Question

Direction: Answer the following questions by selecting the correct / most appropriate options.

Statement A): Raziya changed her name on her inscriptions and pretended she was a man.

Statement B): Authors of tawarikhs used social and gender differences to argue that men are superior to women.

1. Both A) and B) are true and B) is the correct explanation of A)
2. Both A) and B) are true but B) is not the correct explanation of A)
3. A) is true, but B) is false
4. A) is false, but B) is true

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : A) is false, but B) is true

Tarikh (singular) / Tawarikh (plural), written in Persian, the language of administration under the Delhi Sultans. It tells a lot about the Delhi Sultanate.

• The authors of Tawarikh were learned men: secretaries, administrators, poets and courtiers, who both recounted events and advised rulers on governance, emphasising the importance of fair rule.
• The authors of Tawarikh lived in cities (mainly Delhi) and hardly ever in villages.
• They often wrote their histories for Sultans in the hope of rich rewards.
• These authors advised rulers on the need to preserve an “ideal” social order based on birthright and gender distinctions. 
• Their ideas were not shared by everybody.

Thus, statement B is correct.

Raziyya:

•  In 1236 Sultan Iltutmish’s daughter, Raziyya became Sultan.
• The chronicler of the age, Minhaj-i Siraj, recognized that she was more able and qualified than all her brothers.
• But he was not comfortable with having a queen as ruler.
• Nor were the nobles happy at her attempts to rule independently. 
• She was removed from the throne in 1240.

Hence, we can conclude statement A is wrong.