Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s3.27

c16.s3.27

Besides works of translation many original works of merit were produced during this period. Muhammad bin Shaikh Zainuddīn compiled a lexicon entitled *Farhang-i-Sikandarī* alias *Tuhfa-us-Sa'dāt*. A very uncommon work of its kind, it was completed in A.D. 1510 and dedicated to Sultan Sikandar.⁹⁰ Another famous writer of the time was Zahīr Dehlvī. Sultan Sikandar conferred the title of Zahīr on him. Other writers of note were Maulānā Hasan Naqshī, Maulānā 'Alī Ahmad Nishānī and Nūrul Haqq.⁹¹ But the greatest intellectual of the age was perhaps Shikh Jamāl Kambū. He was a theologian, poet and writer and a great traveller. Badaonī says that his Dīwāns alone consisted of eight to nine thousand couplets. Shaikh Jamāl's real name was Shaikh Fazlulla *alias* Jamāl Khan.⁹² He was the author of a number of works of which *Siyār-ul-'Ārifīn*, *Masnavī Mehr O Māh* and the *Dīwān* are well known.⁹³ The *Siyār-ul-'Ārifīn* is a biography of saints commencing from Khwājā Mu'īnuddīn Ajmerī and finishing with the author's own spiritual guide, Shaikh Shamsuddīn. Jamāl's poetry vibrates with exalted passion.⁹⁴ Sikandar Lodī, himself a good poet, used to submit his verses to Shaikh Jamāl for his opinion.⁹⁵ Eleven lines of his composition in praise of the saint are still preserved in the *Makhzan-i-Afghānī*.⁹⁶