Do you think Ibn Battuta’s account is useful in arriving at an understanding of life in contemporary urban centres? Give reasons for your answer.
Battuta’s observation about the cities of India.
(i) According to him, Indian cities had many exciting opportunities and are useful for those who had the necessary drive, skill and resources.
(ii)The Indian cities were prosperous and densely populated.
(iii)These cities had colourful market trading in different kinds of goods.
(iv)Delhi was the largest city of India and had a lot of population. Daultabad was an another important city of India which challenged Delhi in size.
(v)The cities were not only the centre of economic transactions but also the centres of ! social and cultural activities.
(vii)Most of the bazars in the cities had temple and mosques.
(viii)Cities also had fixed places for public performances by dancer, musicians and singer. He found that many towns derived their wealth and prosperity through the appropriation of surplus from villages.
(ix)Indian goods were in great demand in west Asia and South-east Asia. So the artisans and merchants earned huge profit.
Popular Questions of Class 12 History - Themes in Indian History - II
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Write a note on the Kitab-ul-Hind.
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How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
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On an outline map of the world mark the countries visited by Ibn Battuta. What are the seas that he may have crossed?
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Recently Viewed Questions of Class 12 History - Themes in Indian History - II
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Read this excerpt from Bernier:
Numerous are the instances of handsome pieces of workmanship made by persons destitute of tools, and who can scarcely be said to have received instruction from a master. Sometimes they imitate so perfectly articles of European manufacture that the difference between the original and copy can hardly be discerned. Among other things, the Indians make excellent muskets, and fowling- pieces, and such beautiful gold ornaments that it may be doubted if the exquisite workmanship of those articles can be exceeded by any European goldsmith. I have often admired the beauty, softness, and delicacy of their paintings.
List the crafts mentioned in the passage. Compare
these with the descriptions of artisanal activity in
the chapter. - Q:-
To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.
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Analyse the evidence for slavery provided by Ibn Battuta.
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What impression of the lives of the ordinary people of Vijayanagara can you cull from the various descriptions in the chapter?
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Describe the major teachings of either Kabir or Baba Guru Nanak, and the ways in which these have been transmitted.
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On an outline map of the world, mark approximately Italy, Portugal, Iran and Russia. Trace the routes the travellers mentioned on p.176 would have taken to reach Vijayanagara.
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Compare and contrast the perspectives from which Ibn Battuta and Bernier wrote their accounts of their travels in India.
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To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
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On an outline map of the world mark the countries visited by Ibn Battuta. What are the seas that he may have crossed?
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Write a note on the Kitab-ul-Hind.
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