Chapter 6- The Khaljis and the Tughlaqs

Q1. Briefly describe the conquests of Alauddin Khalji.

a) At first, he conquered and annexed Gujarat. This gave him
access to the ports of Gujarat through which he could import
horses for his army.
b) Alauddin conquered the Rajput states of Ranthambor, Malwa,
Mewar and Marwar.
c) He also conquered all the territories of Malwa, including Ujjain,
Dhar, Chanderi and Mandu.
d) He also sent an expedition to the Deccan and conquered the
kingdoms of Devagiri, Warangal, Dwarasamudra and Madurai.

Q2. What were Alauddin Khalji’s policies towards the Deccan

kingdoms.
Alauddin did not annex the Deccan kingdoms to his empire for two
reasons:
a) He realized it would be practically difficult to control these
distant lands from Delhi.
b) He was more interested in acquiring the wealth of these Deccan
kingdoms for the maintenance of his huge army.
The rulers of Deccan were forced to accept the overlordship of
Alauddin Khalji and had to pay annual tribute to him.

Q3. Describe the Military reforms under Alauddin Khalji?

a) Alauddin Khalji was the first ruler of Delhi who laid the
foundation of a permanent standing army.
b) He imported quality horses and started the system of branding
horses so that the soldiers could not replace them with inferior
quality horses.
c) He introduced the system of Chehra i.e., giving a kind of identity
card to very soldier.
d) He himself approved all recruitments to the army and paid cash
salaries to the soldiers from the royal treasury.

Q4. What steps were taken by Alauddin Khalji to prevent Mongol

invasions?
The steps taken by Alauddin Khalji to prevent Mongol invasions
were:
a) He repaired old forts and built a new garrison town named Siri
for his soldiers.
b) He raised a huge army. To keep the army efficient, he
introduced regular parade, inspection of troops and branding of
horses.
c) To frighten the Mongols, the Mongol captives were tortured
ruthlessly.
d) He started annual raids into the territory of the Mongols.
Q5. Why did Alauddin Khaliji take stern measures against the nobility?
Mention two such measures.
A. When Allauddin Khalji came to the throne, he had to face a series
of rebellions by the nobles. So, he took a number of measures to
crush the powers of the nobles.
a) The nobles were not allowed to hold parties or festivities or to
form marriage alliances without the permission of the Sultan.
b) The use of wine and intoxicants was banned.
c) Gambling was forbidden and gamblers were punished.
d) He established an efficient spy system to keep a check on the
activities of the nobles.

Q6. What were the market regulations stated under Alauddin Khalji?
The market regulations of Alauddin Khalji included the following:
a) The soldiers were fed from the produced collected as tax from
lands between Ganga and Yamuna, which was fixed at 50
percent of the peasant’s yield.
b) He fixed the prices of all commodities from food grains, sugar,
cooking oil, horses to elephants.
c) He appointed special officers to keep a strict watch on the prices,
weights and the activities of the traders.
d) Those merchants who charged more than the prescribed rates
or weighed less were severely punished.

Q7. Why did Muhammad bin Tughlaq transfer his capital from Delhi
to Devagiri? Was this project successful?
a) Muhammad bin Tughlaq transferred his capital from Delhi to
Devagiri (Deogir) which he renamed Daulatabad.
b) He transferred his capital for two reasons
i. First, Daulatabad was centrally located from where he
could have control over the Deccan territories.
ii. Second, he wanted to protect his capital from the
continuous raids of the Mongols. Daulatabad was situated
1500 km awayt and was at a safe distance from the
invaders.
c) Muhammad bin Tughlaq, therefore ordered many of his officers
and leading men to shift to Daulatabad.
d) For this, he built a wide road from Delhi to Daulatabad and set
up rest houses on the way to help the travellers,
e) In spite of this, many people died on the way because of the long
and tiresome journey. Even those who reached Daulatabad
safely felt homesick and could not adjust to the new
surroundings.
Q8. Explain briefly Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s experiment with the
‘token currency’.
a) Muhammad bin Tughlaq undertook another bold experiment by
introducing the ‘token currency’. This was done to overcome the
shortage of silver.
b) He introduced a bronze coin having the same value as silver
tanka.
c) This scheme would have succeeded had Muhammad bin
Tughlaq taken care to see that only the government was issuing
the token currency. But that did not happen and every
household turned into a mint.
d) As a result, gold and silver coins disappeared from the market
and their pl ace was taken by bronze coins.
e) People began to pay taxes in token currency and trade suffered.
f) Finally, Muhammad bin Tughlaq decided to withdraw the token
currency and promised to exchange silver pieces for bronze
coins. Many people exchanged the bronze coins for silver. This
caused a great loss of wealth to the royal treasury.

Q9. Why do the historians call Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s mixture of

opposites’?
a) Historians have different views about the character of
Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He took a number of bold steps, some
of which were far ahead of his time.
b) His projects were well conceived but failed probably due to faulty
implementation. This made historians to call him ‘a mixture of
opposites’.

Q10. How do we know that the entire population was not shifted to
Daulatabad?
Muhammad bin Tughlaq could not shift the entire population to
Daulatabadm this is proved by the coins minted in Delhi, while
Muhammad bin Tughlaq was at Daulatabad.

Short Answers: -
Q1. Who was the first Khalji ruler?
Jalaluddin Khalji

Q2. Who was the last Mamluk ruler?

Kaikubad

Q3. When was the Khalji dynasty founded?

1290 CE
Q4. Name the first place annexed by Alauddin Khalji.
Gujarat

Q5. Why did Alauddin Khalji annex Gujarat?

Alauddin Khalji annexed Gujarat for two reasons:
1. Gujarat ports gave access to import horses for his army.
2. He got a huge booty of gold and precious stones.

Q6. Name the slave purchased by Alauddin Khalji.

Malik Kafur

Q7. What was the title given to Malik Kafur? Why was he so called?
Hazar Dinari
Alauddin Khalji purchased Malik Kafur for thousand dinars.

Q8. Name the Rajput states conquered by Alauddin Khalji.

Rathambore, Malwa, Mewar and Marwar.

Q9. Name the Deccan kingdoms defeated by Alauddin Khalji.

Devagiri, Warangal, Dwarasamundra and Madurai.

Q10. Name the new town built by Alauddin Khalji.

Siri

Q11. Who was the first ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty?

Giyasuddin Tughlaq

Q12. Who was the last ruler of the Khalji dynasty?

Ghazi Malik

Q13. Name the Moroccan traveller who visited Delhi during the reign of
Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
Ibn- Battutta.

Q14. Where did Muhammad bin Tughlaq shift his capital? What was it
renamed as?
Devagiri
Daulatabad

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