The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14.49

v4.c14.49

He has received scant justice from historians. The annalists of the Timurids have been obliged to admit, ungraciously, his merits as a soldier and a statesman, but to them he was ever Sher Khān, the Afghān rebel, and their works have chiefly supplied the material for European histories of India. He was, however, the greatest of the Muslim rulers of India and was entirely free from, and active in the correction of, the faults usually associated with his race. In youth and early manhood he had sedulously devoted himself to the acquisition of learning and the study of the art of government, and found an opportunity of putting his knowledge into practice in the administration of the *parganas* which his father placed under his charge, where, also in the suppression of rebellion and organised brigandage, he gained practical experience of the art of war, and thenceforward, for a short time in Bābur’s service, then in that of Sultān Muhammad of Bihār, and then as independent ruler of that kingdom, he devoted the whole of his time to affairs of state, allowing himself no leisure, and by the time he attained to supreme authority he was ultimately acquainted with all the details of civil administration, as no other Indian ruler, before or since, has been.