Identify the correct statements related to travellers in Medieval India:
(A) Al-Biruni was born in 980 in Uzbekistan.
(B) Abdur Razzaq was a diplomat from Herat.
(C) Ibn Battuta's travel book is called Rihla.
(D) Al-Biruni's book, Kitab-ul-Hind, was written in Arabic.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (B), (C) and (D) only
(A) Al-Biruni was born in 980 in Uzbekistan. Incorrect. Al-Biruni was born in 973, not 980, in Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan, an important centre of learning.
(B) Abdur Razzaq was a diplomat from Herat. Correct. Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, who wrote one of the most important descriptions of the city of Vijayanagara in the fifteenth century, was a diplomat who came visiting from Herat.
(C) Ibn Battuta’s travel book is called Rihla. Correct. Ibn Battuta’s book of travels, called Rihla and written in Arabic, gives rich details of the social and cultural life of the subcontinent in the fourteenth century.
(D) Al-Biruni’s book, Kitab-ul-Hind, was written in Arabic. Correct. The Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic, is a simple and lucid but voluminous text of 80 chapters on subjects such as religion, festivals, astronomy and laws.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.1 From Khwarizm to the Punjab … Al-Biruni was born in 973, in Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan. Khwarizm was an important centre of learning, and Al-Biruni received the best education available at the time.… …The accounts that survive are often varied in terms of their subject matter. Some deal with affairs of the court, while others are mainly focused on religious issues, or architectural features and monuments. For example, one of the most important descriptions of the city of Vijayanagara (Chapter 7) in the fifteenth century comes from Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, a diplomat who came visiting from Herat.… 2.1 An early globe-trotter … Ibn Battuta’s book of travels, called Rihla, written in Arabic, provides extremely rich and interesting details about the social and cultural life in the subcontinent in the fourteenth century.… 1.2 The Kitab-ul-Hind … Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic, is simple and lucid. It is a voluminous text, divided into 80 chapters on subjects such as religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology.…” |