Tag: government, society and culture under the delhi sultanate

Ibn Battuta's accounts say that the soil was so fertile that it could produce two crops every year, rice being sown three times a year. Sesame, sugarcane, and cotton were also grown. They formed the basis of many village industries, such as oil pressing, the making of jaggery, weaving, etc. A variety of crops were grown, including food crops such as wheat, rice, and barley, and non-food cash crops such as cotton, indigo, and opium. Potato and maize were introduced from the Americas, much later with the colonization by the British. Hence, Option A is correct. The rest of the options include potato(B, D) or maize(C), hence, incorrect. 

C.  Plunder the wealth of India

Mohammad Ghazni’s court had a famous scholar called Alberuni. He was a philosopher, mathematician, geographer and writer. He wrote a book called ‘Tariq-ul-Hind’ dealing with Indian social, economic and religious topics. 

Kharaj was a land tax imposed on the non-Muslims, Ushra was an agricultural tax imposed on Muslims, zakhat was a property tax on Muslim subjects,  whereas jizya was a religious tax on Hindus. 

It is an important historical work on medieval India. It was written by Ziauddin Barani, a historical and a political thinker who lived in India during the reign of Mohammad bin Tughluq and Firuz Shah. 

The Hauz Khas, a royal tank was constructed by Alauddin Khilji for supplying of water to the Siri Fort area. The word Hauz Khas in the Urdu language is derived from the words 'Hauz' means 'water tank' and 'Khas' means 'royal'.

Amir Khusro is often considered the first Urdu poet. He lived from 1263 to 1325 CE and was a Sufi poet, musician, and scholar and worked in the royals courts of various kings and sultans. He is also credited with inventing the sitar and transforming the Indian drum mridangam into the tabla as well as creating the North Indian style of music.

Indo-Islamic architecture is an important form of architecture where we can observe a blend of different styles, decorations and structures from the Islamic architecture emerged including the Indian feature of architecture. This unique form started becoming dominant from the 13th century when we can observe the Delhi Sultanate period in Medieval India History. 

The construction of the Qutub Minar was started by Qitub-ud-Din Aibak, but he only constructed the basement. The construction of the tower was later taken over by his successor Iltutmish who constructed three more stories. The last two storeys were completed Firoz Shah Tuglak.