Who among the following has described the medieval Indian postal system as of two kinds—the horse-post called 'Uluq' and the foot-post called 'Dawa'?
- A.Al-Biruni
- B.Duarte Barbosa
- C.Ibn Battuta
- D.Seydi Ali Reis
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Ibn Battuta. The Moroccan traveller described the two kinds of post he saw in India under Muhammad bin Tughlaq: the uluq, run by royal horses, and the dawa, run by runners on foot.
Ibn Battuta reached India in 1333 and served the Sultan as qazi of Delhi for several years before being sent as an envoy to China. In his travel account, the Rihla, he wrote that the foot-post was even faster than the horse-post: runners stationed every third of a mile carried letters with bells on their rods, so news and even fresh fruit from Khurasan reached the Sultan quickly. The Rihla is a key source on the Tughlaq period.
A is wrong because Al-Biruni came with Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century and wrote Kitab-ul-Hind on Indian society and science. B is wrong because Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese writer on the Malabar coast and Vijayanagara in the sixteenth century. D is wrong because Seydi Ali Reis was a sixteenth-century Ottoman admiral who visited Humayun's court.
Exam tip: Ibn Battuta, Rihla, Muhammad bin Tughlaq; uluq is horse-post, dawa is foot-post.
Practice Questions
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