NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science History Chapter 3: The Delhi Sultans

In this chapter, we explore who the Sultans were and study the story of Delhi. How it became a capital that had the power to control a major part of the sub-continent? And explore which Sultans used to rule in those ages and times. This change is important to understand, because the transformation of Delhi into a pivotal capital, led to the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate by Qutub-ud-din Aibak in 1211 which lasted until 1506.

While the inscriptions, coins and architecture provide us with a lot of information to understand, the most valuable and useful of them all are the "histories"- the Tarikh (singular)/tawarikh (plural) which is written in Persian which was the language of the administration under the Delhi Sultans.

The authors to the tawarikh used to live in cities (mainly Delhi) and rarely ever were they found to have their swelling in villages and often wrote their histories for Sultans in hopes of rich rewards and advised rulers on the necessity of the "ideal" social order to be preserved based on birth and gender distinctions. However, this idea was not shared by everybody in the Sultanate.

What is also an interesting piece to note is that during the thirteenth century the Delhi Sultans rarely went beyond their heavily fortified towns that were occupied by the garrisons, but the Sultans did seldom controlled the city's hinterland were therefore dependent upon trade, plunder or tribute for their supplies which chapter 3 of the book explores