Which one of the following pairs of travellers and their nationality is not correctly matched?
- (a)Ibn Battuta — Moroccan
- (b)Duarte Barbosa — Portuguese
- (c)Jean Baptiste Tavernier — Dutch
- (d)Niccolao Manucci — Venetian
Correct — C, 'Jean Baptiste Tavernier — Dutch'. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a French gem merchant and traveller who made six voyages to Persia and India in the seventeenth century — he was not a Dutchman, so this is the wrongly matched pair. The other three are correct — Ibn Battuta was Moroccan, Duarte Barbosa was Portuguese, and Niccolao Manucci was a Venetian (Italian).
- (a)Ibn Battuta — Moroccan — Correctly matched, so not the answer — Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller who visited the court of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
- (b)Duarte Barbosa — Portuguese — Correctly matched — Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese writer and official who described the Vijayanagara and west-coast kingdoms.
- (d)Niccolao Manucci — Venetian — Correctly matched — Manucci was a Venetian (Italian) traveller who served at the Mughal court and wrote the 'Storia do Mogor'.
A steady stream of foreign travellers left accounts of India across the medieval and early-modern periods. Placing each with the right homeland is a recurring test — Ibn Battuta (Morocco), Duarte Barbosa (Portugal), Niccolao Manucci (Venice/Italy) and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (France).
Three pairs are correct; the exception mislabels the Frenchman Tavernier as 'Dutch'. Fix his nationality — French — and the mismatch stands out.
- Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a French gem merchant who travelled to India in the seventeenth century.
- Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller.
- Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese writer and official.
- Niccolao Manucci was a Venetian (Italian) who wrote the 'Storia do Mogor' on Mughal India.
Only the Tavernier pairing is wrong — he was French, not Dutch — so option (c) is the mismatch.
- Assuming any European traveller who came for trade was Dutch or English — Tavernier was French.
- Confusing Tavernier (French gem merchant) with the French physician-traveller François Bernier.
'Which pair is not correctly matched' of traveller and nationality/patron, or chronological ordering of travellers.
Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched? (a) Jahangir : William Hawkins (b) Akbar : Sir Thomas Roe (c) Shahjahan : Tavernier (d) Aurangzeb : Manucci
- (a) Jahangir : William Hawkins
- (b) Akbar : Sir Thomas Roe
- (c) Shahjahan : Tavernier
- (d) Aurangzeb : Manucci
Answer(b) Akbar : Sir Thomas Roe
Same concept — foreign travellers and their correct association. UPSC pairs travellers (including Tavernier and Manucci) with the Mughal emperor they visited; this NDA item pairs them with their nationality.
Arrange the following foreign travellers to India in chronological order, beginning with the earliest: 1. Peter Mundy 2. Antonio Monserrate 3. Afanasii Nikitich Nikitin 4. Ibn Battuta Select the answer using the code given below:
- (a) 2 – 1 – 4 – 3
- (b) 2 – 3 – 4 – 1
- (c) 4 – 3 – 2 – 1
- (d) 3 – 4 – 1 – 2
Answer(c) 4 – 3 – 2 – 1
Same theme — foreign travellers to India. That NDA item orders them in time (Ibn Battuta the earliest); this one tests each traveller's nationality.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The seventeenth-century French traveller famous for his accounts of gems and diamonds in India was
- (a)François Bernier
- (b)Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
- (c)Niccolao Manucci
- (d)Duarte Barbosa
Answer(b) Jean-Baptiste Tavernier — a French gem merchant who made six voyages to the East.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Niccolao Manucci, author of the 'Storia do Mogor', belonged to which country?
- (a)France
- (b)Portugal
- (c)Venice (Italy)
- (d)Morocco
Answer(c) Venice (Italy) — Manucci was a Venetian who served at the Mughal court.