The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c26.49

v3.c26.49

Mahmūd was a good Muslim. He substituted the unpractical and inconvenient lunar calendar, sacred to Islam, for the solar calendar in all public offices, he destroyed temples and idols and slew or enslaved their worshippers, and he was so scrupulous about meats that when he was besieging the citadel of Bīdar he harassed the saint Khalīlullāh Butshikan, son of Shāh Ni‘matullāh of Māhān, with questions regarding a supply of lawful vegetables for his table. The saint expressed surprise that one who was engaged in attacking a brother Muslim and slaying his subjects should be so scrupulous in the matter of his food. Mahmūd acknowledged, with some embarrassment, the justice of the rebuke, but pleaded that the laws of the faith had never sufficed to curb the ambition of kings.