Who among the following Mongol leaders/commanders did not cross Indus to attack India?
- (a)Chenghiz Khan
- (b)Tair Bahadur
- (c)Abdullah
- (d)Qutlugh Khwaja
Correct — A, Chenghiz Khan. Genghis Khan reached the Indus in 1221 while hunting down Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, the fugitive prince of Khwarazm, and beat him at the Battle of the Indus. Jalal al-Din swam the river and escaped eastwards; Genghis did not follow. He detached two tumens under Dorbei the Fierce and Bala to continue the chase and himself turned back, so the one Mongol name every student knows is the one that never crossed into India. The other three did. Abdullah, a Negudari governor descended from the family of Chagatai, brought a force into the Punjab in 1292 and was beaten by Jalaluddin Khalji. Qutlugh Khwaja, a son of Duwa Khan, marched on Delhi itself in late 1299, was badly wounded at the battle of Kili and died on the way home. Tair Bahadur is likewise recorded among the Mongol commanders who campaigned into India.
- (b)Tair Bahadur — Named in the record of Mongol commanders who took forces into India, so he is not the exception the question is looking for.
- (c)Abdullah — A Negudari governor of Chagatai descent who invaded the Punjab in 1292 and was defeated by Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji. He crossed, so he is not the answer.
- (d)Qutlugh Khwaja — Son of Duwa Khan, sent in late 1299 to take Delhi. His army fought Alauddin Khalji's at Kili; he was seriously wounded there and died on the return march — a crossing that came closer to succeeding than any other.
Mongol pressure on India runs from 1221 to the early fourteenth century, but Genghis Khan's own part in it lasted a single season and stopped at the Indus. The serious invasions came later and under other commanders: raids on the Punjab and Sind through the thirteenth century, then the deep thrusts of Alauddin Khalji's reign, when Mongol armies twice reached Delhi.
The stem rewards precision about one very famous man. Genghis Khan is present at the Indus in 1221 and absent from India, and every other option is a commander whose whole appearance in Indian history is a crossing. The reason he turned back is worth carrying: his quarrel was with Khwarazm, not with the Delhi Sultanate, and Iltutmish had prudently declined to shelter Jalal al-Din. Note also that the paper prints Chenghiz and Qutlugh Khwaja — spellings of Mongol and Turkic names vary a great deal between textbooks, and the transliteration is not the point being tested.
- Genghis Khan defeated Jalal al-Din Mingburnu at the Battle of the Indus in 1221 and sent Dorbei the Fierce and Bala to pursue him rather than crossing himself.
- The first Mongol appearance on India's frontier therefore falls in the reign of Iltutmish, 1211–1236.
- Abdullah, a Negudari governor of Chagatai descent, invaded the Punjab in 1292 and was defeated by Jalaluddin Khalji.
- Qutlugh Khwaja, son of Duwa Khan, was sent against Delhi in late 1299 and was mortally wounded at the battle of Kili.
- A Mongol army besieged Delhi in 1303 during Alauddin Khalji's reign — the deepest the incursions reached.
- Assuming Genghis Khan invaded India because he reached the Indus; the river is where he stopped.
- Dating the first Mongol invasion to a Khalji reign — it belongs to Iltutmish's.
Usually as a which-reign question for the first Mongol invasion, or as a statement-set on Mongol assaults across the Sultanate.
The Mongols under Genghis Khan invaded India during the reign of
- (a) Balban
- (b) Feroze Tughlaq
- (c) Iltutmish
- (d) Muhammad bin Tughlaq
Answer(c) Iltutmish
The same episode of 1221, asked from the Indian end. Fixing it in Iltutmish's reign and remembering that Genghis stopped at the Indus answers both items at once.
With reference to Indian history, consider the following statements : 1. The first Mongol invasion of India happened during the reign of Jalal-ud-din Khalji. 2. During the reign of Ala-ud-din Khalji, one Mongol assault marched up to Delhi and besieged the city. 3. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq temporarily lost portions of north-west of his kingdom to Mongols. Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 1 and 3
- (d) 3 only
Answer(b) 2 only
A statement-set on the whole run of Mongol assaults. It turns on the same two anchors — the first incursion belongs to Iltutmish, not to a Khalji, and the siege of Delhi in 1303 is the high-water mark.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The first Mongol appearance on the frontier of India, in 1221, took place during the reign of which one of the following Sultans?
- (a)Qutbuddin Aibak
- (b)Iltutmish
- (c)Balban
- (d)Alauddin Khalji
Answer(b) Iltutmish — Genghis Khan reached the Indus in 1221 while pursuing Jalal al-Din, and Iltutmish avoided provoking him by refusing the fugitive prince shelter.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Mongol commander Qutlugh Khwaja was defeated in the battle of Kili during the reign of which one of the following rulers?
- (a)Balban
- (b)Jalaluddin Khalji
- (c)Alauddin Khalji
- (d)Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq
Answer(c) Alauddin Khalji — Kili was fought outside Delhi in 1299; Qutlugh Khwaja was mortally wounded and his army withdrew.