Q. Consider the following statements with respect to ‘Ibn Battuta’:

1. He was a Turkish nobleman who fled to India during the Mongol rampage through Central Asia.
2. He wrote a famous travelogue that serves as good primary source for the history of the period of the Delhi Sultanate.
3. He was a contemporary of Iltutmish.

Which of the above is / are correct?
Answer: Only 2
Notes: The famous traveler, Ibn Batuta was the resident of Tangier, in modern Morocco. He visited India in the 14th century and lived in the court of Muhammad bin Tughlaq for eight years. He travelled widely in India and has left a very interesting account of the products of the country. When he went back to his native place, he wrote a travelogue ‘Rihala’ which is an important primary source of history of the Sultanate period. In it, he says that soil in India was so fertile that it could produce two crops every year. When he came to Delhi in 1333 CE, he could not see much after effect of the failure of token currency experiment. So, only statement 2 is correct.

This question is part of UPSC Daily 20 MCQ Series Course on GKToday Android app.