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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

What were the problems Balban faced? How far did he succeed in solving them? Was he a trend-setter in his theory of kingship?

  • UPSC 1985
  • The Thirteenth Century

Ghiyasuddin Balban (r. 1266-87) inherited a Sultanate that had drifted through two decades of noble-dictated instability since the death of Iltutmish in 1236. His reign is best read as a project of restoration rather than expansion — an attempt to reclaim for the crown an authority that faction-ridden Turkish slave-nobles had appropriated. The record shows…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Inherited Crisis: Problems on Accession
  • The Response and Its Limits: How Far Did Balban Succeed
  • Trend-Setter in the Theory of Kingship

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