The History of Fīrūz Shāh (ʿAfīf) 35: Seventeenth Mukaddama. — Happiness of the people in the reign of Fíroz Sháh.

35

After his return from Lakhnautí, the Sultán was much occupied with building. He completed, with much care, the kushk at Fírozábád, and also commenced a kushk in the middle of that town. After the lapse of two half years, every man of the army now returned to his home. The Sultán passed his time in three ways: 1. In hunting; * * * 2. In directing the affairs of State; * * * 3. In building; * * * Through the attention which the Sultán devoted to administration, the country grew year by year more prosperous and the people more happy. He assigned thirty-six lacs of tankas for learned and religious men, and about a 100 lacs in pensions and gifts to the poor and needy. [Every class of the community shared in the general prosperity.] One day the Sultán went hunting, and in pursuit of his quarry, having separated from his followers, he went to a garden where he met a woman [whose conversation showed him the necessity of more strict attention to the duties of revenue administration]. During the forty years that Fíroz Sháh reigned, all his people were happy and contented; but when he departed, and the territory of Dehlí came into the hands of others, by the will of fate, the people were dispersed and the learned were scattered. At length the inhabitants, small and great, all suffered from the inroads of the Mughals. The aged author of this work has written a full account thereof in his Description of the Sack of Dehlí [Zikr-i kharábí Dehlí].