The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c21.56

c21.56

The *ulema* had thus become utterly servile and unprincipled. The abject flattery with which both Minhaj and Barani refer to their respective patrons and the eulogies showered on them have a disgusting obsequiousness. They even lacked the elementary moral virtues. Balban complained of their want of truthfulness and courage, while Amir Khusrau considered them a gang of 'ignorant hypocrites, conceited and detestably selfish'³. This amorality was infectious and even appears to have spread to the common people. Amir Hasan narrates an incident of some Muslim traders from Lahore unscrupulously defrauding the Hindus of Gujrat⁴. It is tempting to ascribe true Islam to the Sultans of the past, but its calculated distortion to serve material ends is not a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Of earnest, saintly men there was, of course, no dearth; the Muslim mystic provides the best example; but, clearly, his was not the power which determined the complexion of society and politics.