MPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 100 of 100

Correct — option (4), only (c), Qutb-ud-Din Aibak. This question is printed in the same two-part shape as question 97: an opening question, four labelled items that are personal names rather than propositions, and then a closing line asking which 'statement' or 'statements' is or are correct, with no heading above the numbered options. The closing line is a formula; what it asks is simply which of the four names answers the opening question. Qutb ud-Din Aibak, who lived from about 1150 to 4 November 1210, was a Turkic slave-general of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor and had been in charge of the Ghurid territories in northern India from 1192. When Muhammad of Ghor was assassinated on 15 March 1206 leaving no son, Aibak assumed sovereign power — informally from 25 June 1206, with formal recognition following in 1208 or 1209 — and ruled from Lahore, and it is from 1206 that the dynasty and the Sultanate are dated. Because he and several of his successors were of slave origin, the line of rulers from 1206 to 1290 is called the Slave dynasty, or the Mamluk dynasty, mamluk being the Arabic word for a slave soldier; it is in fact an umbrella name for three related houses, the Qutbi line of 1206 to 1211, the first Ilbari or Shamsi line of 1211 to 1266, and the second Ilbari line of 1266 to 1290. The dynasty ended when the infant Shamsuddin Kayumars was murdered by Jalal-ud-Din Khalji, who founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290. Aibak is remembered for beginning the Qutb Minar at Delhi and for the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra at Ajmer, for his generosity, which earned him the name Lakh Baksh, the giver of lakhs, and for the manner of his death: in 1210 he fell from his horse while playing chaugan, a form of polo, at Lahore, and was killed instantly when the pommel of the saddle pierced his ribs. Note carefully why the last of the four names is not the answer even though it is often called the real founder of the Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who ruled from 1211 to 1236, was Aibak's own slave and son-in-law, and it was he who deposed Aibak's successor Aram Shah, moved the capital to Delhi and turned a loosely held set of Ghurid territories into a Sultanate; historians therefore call him the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate. But the question asks who founded the dynasty that begins in 1206, and that is Aibak. The answer to be marked is option (4).

• (1)Only (a) and (c) — This option adds Mahmud of Ghazni to the correct name, and Mahmud belongs to a different dynasty, a different century and a different purpose. He ruled the Ghaznavid empire from 998 to 1030 from his capital at Ghazni, raided India repeatedly, plundered temple towns including Somnath, and annexed the Punjab, but he did not establish a state in India in the sense of ruling from an Indian capital, and he died nearly two centuries before 1206. The Ghaznavids were displaced in Afghanistan by the Ghurids, and it was the Ghurids' Indian conquests that Aibak inherited. Keeping the two lines apart is the first requirement in this part of the syllabus: Ghaznavids from 977, with Mahmud as their great raider; Ghurids from the late twelfth century, with Muhammad of Ghor as the conqueror of northern India; and then the Delhi Sultanate from 1206, beginning with Aibak.
• (2)Only (b) and (d) — This option pairs Muhammad of Ghor with Iltutmish, and each name is wrong for a different and instructive reason. Muhammad of Ghor, who lived from about 1144 to 15 March 1206 and ruled from 1173, made the conquests on which the Sultanate rests — he defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the second battle of Tarain in 1192 and extended Ghurid power across the Gangetic plain through generals such as Aibak and Bakhtiyar Khalji — but he ruled from Ghazni and remained a Ghurid sultan; the Slave dynasty begins only after his assassination. Iltutmish, who reigned from 1211 to 1236, is the consolidator: Aibak's slave and son-in-law, he deposed Aram Shah, made Delhi his capital, introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital, and is described as the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi and thus the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate. Neither man founded the dynasty of 1206, which is what the question asks.
• (3)Only (a) — This option rests on Mahmud of Ghazni alone and is the weakest of the three, but it is chosen often enough to be worth a word, because Mahmud is the most famous name on the list and a candidate who recognises only one of the four will mark it. The corrective is chronological. Mahmud died in 1030; the Slave dynasty is dated from 1206; the two are separated by a hundred and seventy-six years and by the fall of the Ghaznavids to the Ghurids in between. It is worth adding that the difference is not only of date but of kind: Mahmud's expeditions were raids for plunder mounted from Ghazni, with the Punjab alone annexed, whereas the Sultanate established after 1206 was a state governed from within India, with its own capital, coinage, nobility and administration. Recognising a famous name is not the same as answering the question asked.

The Delhi Sultanate is conventionally dated from 1206 and divided into five dynasties — the Slave or Mamluk dynasty from 1206 to 1290, the Khaljis from 1290 to 1320, the Tughlaqs from 1320 to 1414, the Sayyids from 1414 to 1451 and the Lodis from 1451 to 1526. The first of these is called the Slave dynasty because Qutb ud-Din Aibak, Iltutmish and Balban had all been slaves before they were rulers, a fact that reflects the Central Asian institution of the mamluk, the military slave bought young, trained as a soldier and administrator and often manumitted and promoted to the highest office. The dynasty is really three connected houses: the Qutbi line of Aibak and his short-lived successor Aram Shah from 1206 to 1211; the Shamsi or first Ilbari line of Iltutmish, his daughter Razia and his sons, from 1211 to 1266; and the second Ilbari line of Balban and his descendants from 1266 to 1290, which ended when Jalal-ud-Din Khalji murdered the infant Kayumars and founded the Khalji dynasty. The essential division of labour within it is between Aibak, who founded it and ruled from Lahore for four years, and Iltutmish, who reigned for twenty-five years from Delhi, secured recognition from the Caliph, created the corps of forty nobles known as the Chahalgani, and introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital, so that he rather than Aibak is often called the real founder of the Sultanate.

MPSC's medieval history questions are overwhelmingly about founders, capitals, dates and titles, and the Delhi Sultanate is the densest source of them: five dynasties, their founders, their last rulers and the years of transition. The safest way to hold the material is a single table of dynasty, founder, dates and last ruler, learnt as a chain rather than as separate rows, since most questions are set at the joins — who founded the dynasty that followed, who was displaced by whom, in which year did the line change. This question is set at the first joint of the chain and uses the standard trap for it, the confusion of the founder with the consolidator; that trap exists because most textbooks say in the same paragraph that Aibak founded the dynasty and that Iltutmish was the real founder of the Sultanate. The wording of the stem decides between them: 'founded the Slave Dynasty which ruled from 1206 to 1290' points to 1206 and therefore to Aibak. Note also the printed shape of the question, which it shares with question 97 in this paper — an opening question, four labelled items and a closing 'which statement/s' line — and note that the Marathi column's closing line is cast in the plural only, where the English reads 'is/are correct'. Neither point changes the answer.

• Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic slave-general of Muhammad of Ghor, assumed sovereign power after his master's assassination on 15 March 1206, ascending informally on 25 June 1206 and being formally recognised in 1208-09; the Slave dynasty and the Delhi Sultanate are dated from 1206.
• The Slave or Mamluk dynasty ruled from 1206 to 1290 and is an umbrella term for three houses — the Qutbi line of 1206-1211, the first Ilbari or Shamsi line of 1211-1266 and the second Ilbari line of 1266-1290; it ended when Jalal-ud-Din Khalji killed the infant Shamsuddin Kayumars and founded the Khalji dynasty.
• Aibak ruled from Lahore, began the construction of the Qutb Minar at Delhi and the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra at Ajmer, and died in 1210 after falling from his horse while playing chaugan, a form of polo.
• Iltutmish, who reigned from 1211 to 1236, was Aibak's slave and son-in-law; he deposed Aram Shah, made Delhi his capital and is described as the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi and thus the effective founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
• Muhammad of Ghor, who ruled from 1173 to 1206 and defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the second battle of Tarain in 1192, made the conquests on which the Sultanate rested but ruled as a Ghurid sultan from Ghazni; Mahmud of Ghazni belongs to an earlier dynasty and died in 1030.

• Marking Iltutmish because textbooks call him the real founder of the Delhi Sultanate; the question asks who founded the dynasty that begins in 1206, which is Aibak
• Confusing the Ghaznavids with the Ghurids, and therefore placing Mahmud of Ghazni, who died in 1030, at the head of a dynasty founded in 1206
• Treating Muhammad of Ghor as the first Sultan of Delhi; he ruled from Ghazni and the Sultanate begins after his assassination in March 1206
• Reading the four labelled names as statements to be judged individually rather than as candidate answers to the opening question, which is how this paper's two-part questions are constructed

The Delhi Sultanate is examined by MPSC through founders, capitals, coins, titles and buildings, and the questions are almost always decided by a single name or year. The commonest forms are the founder of a named dynasty, the ruler associated with a named measure or building, and the sequence of dynasties. Questions on the Slave dynasty in particular are usually built on the Aibak-Iltutmish distinction, on Razia's short reign, or on Balban's theory of kingship, so a candidate should be able to state in one sentence what each of those three rulers is credited with. This paper prints two questions in the unusual two-part shape used here, and both are ordinary factual questions once the closing line is recognised as a formula; a candidate meeting the format for the first time should not spend time looking for propositions to evaluate where the labelled items are simply names.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Why is Iltutmish often described as the real founder of the Delhi Sultanate although the dynasty is dated from 1206 ?

  • (a)Because he was the first ruler of Turkish origin to reach India
  • (b)Because he shifted the capital to Delhi, secured his position against rivals and gave the state its coinage and administration
  • (c)Because he defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the second battle of Tarain
  • (d)Because he was the first ruler to be recognised as sovereign by the Ghurid court

  Answer(b) Because he shifted the capital to Delhi, secured his position against rivals and gave the state its coinage and administration. Aibak founded the dynasty in 1206 but ruled from Lahore for only four years; Iltutmish, his slave and son-in-law, deposed Aram Shah in 1211, made Delhi the capital, introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital and organised the nobility, so that the loosely held Ghurid territories in India became a Sultanate. The victory at Tarain in 1192 belongs to Muhammad of Ghor.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which dynasty succeeded the Slave or Mamluk dynasty of Delhi in 1290, and who founded it ?

  • (a)The Tughlaq dynasty, founded by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq
  • (b)The Khalji dynasty, founded by Jalal-ud-Din Khalji
  • (c)The Sayyid dynasty, founded by Khizr Khan
  • (d)The Lodi dynasty, founded by Bahlul Lodi

  Answer(b) The Khalji dynasty, founded by Jalal-ud-Din Khalji. The Slave dynasty ended when the infant Shamsuddin Kayumars was murdered by Jalal-ud-Din, who then took the throne in 1290. The Tughlaqs followed the Khaljis in 1320, the Sayyids came after Timur's invasion in 1414, and the Lodis ruled from 1451 until Babur's victory at Panipat in 1526 — a chain of five dynasties that answers most questions set on the Sultanate.