NCERT 7th Class (CBSE) Social Science: The Sultanate Period

Question: What were the duties of Muqtis?

Answer: The military commanders who were given land grants were called Iqtadars or Muqtis. Their duties were:

1. to lead military campaigns.
2. to maintain law and order in their Iqtas.
3. to collect revenue.
4. to pay salaries to the soldiers.

Question: Why was slave dynasty called so?

Answer: The Turkish rulers depended heavily on specially chosen slaves who were trained to excel both military and intellectual spheres. These slaves often rose up the political or military ladder to become rulers for their lands. The dynasty established by Aibak was called the Slave Dynasty, and the rulers as the Mamluk Sultans of Delhi. (Mamluk means Slave).

Question: What were the major victories of Iltutmish?

Answer: Iltutmish faced many challenges:

1. He had to first crush the revolt of the nobles.
2. He defeated Yaldoz and occupied Lahore and Punjab.
3. He attacked and defeated Qabacha, the governor of Sind.
4. He then subdued the Rajput chiefs of Ranthambore, Ajmer and Gwalior.
5. He also brought Bengal and Bihar under his control.

Question: Write short notes on: Timur and Raziya Sultan.

Answer: Timur: In 1398 CE, Timur attacked Delhi Sultanate and defeated Mohammad Tughlaq. Timur was a central Asian Turk who had embraced Islam and set up a kingdom in Samarkand. Timur entered Delhi and the city was destroyed and left in ruins. Sultan’s army was easily defeated. Timur also ransacked Meerut and Jammu. The Tughlaq empire never recovered from this blow.

Raziya Sultan: Raziya Sultan was Iltutmish’s daughter. She was a great monarch. Raziya was the first and last woman who sat on the Delhi Sultanate. Raziya faced many challenges. The main one being a woman in a man’s world, she also faced the group of forty Turkish nobles, military leaders who now controlled the politics of Delhi. The refusal of the nobles to accept a woman as their ruler, finally lead to her downfall.