Match the following books with their respective authors.

Correct — C. The pairing that survives every check is a-ii, b-iv, c-iii, d-i, which is option (c).

Tajul Ma'asir is by Hasan Nizami (ii) — the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate, covering Muhammad Ghori, Qutbuddin Aibak and the early years of Iltutmish.

Khazain-ul Futuh is by Amir Khusrav (iv), written on the campaigns of Alauddin Khalji.

Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi is by Ziauddin Barani (iii), composed in the reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq and covering the Sultanate from Balban onwards.

Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi is by Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi (i), a history written under the Sayyids.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  a-i; b-iii; c-ii; d-iv — Option (a) hands Tajul Ma'asir to Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi, who wrote under the Sayyids in the fifteenth century — two centuries after the Ghori-Aibak events Hasan Nizami was recording.
• (b)
  a-iii; b-i; c-iv; d-ii — Option (b) makes Amir Khusrav the author of Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi. Khusrav died long before Firuz Shah Tughlaq came to the throne, and his prose history is Khazain-ul Futuh.
• (d)
  a-iv; b-iii; c-i; d-ii — Option (d) pairs Khazain-ul Futuh with Ziauddin Barani. Barani's own work is Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi, and Khazain-ul Futuh is Khusrav's account of Alauddin Khalji.

The Delhi Sultanate is known largely through court histories, and each one is tied to the ruler who paid for it.

Hasan Nizami wrote at the very start of the Sultanate. Amir Khusrav, poet and musician at several courts, produced Khazain-ul Futuh on Alauddin Khalji's conquests. Ziauddin Barani wrote Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi and the Fatawa-i-Jahandari under Firuz Shah Tughlaq.

Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi comes last, writing Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi under the Sayyid dynasty. Fixing the four in chronological order is usually enough to solve any match-list built out of them.

Key facts

• Tajul Ma'asir, by Hasan Nizami, is the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate.
• Khazain-ul Futuh was written by Amir Khusrav on the campaigns of Alauddin Khalji.
• Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi is Ziauddin Barani's history, written in Firuz Shah Tughlaq's reign.
• Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi was written by Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi under the Sayyid dynasty.

Common traps

• Solving only the pair you are sure of and then guessing, when one confirmed pair usually eliminates two options outright.
• Confusing Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi with the work of the same title by Shams-i-Siraj Afif.

No directly related past PYQ was found.