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4. Ala-ud-din Khalji died in ___________ . In fact, Muhammad-bin Tughluq thought that he
5. ___________ was a weak sultan and could better control the Deccan from Devgiri. So,
compromised with the Mongols. he renamed it as Daulatabad and ordered the
shifting of the capital from Delhi to there. Not
TUGHLUQ DYNASTY (1320-1414 AD) only this, he ordered all people of Delhi to shift to
the new capital. The people had to take a lot of
The Tughluq dynasty was founded by Ghiyas-ud- trouble for this. But when they reached there,
din Tughluq . Two important sultans of this Muhammad-bin Tughluq said that it was difficult
dynasty were Muhammad-bin Tughluq and Firoz to keep a watch over the northern frontiers from
Shah Tughluq . there, so he ordered to move the capital back to
Delhi. Shifting back the capital to Delhi was seen
Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq as a weakness of the sultan. Due to this, the
During the brief period, he ruled, he put down the Bahmani kingdom rose to power in the Deccan
rebellions and strengthened the Sultanate. He was and the Vijayanagar kingdom rose in South India.
succeeded by his son.
Yet another new idea of Muhammad-bin Tughluq
Muhammad-bin Tughluq was the issue of token currency in 1329. He had
taken this step in view of the shortage of silver, so
Source of Information
he got coins of brass and copper minted which
The chief source of information about had the same value as the corresponding silver
Muhammad-bin Tughluq is the detailed account coins. These coins could be exchanged from the
left by an African traveller named Ibn Battuta . He royal treasury at any time.
lived in his court for several years and wrote in
detail about the court and people. Activity
Muhammad-bin Tughluq had a lot of new ideas Why did the people not accept the token currency
ahead of his times, which he tried to implement; issued by Muhammad-bin Tughluq? Was it different
from the paper currency which we use now?
however, he could not execute his ideas properly.
His ideas failed miserably. However, the pattern of the coins was very simple,
so the local craftsmen easily counterfeited them.
Now the people started to pay their taxes in this
counterfeited currency, as a result, the treasury
was emptied. Therefore, this step had to be
withdrawn. Zia-ud-din Barani , a chronicler, writes
in his account named Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, that
hills of bronze coins came up near Tughluqabad
which had been returned by the people.
Muhammad-bin Tughluq Ibn Battuta
Muhammad-bin Tughluq wanted to expand his However, it was not an end to his new ideas.
empire on all sides, for which he needed a larger Muhammad-bin Tughluq, in order to secure his
army, which required larger revenue. Therefore, northern frontiers, sent his army to occupy the
Kangra region (present day Himachal Pradesh). He
he increased the tax on cultivable land in the
doab (the area between the Ganga and Yamuna sent the army further to Tibet, where the hostile
rivers). However, this step was ill-timed as this hills caused a lot of casualties. It is said that only
three officers returned alive from there.
area was facing famine at this time. As a result, a
lot of people abandoned their land and revolted. Muhammad-bin Tughluq also had an idea to
Consequently, Muhammad had to withdraw his expand his empire up to Central Asia, so he
orders. recruited a large number of soldiers and equipped
Another such step was the shifting of his capital. them with weapons and supplies. He even paid
The Delhi Sultanate Period
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