According to which of the following foreign travellers, people of Delhi used to write letters containing abuses to the Sultan, therefore, in order to punish them Sultan decided to shift the capital?

Correct — C. Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller whom Muhammad bin Tughlaq made qazi of Delhi, is the source of the story the question repeats: that the people of Delhi wrote the Sultan letters full of abuse, and that he answered by moving them to Daulatabad.

He set it down in his travel account, the Rihla, written in Arabic after his journeys were over.

Of the four names, he alone is both a foreign traveller and a writer on Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Hasan Nizami — Hasan Nizami belongs to the Slave dynasty, more than a century too early. His Taj-ul-Maasir covers Qutbuddin Aibak and Iltutmish, not the Tughlaqs.
• (b)
  Isami — Isami was not a foreign traveller. He wrote the Futuh-us-Salatin, a verse history of the Delhi sultans composed in the Deccan, and he was hostile to Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• (d)
  Al Biruni — Al Biruni came with Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century and wrote the Kitab-ul-Hind. He was three centuries too early to report anything about Delhi's letters.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq moved his capital from Delhi to Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, in 1327, and ordered the people of Delhi to move with it. The Deccan sat at the centre of his enlarged sultanate. Delhi did not.

The experiment failed. Delhi emptied, the long march south cost many lives, and within a few years the court came back.

The letters explanation for the move belongs to Ibn Batuta. He reached India in the 1330s, after the transfer, so he is repeating what Delhi told him rather than reporting what he watched.

Key facts

• Ibn Batuta was a Moroccan traveller who reached India in the 1330s and was appointed qazi of Delhi by Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• His travel account is the Rihla, written in Arabic.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq shifted the capital from Delhi to Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, in 1327.
• Al Biruni came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni and wrote the Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic.

Common traps

• Picking Al Biruni because he is the best-known foreign writer on India, without checking that he predates the Tughlaqs by three centuries.
• Treating Isami as a traveller because his book is a source on the same reign.

No directly related past PYQ was found.