Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 225.6.5

225.6.5

Sooltan Mahmood was polite, brave, just, and learned, and during his reign his subjects, Mahomedans as well as Hindoos, were happy, and maintained a friendly intercourse with each other. Scarcely a year passed that he did not take the field, so that his tent became his home, and his resting-place the field of battle. His leisure hours were devoted to hearing the histories and memoirs of the courts of different kings of the earth read. He prided himself (not without reason) on his intimate knowledge of human nature, a subject to which he devoted much attention. His justice was so prompt and exact that it frequently happened when a merchant had been plundered during the night in Mando, and the fact was fully established, that he was instantly reimbursed for his losses from the public treasury; and a sum equal to the amount was levied from the police officers whose business it was to trace the robbers, and to protect that part of the city. On hearing that a traveller had been carried off by a tiger, he ordered the governors of the different provinces to send out parties and destroy these wild beasts; proclaiming, that if after the period of two years he ascertained a human being were killed by a wild beast, unless in attacking him, he would hold the governor responsible. The promptitude he observed in making his actions accord with his words was so well understood that for many years after his death wild beasts of any description were scarce throughout the kingdom.