Question

Examine various theoretical approaches used to study ageing with examples.  (30 marks answer please )​

Answer 1

The various approaches to study medieval Indian towns are as follows:

The establishment of Sultanat of Delhi brought an urban revolution.

The factors responsible for this include centralisation, political and economic stability, ruling class and craft and trade; increasing monetisation. Some major towns during medieval pe­riod included Delhi, Multan, Patan, Kara etc.

The iqta head quarters emerged in early phase as camp sites. Most of the 13thcentury towns are infact defined as iqta head quarters in our sources for e.g. Hansi, Kara etc.

The role played by rulers in setting up new towns is also significant. Feroze Shah Tughlaq settled Ferozabad, Hissar Firoza & Jaunpur. Akbar built the town of Fatehpur Sikri while Shah Jahan settled Shahjahanabad.

Some cities gained importance because of their administrative function where other roles such as manufacturing or religion were secondary. Such cities included Delhi, Agra Lahore, Pune etc.

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Their period of rule witnessed almost a renais­sance in the fields ‘of ancient and medieval learning brought about by scholars of all races, religious com­munities and linguistic groups. Persian as a court lan­guage prospered by leaps and bounds during Mughal period. The use of Arabic was confined to the produc­tion of Islamic treaties and scriptures only.

Humayun Namah written by Guladan Begum in colloquial Persian mixed with Turki words. Another book written in Persian during Mughal period was Akbarnama by Abul Fazl. A1 Badaoni another scholar was also asked by Akbar to make translation from Ara­bic and Sanskrit to Persian. Ramayana was translated by him into Persian. Other books written in Persian include Muntakhab ut Tawauh by Al Badaoni. Tuzuk- i-Jahangiri by Jahangir etc.