Which of the following texts are written by Amir Khusrau? 1. Khazain-ul-Futuh 2. Nuh Siphir 3. Miftah-ul-Futuh 4. Qiraan-us-Sadaain
- (a)Only 1, 2 and 3
- (b)Only 2, 3 and 4
- (c)Only 1, 3 and 4
- (d)All 1, 2, 3 and 4
Correct — D, All 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Amir Khusrau (c. 1253–1325) wrote at the Delhi court across a run of reigns, and each of the four titles listed here sits somewhere in that run. Nothing on the list belongs to another author, so the key takes All 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Qiran-us-Sadain, of 1289, marks the meeting of Sultan Muizzuddin Kaiqubad with his father Bughra Khan. Miftah-ul-Futuh is the masnavi on Jalaluddin Khalji's victories.
Khazain-ul-Futuh, also called Tarikh-i-Alai, is the Persian prose account of Alauddin Khalji's conquests. Nuh Sipihr belongs to Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji's reign and praises India at length.
The idea to carry away is that Khusrau's major works read as a court chronicle in sequence, one text attached to the ruler he was writing under, which is why a list of his titles can legitimately span several sultans.
- (a)Only 1, 2 and 3 — This drops Qiran-us-Sadain, the earliest of the four. Its title means the conjunction of two auspicious stars, and the two stars are Kaiqubad at Delhi and his father Bughra Khan of Bengal, whose meeting in 1289 the poem was written to mark.
It is the right answer to a version of this list whose fourth entry belonged to another Persian writer — Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi of Ziauddin Barni, for instance, which begins where Minhaj-us-Siraj left off.
- (b)Only 2, 3 and 4 — This drops Khazain-ul-Futuh, the best known of the four. It is Khusrau's ornate prose narrative of Alauddin Khalji's campaigns, and it also carries the name Tarikh-i-Alai. UKPSC had already put its authorship to candidates in 2021.
It is the right answer to a list opening instead with Taj-ul-Maasir of Hasan Nizami, the account written for the period of Qutbuddin Aibak and Iltutmish, a generation before Khusrau.
- (c)Only 1, 3 and 4 — This drops Nuh Sipihr, the Nine Skies, in which Khusrau praises India — its climate, its languages including Sanskrit, its arts, its music. It was composed in Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji's reign, later than the other three.
It is the right answer to a list whose second entry were Futuh-us-Salatin of Isami, the verse history of the Sultanate written in the Deccan and dedicated to the Bahmani ruler Alauddin Bahman Shah.
Persian writing at the Delhi Sultanate court came in two registers that examiners treat alike. There is prose narrative of campaigns and reigns, and there is the masnavi, a long narrative poem, which could carry the same historical material in verse.
Amir Khusrau worked in both. His masnavis are literature, but they are also datable to particular reigns, which is what makes his titles usable as a chronology of the Sultanate.
So an authorship list built from his works is really a question about which reigns he wrote through.
Khusrau sits at the meeting point of two syllabus areas. In medieval history he is a source: Khazain-ul-Futuh is a contemporary account of Alauddin Khalji's conquests, and Nuh Sipihr records how India looked to a Persian-writing poet born in it.
In art and culture he belongs to the Chishti world of Nizamuddin Auliya and to the Indo-Persian musical tradition. A question can approach him from either side, so the same name recurs with very different content attached.
- Amir Khusrau lived c. 1253–1325, was born at Patiyali in present-day Uttar Pradesh, and is buried in the Nizamuddin dargah complex in Delhi.
- He was a devoted disciple of the Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya and is known by the title Tuti-e-Hind, the Parrot of India.
- Qiran-us-Sadain (1289) commemorates the meeting of Sultan Muizzuddin Kaiqubad with his father Bughra Khan, the ruler of Bengal.
- Miftah-ul-Futuh is a masnavi on the victories of Jalaluddin Khalji, the first sultan of the Khalji line.
- Khazain-ul-Futuh, also known as Tarikh-i-Alai, is a Persian prose account of Alauddin Khalji's conquests, including the Deccan expeditions.
- Nuh Sipihr, composed in Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah Khalji's reign, praises India's climate, languages, arts and music.
- Duval Rani Khizr Khan is Khusrau's masnavi on the love of Alauddin Khalji's son Khizr Khan and the Gujarat princess Deval Devi.
- Khusrau also composed a Khamsa, a set of five masnavis modelled on the Khamsa of the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi.
- Ijaz-i-Khusravi is his prose work on style and letter-writing, distinct from his historical masnavis.
- Tradition associates Khusrau with the early development of qawwali in India and with Indo-Persian musical forms.
Every title in the stem is Amir Khusrau's, which is why the all-inclusive option carries the key.
- The word futuh, victories, appears in titles by different authors: Khazain-ul-Futuh and Miftah-ul-Futuh are Khusrau's, while Futuh-us-Salatin is Isami's.
- Miftah-ul-Futuh and Khazain-ul-Futuh look alike but belong to different reigns — Jalaluddin Khalji and Alauddin Khalji respectively.
- Tarikh-i-Alai is not a separate book by a separate author; it is the alternative name of Khazain-ul-Futuh.
- Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi is not Khusrau's: the title belongs to Ziauddin Barni, and Shams Siraj Afif wrote a later work of the same name.
- Treating a four-item list as proof that one entry must have been planted is a reasoning hazard here, because an all-inclusive option is on offer and is the one keyed.
Khusrau reaches you from three directions. A single-text question asks who wrote a named book, which is how UKPSC put Khazain-ul-Futuh in 2021.
A content question reverses that and asks which of his works carries a particular subject — the praise of India, a royal meeting, a campaign narrative.
The third shape is this one: a list of titles to be filtered by author, or a pair-matching set that places him beside other Persian writers or beside his Sufi preceptor.
UKPSC_2021_PRE_GSI_Q1392021The same commission, the same book: it asks who wrote Khazain-ul-Futuh and keys Amir Khusrau, which is item 1 of this list. The difference is the task — that item is single-text recall against rival authors such as Hasan Nizami and Ziauddin Barni, while this one asks you to hold four attributions at once.
CDS_GK_2025_I_Q482025Turns on the same text as item 2, Nuh Sipihr, but from the content side: it asks in which work Khusrau praised India's climate, languages, arts and music. Authorship is given there and the subject must be supplied; here the subject is irrelevant and only the authorship is tested.
HPSC_2023_PRE_GSII_Q572023Carries the same pairing of Nuh Sipihr with Amir Khusrau, but inside a match-the-pairs set that also brings in Riyaz-ul-Insha and Burhan-i-Ma'asir. It asks how many pairs are correct rather than which titles share one author, so the burden falls on the other two writers.
UPSC_2003_GS1_Q1192003Same figure, different body of work: it tests Khusrau's association with the early form of qawwali rather than any of his Persian texts. It shows the art-and-culture route to the same name, where this question stays entirely within his written output.
UPPSC_2025_PRE_GSI_Q122025Places Khusrau in a guru–disciple matching set alongside Kabir, Surdas and Tulsidas, so what is tested is his link to Nizamuddin Auliya. That is the Sufi context around the poet; this question asks only what he wrote and for which court.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Qiran-us-Sadain of Amir Khusrau was composed to mark which of the following meetings?
- (a)Sultan Muizzuddin Kaiqubad with his father Bughra Khan
- (b)Alauddin Khalji with Malik Kafur on his return from the Deccan
- (c)Jalaluddin Khalji with Mongol envoys at Delhi
- (d)Iltutmish with the Caliph's envoy at Delhi
Answera — the title means the conjunction of two auspicious stars, and the two stars are the Delhi sultan Kaiqubad and his father Bughra Khan of Bengal, who met in 1289.Option b points to the Deccan campaigns, which are the material of Khazain-ul-Futuh, not of this masnavi. Option c attaches Jalaluddin's reign to the wrong text; Khusrau's work on him is Miftah-ul-Futuh. Option d belongs to Iltutmish's reign, decades before Khusrau's writing life.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which work of Amir Khusrau is also known as Tarikh-i-Alai?
- (a)Nuh Sipihr
- (b)Khazain-ul-Futuh
- (c)Miftah-ul-Futuh
- (d)Qiran-us-Sadain
Answerb — Khazain-ul-Futuh, Khusrau's prose account of Alauddin Khalji's conquests, carries the alternative title Tarikh-i-Alai, formed from the sultan's regnal name Alauddin.Nuh Sipihr belongs to Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah's reign and praises India. Miftah-ul-Futuh treats Jalaluddin Khalji's victories. Qiran-us-Sadain is the poem on the Kaiqubad–Bughra Khan meeting.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Miftah-ul-Futuh of Amir Khusrau celebrates the victories of which ruler?
- (a)Balban
- (b)Jalaluddin Khalji
- (c)Alauddin Khalji
- (d)Muhammad bin Tughlaq
Answerb — Miftah-ul-Futuh is the masnavi Khusrau wrote on the victories of Jalaluddin Khalji, who founded the Khalji line at Delhi.Alauddin Khalji's campaigns are the subject of Khazain-ul-Futuh, so option c attaches the right dynasty to the wrong text. Balban's reign ended in 1287, before this masnavi was written, and Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign lies well beyond the Khalji material it covers.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Amir Khusrau was a disciple of which Sufi saint?
- (a)Nizamuddin Auliya
- (b)Moinuddin Chishti
- (c)Shaikh Salim Chishti
- (d)Baha-ud-din Zakariya
Answera — Khusrau was the devoted disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of the Chishti order at Delhi, and his grave lies within the same dargah complex.Moinuddin Chishti, at Ajmer, established the order in India generations earlier. Shaikh Salim Chishti belongs to Akbar's time at Fatehpur Sikri, long after Khusrau. Baha-ud-din Zakariya of Multan led the Suhrawardi silsila, a different order.