1. In whose name was the khutba read in Friday prayers by many Delhi sultans, despite this figure holding no legal ruling power in India?
2. Who acted as the final court of appeal against the highhandedness of officials in the Delhi Sultanat?
3. Which Delhi sultan applied stern justice even to the ulama, who had previously been exempted from harsh punishment?
4. Consider the following statements regarding succession practice among the Delhi sultans:
(I) The Islamic theory formally adhered to the idea of election of the ruler
(II) In practice, succession by any son of a ruler was accepted, all sons having equal claim
(III) Primogeniture was fully accepted by both Muslims and Hindus as the governing principle
Which of the above is/are correct?
5. Which Delhi sultan nominated a daughter as successor in preference to his sons?
6. What was the ultimate deciding factor in succession disputes to the Delhi throne, despite the principle of legitimacy?
7. After deposing the successors of Balban, which dynasty avoided entering Delhi for a long time due to fear of public opinion, instead building a new town?
8. Which department head was the key figure in Delhi Sultanat administration, evolving from a military leader in the earlier period to a revenue expert by the fourteenth century?
9. Who was Muhammad Tughlaq's respected wazir, left in charge of the capital during the sultan's campaigns against rebellions?
10. Which converted Tailang Brahman was chosen as wazir by Firuz Tughlaq and enjoyed an 18-year tenure considered the high watermark of the wazir's influence?
11. Whose failed attempt to play kingmaker after Firuz Tughlaq's death caused a setback to the wazir's position?
12. What was the head of the diwan-i-arz (military department) called?
13. Who commanded all the armed forces of the Delhi Sultanat, meaning the ariz-i-mamalik was not the commander-in-chief?
14. Under which ruler do we first hear of the diwan-i-arz functioning as a separate department in India?
15. Which sultan introduced the branding system (dagh) of horses to prevent soldiers from bringing poor-quality horses to the muster?
16. Consider the following statements regarding Alauddin Khalji's military reforms:
(I) He insisted upon a regular muster of the armed forces
(II) He was the first sultan to pay his soldiers fully in cash
(III) He maintained the earlier practice of assigning doab villages to soldiers for their salaries
Which of the above is/are correct?
17. What annual cash payment did Alauddin Khalji fix for a trooper maintaining two horses (inclusive of the base rate)?
18. Barani's estimate of the strength of Alauddin Khalji's standing army, considered exaggerated, was how many?
19. Which department dealt with religious matters, pious foundations, and stipends to scholars, presided over by the chief sadr?
20. Which department handled the sultan's state correspondence, both formal and confidential?
21. What were the intelligence agents posted by the rulers in different parts of the empire called?
22. Who was the officer in charge of the royal household's karkhanas and responsible for court decorum and precedence of nobles?
23. Which sultan set up a separate department of public works that built canals and public buildings?
24. What were the tracts of land into which the Turks initially divided the conquered country, parcelled out among leading Turkish nobles?
25. What were the holders of iqta offices called?
26. How many provinces did the Delhi Sultanat have under Muhammad Tughlaq, stretching up to Mabar in the south?
27. Consider the following statements regarding the muqtis in the early phase of Turkish rule:
(I) They were almost independent, expected to maintain law and order and collect land revenue
(II) They retained the balance after paying soldiers' salaries from the revenue collected
(III) The central government never attempted to control their income or fix salaries in cash
Which of the above is/are correct?
28. Which ruler relaxed the harsh auditing practices (including torture and imprisonment of muqtis) towards the end of the Sultanat?
29. Below the shiqs, what was the smallest administrative unit into which villages were grouped, headed by the amil?
30. Traditionally, villages were grouped into units of how many for the pargana, referred to as "chaurasi"?
31. Consider the following pairs regarding village-level functionaries under the Delhi Sultanat:
(I) Khut — landowner
(II) Muqaddam — village headman
(III) Patwari — village accountant
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
32. Which North African traveller lived at Muhammad Tughlaq's court for eight years and left a detailed account of India's products and roads?
33. According to Ibn Battutah, how many times a year was rice sown due to the fertility of the Indian soil?
34. Consider the following statements regarding the more prosperous section of peasants in the Delhi Sultanat period:
(I) Village headmen (muqaddams) and smaller landlords (khuts) enjoyed a higher standard of life
(II) They paid revenue on their additional lands at concessional rates
(III) Alauddin Khalji's stern action against them permanently ended their privileged status
Which of the above is/are correct?
35. Who were the "Hindu rais," a section that continued to enjoy a high standard of life and made frequent visits to Balban's court?
36. Which two metals formed the basis of the Delhi Sultanat's sound currency system?
37. Which city did Ibn Battutah describe as equalling Delhi in size, taken as an index of growth in north-south trade?
38. Which Gujarat city was especially famous for fine textiles and for gold and silver work?
39. Which Bengal town was famous for raw silk and fine cotton cloth later called muslin?
40. The craft of paper manufacturing, introduced to India by the Turks, had originally been discovered by which civilization?
41. Which device improved cotton cleaning during this period, alongside the wider use of the spinning-wheel in textile production?
42. Consider the following statements regarding India's foreign trade during the Delhi Sultanat:
(I) India imported high-grade textiles, glassware and horses from West Asia
(II) India imported raw silk and porcelain from China
(III) India had an unfavourable trade balance, causing gold and silver to flow out of the country
Which of the above is/are correct?
43. Which merchant community, mostly Hindu but including Muslims, dominated the overland trade with Central and West Asia?
44. Which historian records that the Multani merchants were so wealthy that extravagant nobles had to borrow money from their houses?
45. What method, involving relays of runners posted in towers along the road, was used to carry royal post quickly across the Sultanat?
46. Which sultan built a road to Daulatabad in addition to the existing royal road from Peshawar to Sonargaon?
47. Which irrigation device was improved during this period to lift water from a deeper level, though it is popularly misnamed?
48. In Ibn Battutah's description of Muhammad Tughlaq's palace, what was the huge hall where the sultan held public court called?
49. How many robes of honour is Muhammad Tughlaq estimated to have presented to nobles annually?
50. What was the exceptionally high cost, in tankas, of a single pair of shoes procured for the sultan under Firuz Tughlaq's superintendents?
51. What was the annual salary of Khan-i-Jahan, Firuz Tughlaq's wazir?
52. How much wealth did Bashir, Firuz Tughlaq's ariz-i-mamalik, leave at his death, most of which was confiscated on the ground that he had been the sultan's slave?
53. How many orchards is Firuz Tughlaq said to have built in the neighbourhood of Delhi?
54. Consider the following statements regarding slavery under the Delhi Sultanat:
(I) The most usual method of acquiring a slave was capture in war
(II) Firuz Tughlaq collected about 1,80,000 slaves, many employed in handicrafts or as bodyguards
(III) Slaves were never permitted to marry or to own any personal property
Which of the above is/are correct?
55. In Alauddin Khalji's reign, what was the price of a man (about 15 kg) of wheat, in jitals?
56. According to a modern historian's estimate, on how many tankas per month could a family of four (man, wife, servant, one or two children) live during Firuz Tughlaq's reign?
57. In Alauddin Khalji's reign, what were the approximate monthly wages of an artisan, in tankas?
58. Which category of people was strongly prohibited from studying or reciting the Vedas, though hearing recitation of the Puranas was not similarly banned?
59. Which traveller recorded with horror the practice of sati, noting that permission from the sultan had to be obtained for its performance?
60. Consider the following statements regarding women's property rights in Hindu law during this period:
(I) Commentators upheld a widow's right to the property of a sonless husband, if the property was not joint
(II) The widow was recognized as having full right to dispose of such property, not merely as guardian
Which of the above is/are correct?
61. Consider the following statements regarding the spread of purdah during the Sultanat period:
(I) The practice existed among upper-class Hindus even before the Turkish conquest
(II) It was also practised in ancient Iran and Greece before being adopted by Arabs and Turks
(III) It has been attributed partly to fear of Hindu women being captured as prizes of war in an age of violence
Which of the above is/are correct?
62. Which Sufi saint of Delhi observed, "Some Hindus know that Islam is a true religion but they do not embrace Islam"?
63. Which historian refused to consider the Delhi Sultanat a truly Islamic state, describing it instead as based on worldly or secular considerations (jahandari)?
64. What was the tax levied on non-Muslim subjects (zimmis) of the Delhi Sultanat, understood as being in lieu of military service?
65. Consider the following statements regarding jizyah under the Delhi Sultanat:
(I) Women, children and the indigent were exempted from it
(II) Brahmans remained exempt from it under all sultans throughout the period
(III) Firuz Tughlaq made jizyah a separate tax and levied it on Brahmans as well
Which of the above is/are correct?
66. Which famous mosque near the Qutab Minar in Delhi had originally been a Vishnu temple before conversion?
67. According to sharia as applied by the Sultanat, what was the policy towards Hindu temples?
68. Which Khalji sultan admitted helplessness at stopping public Hindu religious processions even near the royal palace, according to Barani?
69. Which sultan executed a Brahman on the charge of abusing the Prophet of Islam?
70. Consider the following statements regarding conversions to Islam during the Delhi Sultanat period:
(I) Large-scale conversion was primarily achieved through the sword
(II) Conversions were often driven by hopes of political or economic gain, or improved social position
(III) In regions like west Punjab and east Bengal, tribal peoples adopted the ruling faith as they became cultivators
Which of the above is/are correct?
