Medieval Indian History MCQs

Notes:
Other than Inayat Khan, another Shahjahan-Nama was written by Muhammad Sadiq Khan, who was a waqia-navis at the Mughal court. Sadiq was a selfless freelance writer who undertook the work just for the love of it and recorded the events of Shah Jahan’s reign from the death of Jahangir to the accession of Aurangzeb in an intelligent and impartial manner.

Notes:
Coins issued by most of the Rajput kings of medieval India were same in pattern i.e. included the name of the Ruler on one side and the picture of Goddess Laxmi on the other side. The text of the coins was written in Devnagiri script.

Notes:
Shivaji and his successors issued coins in Gold and Copper. The script used on the coins was Nagari. The coins bore the name Chhatrapati Shivaji on one side and Sri Raja Siva on the other. It is believed that the first lot of minting with 7 lakh coins were showered on Shivaji, which later were melted under Aurangzeb’s Government as a response of animosity. Some of the mints where the coins were issued at the time were Bagalkot, Mulher, Chandor, Kolaba, Sangli, Miraj, Panhala, Balwantnagar (Jhansi), Jalaun, Kalpi, Kunch, Balanagar Gadha (Gadha Mandla), Ravishnagar (Sagar).

Notes:
Subuktagin was the first Turk to invade India in 98oAD. He was slave and commander of Alptigin while father of Mahmud.

Notes:
Ismailis seem to have been a particular target of his wrath, since Mahmud (and his nominal overlord, the Abbasid caliph) considered them heretics.

Notes:
The major objective of Ghori to attack India was to expand his empire and satisfy his imperialistic ambitions. The expansion of Islam and his ambition to glorify his name through his military exploits could be said to be his secondary aims. Similarly, loot and plunder may also be secondary aims because that was norm in those days to acquire Gold and wealth from defeated rulers.

Notes:
The Arabs , more specifically , the Umayyad general Muhammad-bin-Qasim , introduced the Jaziya in India in 1712 AD when he conquered Sindh. Among Delhi Sultans, Qutubuddin Aibak imposed Jaziya on non-muslims for the first time which was called Kharaj-o-Jaziya.

Notes:
The Marco Polo a Venetian traveller visited Kerala in the 13th century writes that on the death of the monarch, all his body guards burnt themselves in the funeral pyre. The kings of the Chola dynasty maintained large households and large palaces
with banquet halls, spacious gardens and terraces.

Notes:
Ibn ul Asir’s Kamilut Tawarikh provides a lot of factual information about the history of Central Asia and the rise of the Shansabani dynasty of Ghur in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Notes:
The ‘Battle of Rawar’ was fought between Dahir, the powerful king of Sind  and the Arab invader Muhammad-bin-Qasim. Dahir waited with a huge army of 50,000 sword men, horsemen and elephantry at a place called Rawar.