The History of Fīrūz Shāh (Baranī) 3.1

3.1

The author of this history, Zid-Barni, was a child in the reign of Sultan Mu'izzu-d din Kai-Kubad, grandson of Sultan Balban, and the details which he has written he learned from his father, Muyidu-l Mulk, and from his preceptors, who were men of note at the time. Kai-Kubad ascended the throne in the year 685 H. (1286 A.D.) He was then seventeen or eighteen years old, and was a young man of many excellent qualities. He was of an equable temper, kind in disposition, and very handsome; but he was fond of pleasure and sensual gratifications. From his childhood till the day he came to the throne, he had been brought up under the eye of the Sultan, his grandfather. Such strict tutors had been placed over him that he never had the idea of indulging in any pleasure, or the opportunity of gratifying any lust. His tutors, in fear of the Sultan, watched him so carefully that he never cast his eyes on any fair damsel, and never tasted a cup of wine. Night and day his austere guardians watched over him. Teachers instructed him in the polite arts and in manly exercises, and he was never allowed to do any unseemly act, or to utter any improper speech. When, all at once, and without previous expectation, he was elevated to such a mighty throne, * * * all that he had read, and heard, and learned, he immediately forgot; his lessons of wisdom and self-restraint were thrown aside, and he plunged at once into pleasure and dissipation of every kind.