History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.s1.1

c12.s1.1

Like other oriental monarchs Muhammad maintained a splendid court which was an inevitable necessity in the middle ages. The author of the Masālik observes with pardonable exaggeration that no country in the world could be compared with India in respect of the pomp and splendour displayed by the sovereign in his progress and habitations and the power of his empire. At the court of Muhammad Tughluq there were twelve hundred philosophers, ten thousand falconers who rode on their horses and carried birds trained for hawking, three thousand beaters,¹²³ five hundred table companions, twelve hundred musicians who did not include the slaves and maids well up in music, one thousand slaves charged with the duty of teaching music, and one thousand poets proficient in the Arabic, Persian and Indian languages.¹²⁴ These figures of the Masālik are in most cases uncorroborated, but although they are exaggerated they indicate the Sultan's magnificence. All these men were excellent in their branches and received handsome salaries and presents from the Sultan. Some of them received grants of land, yielding an income of twenty thousand to forty thousand tankahs, in addition to the rewards and gifts which the Sultan conferred upon those who attended his court. The companions of the table and musicians did not all come together at once, but according to their turn on the roll, and so did the Dabirs, lawyers and other minor officials of the state. The poets were presented before the Sultan several times in the year at stated intervals such as the two fêtes and the first day of Ramzan. Sometimes they waited upon him to present him with odes to felicitate him on the acquisition of victory in battle.¹²⁵ Ibn Batūtah also speaks of the grandeur of the Sultan and in the odes of Badr-i-Chāch we obtain a glimpse of the might and majesty of his court.