong because Balban, who ruled from 1266 to 1287, is known for court ceremony and administrative reform rather than for this mosque. Option B is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi ruled more than three centuries later, from 1517 to 1526, and lost the First Battle of Panipat to Babur. Option C is wrong because Iltutmish completed the Qutb Minar and built the Hauz-i-Shamsi, but the Ajmer mosque was Aibak's work.

The correct answer is C, Alauddin Khalji. Alauddin Khalji, who ruled from 1296 to 1316, wanted a standing army paid directly by the state and under his own eye. He therefore had every cavalry horse branded with the state mark, a practice called dagh, and had a written description of each soldier kept, called chehra, so that nobles could not substitute inferior horses or show absent men at the muster. He was also the first Sultan to pay his troops entirely in cash rather than through land assignments. Option A is wrong because Balban created the diwan-i-arz, the army department, but not these two checks. Option B is wrong because Iltutmish organised the iqta system and issued the tanka and jital. Option D is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq moved the other way, making iqtas hereditary and paying nobles in land, which weakened military discipline.

The correct answer is D, Kharaj tax. Kharaj was the land tax on agricultural produce and the single largest source of revenue for the Delhi Sultanate. Alauddin Khalji raised the demand to half the produce in the doab and had land measured for assessment. Along with kharaj the state took zakat from Muslims, jizya from non-Muslims and khams, its share of war booty. Option A is wrong because the Ryotwari settlement was a British land revenue system introduced by Thomas Munro and Alexander Read in the Madras and Bombay presidencies, centuries later. Option B is wrong because income tax in India dates from 1860, when James Wilson introduced it under the colonial government. Option C is wrong because the Mahalwari system was another British settlement, associated with Holt Mackenzie and later William Bentinck in the North-Western Provinces, in which the village or mahal was the revenue unit.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who ruled from 1325 to 1351, issued bronze and copper coins that were to pass at the value of silver. The idea itself was sound, but the mint was not a state monopoly and the coins carried no mark that was hard to copy, so forgers struck them in large numbers, taxes were paid in false coin and silver disappeared from circulation. The Sultan had to withdraw the issue and redeem the tokens. Option A is wrong because Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, who founded the dynasty in 1320, is remembered for irrigation works and a moderate revenue policy. Option C is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq built canals and cities and wrote the Futuhat-i-Firozshahi. Option D is wrong because Alauddin Khalji's famous economic measure was market price control, not a token coinage.

The correct answer is A, Tughlaq dynasty. The Khalji dynasty ended in 1320 when Khusrau Khan, who had seized the throne after Mubarak Shah Khalji, was defeated by Ghazi Malik, the governor of Dipalpur. Ghazi Malik took the title Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and founded the Tughlaq dynasty, which ruled until 1414 and was the longest-lived of the five. Option B is wrong because no Rajput dynasty ruled Delhi after 1192; the Chahamana or Chauhan rule under Prithviraj III ended before the Sultanate began. Option C is wrong because the Sayyid dynasty came later, founded by Khizr Khan in 1414 after Timur's invasion had broken Tughlaq power. Option D is wrong because the Lodi dynasty, founded by Bahlul Khan Lodi in 1451, was the last of the five and followed the Sayyids, not the Khaljis.

The correct answer is B, Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller from Tangier who reached Delhi in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, was taken into royal service as qazi or judge of the capital and was later sent as an envoy to China. His account, the Rihla, written in Arabic, is a first-hand source for Sultanate towns, markets, the postal system and the coconut and betel of the coast. Option A is wrong because Marco Polo, the Venetian, touched the south Indian coast around the end of the thirteenth century and never served at Delhi. Option C is wrong because Nicolo Conti, also Venetian, visited the Vijayanagara empire in the fifteenth century. Option D is wrong because Abdur Razzaq was the envoy of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh to Vijayanagara in the reign of Devaraya II.

The correct answer is D, Bahlul Khan Lodhi. Bahlul Khan Lodi, an Afghan noble and governor of Sirhind, took the throne of Delhi in 1451 after the last Sayyid ruler Alauddin Alam Shah withdrew to Badaun. His line was the first Afghan dynasty to rule Delhi and the last of the five Sultanate dynasties. Option A is wrong because Daulat Khan Lodi was the governor of Punjab who invited Babur to invade India; he did not found the dynasty. Option B is wrong because Sikandar Lodi was Bahlul's son and successor, the ruler who founded the city of Agra in 1504 and made it his capital. Option C is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi was the last ruler of the dynasty, defeated by Rana Sanga at Khatoli in 1517 and killed by Babur at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.

The correct answer is C, Firoz Shah Tughlaq. The Futuhat-i-Firozshahi is an autobiographical record in which Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who ruled from 1351 to 1388, set down his own works and orders, including his canals, his charitable department the Diwan-i-Khairat, his hospital and his religious policy. It is one of the rare Sultanate sources written by a ruler rather than about him. Option A is wrong because Ziauddin Barani wrote the Tarikh-i-Firozshahi and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari, works about the Sultans rather than by one. Option B is wrong because Amir Khusrau, the poet called Tuti-i-Hind, wrote the Khazain-ul-Futuh, the Tughlaqnama and other verse. Option D is wrong because Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, the main chronicle for the Slave dynasty down to Nasiruddin Mahmud's reign, and dedicated it to that Sultan. A useful way to hold these four apart in the exam hall is to remember that only one of the options is a ruler, and the Futuhat carries that ruler's own name in its title.

The correct answer is C, Ibrahim. Ibrahim Lodi came to the throne in 1517 and almost at once faced Rana Sanga of Mewar at Khatoli, near the Rajasthan border, where the Lodi army was defeated and the Sultan's forces driven back. The victory made Rana Sanga the strongest Rajput power of the day, and he later fought Babur at Khanwa in 1527. Option A is wrong because Bahlul Khan Lodi, the founder of the dynasty, died in 1489, long before this battle. Option B is wrong because Qutbuddin Aibak belonged to the Slave dynasty and died in 1210. Option D is wrong because Sikandar Lodi, Ibrahim's father, died in 1517 and is remembered for founding Agra in 1504, not for Khatoli. Ibrahim Lodi was finally killed at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.

The correct answer is B, the army. The Diwan-i-Arz was the military department of the Delhi Sultanate, headed by the ariz-i-mumalik, who recruited soldiers, held the muster, inspected horses and equipment and arranged pay. Balban set it up as a separate department, and Alauddin Khalji strengthened it with the dagh and chehra checks. Option A is wrong because finance and land revenue belonged to the Diwan-i-Wizarat under the wazir, the senior-most officer of the state. Option C is wrong because royal correspondence and the drafting of orders were the work of the Diwan-i-Insha, headed by the dabir-i-khas. Option D is wrong because justice was administered through the Diwan-i-Qaza under the qazi-ul-quzat, while the Diwan-i-Risalat handled religious matters, grants and appeals in the Sultan's name. Questions from this topic usually pair a department with its head, so it is worth fixing the four pairs together: wizarat with the wazir, arz with the ariz-i-mumalik, insha with the dabir-i-khas and qaza with the qazi-ul-quzat.