Class 12 History Chapter 9 — Medieval Society through Travellers’ Accounts (Through the Eyes of Travellers)
Welcome to HSLC Guru. This page provides complete ASSEB Class 12 History Chapter 9 question answers in English medium for the chapter “Medieval Society through Travellers’ Accounts” (NCERT Theme 5 — Through the Eyes of Travellers). The chapter examines Indian society between the tenth and seventeenth centuries through the writings of three foreign travellers: Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta and Francois Bernier. Their books provide invaluable observations on caste, women, agriculture, trade, cities and government in medieval India.
About the Chapter
This chapter studies the accounts of three travellers who came to India during the medieval period and recorded their observations. Al-Biruni from Uzbekistan came in the eleventh century and wrote Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic. Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller, came in the fourteenth century and wrote Kitab-ul-Rihla in Arabic. Francois Bernier, a French physician, came in the seventeenth century during the Mughal period and wrote Travels in the Mughal Empire. Their accounts together cover almost six centuries of Indian history and offer outsider perspectives on caste, women, sati, urban life, agriculture, the postal system and the Mughal state.
Summary (English)
Al-Biruni (973-1048) was born in Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan. He came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century and spent years studying Sanskrit texts. His Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic, is divided into eighty chapters dealing with religion, philosophy, customs, festivals, laws, metrology, astronomy and iconography. He identified four “barriers” to communication — language, religious differences, the conceit of Indians, and self-absorption. He gave a detailed account of the Indian caste system (varna), comparing it with the social divisions in ancient Persia, but disapproved of the notion of pollution.
Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) was a Moroccan traveller from Tangier who reached the Indian subcontinent in the fourteenth century during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He travelled across North Africa, West Asia, India, Central Asia, China and South-East Asia. The Sultan appointed him qazi (judge) of Delhi. His Kitab-ul-Rihla describes Indian cities such as Delhi and Daulatabad as densely populated and prosperous, with markets full of goods. He noted the efficient postal system (uluq — horse-post and dawa — foot-post), agricultural prosperity, slavery, and the practice of sati.
Francois Bernier (1620-1688) was a French physician, philosopher and historian. He came to India in the seventeenth century and stayed for twelve years, becoming attached to Prince Dara Shukoh and later to a noble of Aurangzeb’s court. His Travels in the Mughal Empire compares “East” and “West” — usually arguing that India was inferior. He criticised the absence of private property in land in the Mughal Empire, blaming it for poor agriculture and oppression of peasantry. His writings later influenced European thinkers like Montesquieu and Karl Marx (the idea of the “Asiatic mode of production”). He gave shocking eye-witness accounts of sati, describing the burning of a young widow.
Together these travellers describe medieval Indian society — its rigid caste system, the position of women including the practice of sati, the bustling cities and qasbas, prosperous agriculture based on irrigation, vast networks of internal and external trade, and the efficient state-run postal communication system that allowed news to travel across the subcontinent in days.
সাৰাংশ (Assamese Summary)
এই অধ্যায়ত মধ্যযুগীয় ভাৰতীয় সমাজক তিনিগৰাকী বিদেশী পৰ্যটকৰ লিখনিৰ মাধ্যমেৰে অধ্যয়ন কৰা হৈছে। আল-বিৰুনী (১১শ শতিকা) উজবেকিস্তানৰ পৰা আহিছিল আৰু আৰবী ভাষাত কিতাব-উল-হিন্দ ৰচনা কৰে। ইবন বটুটা (১৪শ শতিকা) মৰক্কোৰ পৰা আহিছিল আৰু কিতাব-উল-ৰিহলা লিখে। ফ্ৰাঁছোৱা বাৰ্ণিয়ে (১৭শ শতিকা) ফ্ৰান্সৰ পৰা মুঘল সাম্ৰাজ্যলৈ আহিছিল আৰু Travels in the Mughal Empire লিখে। তেওঁলোকে ভাৰতৰ বৰ্ণ ব্যৱস্থা, নাৰীৰ অৱস্থা, সতীদাহ প্ৰথা, নগৰ, কৃষি, বাণিজ্য আৰু ডাক ব্যৱস্থাৰ বিষয়ে বিশদ বিৱৰণ দিছে। আল-বিৰুনীয়ে বৰ্ণ ব্যৱস্থাৰ বিৰুদ্ধে সমালোচনা কৰে; ইবন বটুটাই দিল্লী, দৌলতাবাদ আদি নগৰৰ সমৃদ্ধি আৰু ডাক ব্যৱস্থাৰ প্ৰশংসা কৰে; বাৰ্ণিয়ে মুঘল ৰাজ্যত ব্যক্তিগত ভূমি স্বত্বৰ অভাৱৰ কথা সমালোচনা কৰে আৰু সতীদাহৰ ভয়াৱহ চিত্ৰ অংকন কৰে।
NCERT Textbook Questions and Answers
Q1. Write a note on the Kitab-ul-Hind.
Answer: Kitab-ul-Hind was written by Al-Biruni in Arabic in the early eleventh century. The book is voluminous and divided into eighty chapters. It deals with topics such as religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology. Al-Biruni adopted a distinctive structure for nearly every chapter — beginning with a question, then describing Sanskritic traditions, and ending with a comparison with other cultures. His geometric style of presentation, mathematical clarity and reliance on Sanskrit texts (the Vedas, the Puranas, the Bhagavad Gita and the works of Patanjali) make it a remarkable work for its time.
Q2. Compare and contrast the perspectives from which Ibn Battuta and Bernier wrote their accounts of their travels in India.
Answer: Ibn Battuta wrote in the fourteenth century from the perspective of an admiring traveller. He found the unfamiliar exciting and described Indian cities, markets, fruits like coconut and paan, and the postal system with wonder. He provided ethnographic detail without judgement.
Bernier, writing in the seventeenth century, took a comparative perspective. He constantly contrasted India with Europe, often portraying the East as inferior. He criticised the absence of private property in land, the despotism of the Mughal state and the conditions of the peasantry. While Ibn Battuta noted similarities and differences with curiosity, Bernier wrote with a critical, analytical and Eurocentric viewpoint. Ibn Battuta’s account was more descriptive; Bernier’s was prescriptive and influenced later European theories about Asia.
Q3. Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier’s account.
Answer: Bernier described Mughal cities as “camp towns” because they owed their existence and survival to the imperial camp. He believed that they would emerge and disappear with the camp. He described cities like Delhi and Agra as huge urban centres but argued they lacked the autonomy and middle classes of European cities. However, Bernier’s account also acknowledged that there were several towns including manufacturing centres, trading cities, port towns, sacred centres and pilgrimage sites. Cities had merchants who organised themselves into guilds (mahajans) under their chief (sheth). Professional classes such as physicians (hakim or vaid), teachers (pundits or mullahs), lawyers (wakils), painters and architects also lived in towns.
Q4. Analyse the evidence for slavery provided by Ibn Battuta.
Answer: Ibn Battuta noticed that slaves were openly sold in markets, like any other commodity, and were regularly exchanged as gifts. When he reached Sind, he purchased “horses, camels and slaves” as gifts for Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He also recorded that the Sultan employed slave women as spies on the nobles. Slaves were generally used for domestic labour and for carrying women and men on palanquins or doola. The price of female slaves used for domestic labour was very low. Slaves were also used for musical performances. Ibn Battuta’s testimony shows that slavery was a routine part of urban and elite life in fourteenth-century India.
Q5. What were the ways in which Al-Biruni tried to understand Indian society?
Answer: Al-Biruni tried to understand Indian society by overcoming what he called the “barriers” of language, religious differences, conceit and self-absorption. He learned Sanskrit and studied religious and philosophical texts including the Vedas, Puranas, Bhagavad Gita and the works of Patanjali. He compared Indian customs with those of pre-Islamic Persia, the Greeks and the Sufis. He used a question-and-answer format to explain Indian beliefs to a non-Indian audience. He also borrowed terms from other cultures to describe Indian institutions. Although he criticised the caste system as inflexible, he tried to relate it to ideas of pollution found in other societies.
Q6. Discuss the structure of agrarian relations that Bernier described.
Answer: Bernier asserted that there was no private property in land in the Mughal Empire and that all land was owned by the king, who distributed it among nobles. According to him, this had disastrous consequences for both the state and its people. The owners (nobles) could not pass on land to their children, so they extracted as much as possible without investing in improvement. Peasants were oppressed and could not produce more than what they needed for subsistence. This led to the ruin of agriculture, exodus of peasantry and decline of the social and economic life. However, modern historians question this picture — Mughal documents do not describe the king as the sole owner of land, and zamindars and peasants enjoyed customary rights.
Q7. This chapter mentions several practices and institutions that travellers found unusual or remarkable. List five such instances.
Answer: Five such practices and institutions are: (i) The caste system as described by Al-Biruni; (ii) The postal system (uluq and dawa) described in detail by Ibn Battuta; (iii) The coconut and paan, fruits which Ibn Battuta found strange and exotic; (iv) The practice of sati witnessed and described by Bernier; (v) The crowded bazaars of Delhi and Daulatabad, which Ibn Battuta praised as centres of social and economic activity. He also commented on the slave system and women slaves in the Sultan’s court.
Q8. Discuss Al-Biruni’s understanding of the caste system.
Answer: Al-Biruni described the four-fold varna division of Indian society — Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. He explained that Brahmanas were created from the head of Brahma, Kshatriyas from his shoulders and hands, Vaishyas from his thighs, and Shudras from his feet. He also mentioned the antyaja or “those born outside the system” who were excluded from the four varnas but provided cheap labour. He compared the system with the social divisions of ancient Persia, observing that all ancient societies had similar hierarchies. However, Al-Biruni disapproved of the rigid concept of pollution attached to the caste system and argued that everything which becomes impure aspires to and is capable of regaining its original purity. His account was based on Sanskrit texts and not on the practical reality of caste.
Q9. Do you think Ibn Battuta’s account would be useful for the historian of urban centres? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: Yes, Ibn Battuta’s account is highly useful for historians of urban centres. He provides eye-witness descriptions of cities such as Delhi (the largest city in India), Daulatabad (rivalling Delhi in size) and other urban centres. He describes their walls, gates, mosques, bazaars and densely-packed population. He notes the prosperity of markets, the variety of goods and the existence of separate quarters for different communities. He gives information about social and cultural activities — public performances by male and female singers, cultural events in mosques, and the role of cities as nodes in trade networks. He describes the postal system that connected cities. His information complements other sources and helps historians reconstruct medieval urban life.
Q10. Discuss the ways in which Bernier’s account of the burning of widows or Sati helps us understand the position of women in seventeenth-century India.
Answer: Bernier’s account of sati is one of the most graphic and shocking descriptions in his book. He described a twelve-year-old widow being forcibly burnt with her dead husband at Lahore, while she trembled and wept. He noted that the woman did not appear willing and was held down by relatives. His account suggests that while the practice was meant to be voluntary, in reality many women were coerced. At the same time, his observations about other women showed that they participated in agriculture, took part in commercial activities and held labour positions. Slave women worked in the Sultan’s court as guards and entertainers. Bernier’s writing thus reveals both the oppression of women through customs like sati and their visible presence in economic life.
Short Answer Questions
Q1. Who was Al-Biruni? When did he come to India?
Answer: Al-Biruni (973-1048) was a scholar from Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan. He came to India in the eleventh century along with Mahmud of Ghazni and stayed for many years studying Sanskrit and Indian culture.
Q2. Name the book written by Al-Biruni and the language in which it was written.
Answer: Al-Biruni wrote Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic.
Q3. What were the four “barriers” to understanding identified by Al-Biruni?
Answer: The four barriers were (i) language — Sanskrit was very different from Arabic and Persian; (ii) religious beliefs and practices; (iii) the self-absorption and conceit of Indians (according to him); (iv) lack of communication and openness with outsiders.
Q4. Who was Ibn Battuta? Where was he from?
Answer: Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) was a Moroccan traveller from Tangier in Morocco, North Africa. He travelled extensively across North Africa, West Asia, parts of Central Asia, India, China and South-East Asia.
Q5. What is the name of Ibn Battuta’s travel book?
Answer: Ibn Battuta’s book is called Kitab-ul-Rihla (literally “Book of Travels”), originally written in Arabic.
Q6. Which Sultan appointed Ibn Battuta as the qazi of Delhi?
Answer: Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq appointed Ibn Battuta as the qazi (judge) of Delhi.
Q7. Describe the postal system as observed by Ibn Battuta.
Answer: Ibn Battuta described the Indian postal system as efficient and well-organised. There were two kinds of postal service — the uluq or horse-post, run by royal horses stationed every four miles, and the dawa or foot-post, with three relays at every mile. The foot-post was actually faster than the horse-post for short distances. The postal system was used to send news, royal orders and even fresh fruits to the Sultan.
Q8. Who was Francois Bernier?
Answer: Francois Bernier (1620-1688) was a French physician, philosopher and historian. He came to India in the seventeenth century and stayed for twelve years (1656-1668), serving as a physician to Prince Dara Shukoh and later to a noble in Aurangzeb’s court.
Q9. What is the title of Bernier’s book?
Answer: Bernier’s book is titled Travels in the Mughal Empire. It was first published in French and dedicated to King Louis XIV of France.
Q10. What is sati? How did Bernier describe it?
Answer: Sati was the practice of a Hindu widow burning herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. Bernier described one such instance at Lahore where a twelve-year-old widow was forcibly burnt — she was trembling, weeping and held down by her relatives. His account suggested that while the act was supposed to be voluntary, many women were coerced.
Q11. What were “qasbahs”?
Answer: Qasbahs were small towns in the Mughal Empire that served as centres of administration and trade. They were larger than villages but smaller than cities. They functioned as nodes connecting villages with regional cities.
Q12. Who were the “antyaja” mentioned by Al-Biruni?
Answer: Al-Biruni described the antyaja as those who were “born outside” the four-fold varna system. Although they were not part of the formal caste hierarchy, they provided important services such as crafts and labour and were integrated into the working economy. Eight categories were listed including washermen, shoemakers and basket makers.
Q13. What was the “Asiatic mode of production”?
Answer: The “Asiatic mode of production” was a concept developed by Karl Marx, partly inspired by Bernier’s writings. It argued that in Asia (and especially India before colonisation), the king or state owned all land, surplus was extracted by despotic rulers, society was divided into self-sufficient villages, and there was no private ownership — leading to economic stagnation. Modern historians have largely rejected this idea.
Q14. Mention two fruits which Ibn Battuta found strange or new in India.
Answer: Ibn Battuta described the coconut and paan (betel-leaf) as strange and new fruits. He found the coconut similar to a man’s head and described the paan as a leaf chewed with areca nut for fragrance and digestion.
Q15. Why did Bernier consider Mughal cities “camp towns”?
Answer: Bernier thought Mughal cities were “camp towns” because, in his view, they owed their existence to the imperial camp. He believed that they emerged when the court arrived and declined when it moved away. This view, however, was an exaggeration since cities had their own merchants, artisans and economic functions.
Long Answer Questions
Q1. Discuss in detail Al-Biruni’s contribution to our understanding of Indian society.
Answer: Al-Biruni was an eleventh-century scholar from Central Asia who came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni. His Kitab-ul-Hind is divided into eighty chapters and is the first systematic Arabic study of India. He used Sanskrit texts including the Vedas, Puranas, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s works as primary sources. He identified the four “barriers” between Muslims and Indians — language, religion, Indian self-absorption and customs. He gave a detailed account of the four-fold varna system and the antyaja groups, comparing them with social hierarchies in Persia. He disapproved of the Indian concept of pollution and argued that purity is recoverable. He described religious beliefs, philosophical schools, festivals, the calendar, weights and measures, mathematics and astronomy. His careful, comparative and analytical approach makes him a pioneer of Indology and ethnography.
Q2. Describe Ibn Battuta’s observations on the Indian society of the fourteenth century.
Answer: Ibn Battuta’s Rihla provides a vivid picture of fourteenth-century Indian society. He praised the prosperity of cities like Delhi and Daulatabad, describing them as full of crowded markets, mosques, beautiful gardens and grand palaces. He admired the agricultural prosperity of India produced by fertile soil and excellent irrigation. He noted that crops like rice and wheat were cultivated and that India exported textiles to West and Central Asia. He described the postal system in detail (uluq and dawa). He observed the practice of slavery — slaves were openly sold in markets and used as domestic labour, soldiers and palanquin-carriers. He recorded the practice of sati. He wrote about Sufi shrines, festivals and the urban middle class. His writings reveal a society that was prosperous, urban, deeply hierarchical and connected to the larger Afro-Eurasian trade network.
Q3. Critically evaluate Bernier’s view of Mughal society and his concept of land ownership.
Answer: Bernier’s Travels in the Mughal Empire presents a comparative view of India and Europe, generally portraying Mughal India as inferior. His central argument was that there was no private property in land in the Mughal Empire — all land belonged to the emperor. According to Bernier, this caused several problems: nobles, knowing they could not pass land to their children, exploited it ruthlessly; peasants were oppressed and unable to invest in agriculture; production declined; cities decayed; and the state itself was weakened. He argued that Mughal India was a society with two classes — extremely rich (king and nobles) and extremely poor (peasants and labourers), with no middle class. However, modern historians have challenged Bernier’s views — Mughal records show that zamindars and peasants enjoyed customary rights to land, that there were rich agrarian and commercial classes, and that cities had merchants, artisans, professionals and bankers. Despite these limitations, Bernier’s writings influenced European thinkers like Montesquieu (theory of Oriental Despotism) and Marx (Asiatic mode of production).
Q4. Compare the accounts of Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta and Bernier on the position of women in medieval India.
Answer: All three travellers commented on the position of women, though from different perspectives. Al-Biruni wrote about Hindu marriage, divorce and the practice of sati. He noted that Brahmanas considered cross-cousin marriage abominable but most other communities allowed it. Ibn Battuta described slave women in the Sultan’s court who were used as spies, dancers, musicians and labourers. He also wrote about elite women in palaces, women in markets and the practice of sati. Bernier gave the most detailed account of women, especially of sati. He described one twelve-year-old widow being forcibly burnt at Lahore. He also wrote about women working as labourers in agriculture and as slaves in the imperial harem. Together these accounts reveal that women’s lives ranged from extreme oppression (sati, slavery, restriction) to active participation in economic life (markets, agriculture, performance arts), but they were universally subordinated within a patriarchal social order.
Q5. Discuss the picture of trade, agriculture and economic life as observed by medieval travellers.
Answer: The travellers’ accounts present India as economically prosperous. Ibn Battuta praised Indian agriculture as so productive that two crops could be raised in a year. Crops included rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, indigo and various fruits. Irrigation was well-developed with wells and tanks. Indian textiles — muslin, silk, brocade — were exported to West Asia, Central Asia and South-East Asia. Cities had bustling bazaars; merchants organised in guilds (mahajans) under chiefs called sheth. The state ran the postal system that allowed traders to communicate. Bernier, while critical, also acknowledged that India produced fine textiles and that there were trading and manufacturing cities. The travellers also noted slavery, which was integral to elite households. Coinage was developed, with silver tankas and copper coins. Together, the travellers describe medieval India as a complex, urban, market-oriented and globally connected economy.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. Who wrote the Kitab-ul-Hind?
(a) Ibn Battuta (b) Al-Biruni (c) Bernier (d) Marco Polo
Answer: (b) Al-Biruni
2. Al-Biruni came to India with which ruler?
(a) Babur (b) Mahmud of Ghazni (c) Muhammad of Ghor (d) Akbar
Answer: (b) Mahmud of Ghazni
3. Kitab-ul-Hind was written in which language?
(a) Persian (b) Sanskrit (c) Arabic (d) Turkish
Answer: (c) Arabic
4. Ibn Battuta belonged to which country?
(a) Morocco (b) Persia (c) France (d) Uzbekistan
Answer: (a) Morocco
5. Ibn Battuta’s travel account is known as:
(a) Kitab-ul-Hind (b) Kitab-ul-Rihla (c) Tuzuk-i-Babri (d) Ain-i-Akbari
Answer: (b) Kitab-ul-Rihla
6. Which sultan appointed Ibn Battuta as qazi of Delhi?
(a) Iltutmish (b) Alauddin Khilji (c) Muhammad bin Tughlaq (d) Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Answer: (c) Muhammad bin Tughlaq
7. The horse-post in medieval India was called:
(a) dawa (b) uluq (c) qasbah (d) wakil
Answer: (b) uluq
8. The foot-post was called:
(a) uluq (b) dawa (c) qasbah (d) sheth
Answer: (b) dawa
9. Francois Bernier belonged to which country?
(a) Portugal (b) Britain (c) France (d) Italy
Answer: (c) France
10. Bernier was a personal physician to which Mughal prince?
(a) Akbar (b) Aurangzeb (c) Dara Shukoh (d) Shah Jahan
Answer: (c) Dara Shukoh
11. Bernier’s book was dedicated to:
(a) Pope (b) Louis XIV (c) Akbar (d) Aurangzeb
Answer: (b) Louis XIV
12. According to Bernier, Mughal cities were:
(a) republics (b) camp towns (c) free towns (d) democratic centres
Answer: (b) camp towns
13. The “antyaja” referred to:
(a) Brahmanas (b) Kshatriyas (c) those born outside the varna system (d) priests
Answer: (c) those born outside the varna system
14. Karl Marx’s concept of the “Asiatic mode of production” was inspired by:
(a) Al-Biruni (b) Ibn Battuta (c) Bernier (d) Marco Polo
Answer: (c) Bernier
15. Bernier compared Mughal India mostly with:
(a) China (b) Persia (c) Europe (d) Africa
Answer: (c) Europe
16. Al-Biruni was born in:
(a) Baghdad (b) Khwarizm (c) Tangier (d) Paris
Answer: (b) Khwarizm
17. Ibn Battuta found which fruit similar to a man’s head?
(a) Mango (b) Coconut (c) Banana (d) Jackfruit
Answer: (b) Coconut
18. The number of barriers identified by Al-Biruni was:
(a) Two (b) Three (c) Four (d) Five
Answer: (c) Four
19. Bernier described the burning of a young widow at:
(a) Delhi (b) Agra (c) Lahore (d) Surat
Answer: (c) Lahore
20. Bernier stayed in India for:
(a) 6 years (b) 8 years (c) 12 years (d) 20 years
Answer: (c) 12 years
21. The Kitab-ul-Hind has how many chapters?
(a) 60 (b) 70 (c) 80 (d) 100
Answer: (c) 80
22. The chief of merchants in Mughal cities was known as:
(a) qazi (b) hakim (c) sheth (d) mansabdar
Answer: (c) sheth
23. Ibn Battuta visited India in which century?
(a) 11th (b) 13th (c) 14th (d) 17th
Answer: (c) 14th
24. Which traveller stated that there was no private property in land in the Mughal Empire?
(a) Al-Biruni (b) Ibn Battuta (c) Bernier (d) Marco Polo
Answer: (c) Bernier
25. The Rihla was originally written in:
(a) Persian (b) Arabic (c) French (d) Sanskrit
Answer: (b) Arabic
Travellers Comparison Table
| Aspect | Al-Biruni | Ibn Battuta | Francois Bernier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origin | Khwarizm (Uzbekistan) | Tangier (Morocco) | France |
| Century | 11th century | 14th century | 17th century |
| Period in India | Reign of Mahmud of Ghazni | Reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq | Reign of Shah Jahan / Aurangzeb |
| Book | Kitab-ul-Hind | Kitab-ul-Rihla | Travels in the Mughal Empire |
| Original Language | Arabic | Arabic | French |
| Profession | Scholar / scientist | Traveller / qazi | Physician / philosopher |
| Approach | Comparative, analytical | Descriptive, ethnographic | Critical, comparative (East-West) |
| Key Theme | Caste system, religion | Cities, postal system, slavery | Land ownership, sati, despotism |
| Lifespan | 973-1048 | 1304-1377 | 1620-1688 |
Key Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kitab-ul-Hind | Al-Biruni’s book on India written in Arabic, divided into 80 chapters |
| Kitab-ul-Rihla | Ibn Battuta’s book of travels written in Arabic in the 14th century |
| Travels in the Mughal Empire | Bernier’s account of 17th-century Mughal India, written in French |
| Varna | The four-fold caste division — Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra |
| Antyaja | Groups born outside the four varnas; provided services and labour |
| Uluq | Horse-post — royal postal service using horses |
| Dawa | Foot-post — postal service using runners; faster than uluq for short distances |
| Qazi | Judge of Islamic law; Ibn Battuta was qazi of Delhi |
| Qasbah | Small administrative town larger than a village |
| Sati | The practice of a Hindu widow burning herself on her husband’s funeral pyre |
| Mahajan | Trade guild of merchants |
| Sheth | Chief of a merchant guild |
| Hakim | Physician (Unani medicine) |
| Wakil | Lawyer or representative |
| Camp Town | Bernier’s term for Mughal cities, which he believed depended on the imperial camp |
| Asiatic Mode of Production | Marx’s concept of an Asian economic system based on state ownership of land — partly inspired by Bernier |
| Oriental Despotism | The notion of an absolute, unchecked Eastern monarchy — developed by Montesquieu using Bernier’s writings |
| Patanjali | Ancient Indian author of the Yoga Sutras, studied by Al-Biruni |
| Dara Shukoh | Mughal prince, eldest son of Shah Jahan, with whom Bernier was associated |
| Khwarizm | Region in present-day Uzbekistan, birthplace of Al-Biruni |