Question

Who among the following came to India during the reign of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni?
A. Al-Masudi
B. Al-Beruni
C. Sulaiman
D. Abdul Haq

Answer 1

Hint:Mahmud of Ghazni, after the death of his father emir Sabuktigin, revolted against his brother Ismail of Ghazni, within few months after his rule started, for the throne and successfully defeated him in the battle of Ghazni and gained full control of the Ghaznavid.

Complete answer:
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, born on 2nd November 971 in Ghazni, Zabulistan, Samanid Empire (now Afghanistan) in the family of Sabuktigin, a Turkish slave who became ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty in 977. At the start of his reign in 998, Sultan Mahmud was 27 years old and was administratively active. Ghaznavid was a small kingdom back then but Mahmud had a vision of expanding his dynasty and being a great monarch. During his reign, he had accomplished his dream of a vast empire which included many different regions of India and had accumulated enormous wealth which laid the foundations for his upcoming victory.
Sultan Mahmud was a man who valued his customs and he helped Ghazni to become culturally, commercially, and intellectually stable and got well known in the Islamic world. He invaded India as many as seventeen times to gather wealth for Ghazni. He initiated his campaign in India in 1001 which lasted for 25 years and finally ended in 1026. In 1002, he decided to put his focus on the highly fertile lands of Punjab and northeastern India. He had decided to invade the richest cities of northwestern India each year.
In 1017, Sultan Mahmud took scholars including Al-Beruni to Ghazni where he served as an astrologer and also used to keep the company of Mahmud on his invasions to India. During his visit to India, he used to study the customs and religions of India and wrote about Hinduism. He finished his writings around 1030. He was a pioneer of many different fields including Science, Physics, Mathematics, etc.

So, the correct answer is Option B.

Note: Al-Beruni had his interests in wide areas and after his visit to India, he wrote about Hinduism where he mentioned division of Hindus on the basis of literacy. He described the literate as the one who believes that God is one, eternal, and the illiterate as those who worshipped a multiplicity of idols.