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RAS question

Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan traveler, visited India during the reign of:

Correct answer: (C) Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1333-1347).

Ibn Battuta visited India during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi, reaching Sind in 1333 and later serving as the qazi of Delhi.

  1. (A)

    Ashoka

  2. (B)

    Alauddin Khilji

  3. (C)

    Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1333-1347)

  4. (D)

    Akbar

Explanation

Ibn Battuta is tied to Muhammad bin Tughlaq because NCERT places his arrival in Sind in 1333 after he had heard of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi. He then travelled to Delhi through Multan and Uch, where the Sultan, impressed by his scholarship, appointed him qazi, or judge, of Delhi. His Rihla, written in Arabic, is important because it records social and cultural life in the fourteenth-century subcontinent, matching the period of the Delhi Sultanate under Tughlaq. The later detail that he was ordered in 1342 to proceed to China as the Sultan's envoy further confirms that his Indian stay belongs to Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign, not to another ruler.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) Ashoka does not fit because the verified NCERT passage places Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth-century subcontinent under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, not in the Mauryan period.
  • (B) Alauddin Khilji is ruled out because the source specifically connects Ibn Battuta's arrival, Delhi appointment and later China envoy mission with Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
  • (D) Akbar is wrong because the cited account places Ibn Battuta's Indian visit in 1333 and his Delhi service under the Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Concept

This tests the standard medieval-history pairing of foreign travellers with the rulers or periods they observed. It recurs in RAS because such accounts, especially Ibn Battuta's Rihla, are used as source material for reconstructing Delhi Sultanate society and administration.

Source

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