History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c13.2

c13.2

The Sultan was a man of handsome appearance and well-built physique. He was a dexterous polo-player, an excellent shot and thoroughly skilled in horsemanship.¹ He was a keen sportsman, and though not so fond of hunting expeditions as Firuz, he took a great interest in all kinds of manly exercises. Ibn Batūṭah and the author of the Masālik give eloquent descriptions of his marches when he went out for hunting. He was as famous for his gallantry in the field as for those accomplishments which render a man the ornament of private society. His generosity knew no bounds. All writers including Barani are lost in astonishment at his amazing hospitality and liberal gifts. To the foreigners he was especially generous, and Barani writes that every year hundreds of amirs of Tuman (ten thousand) and Hazārah (one thousand) and ladies of rank came to Dihli and were loaded with gifts. The same chronicler observes that the recipients were astonished at the Sultan's gifts and adds in a vein of exaggeration that what Hātim and others gave in a year he gave away at one time.² Learned and pious men came from Khorasan, Iraq, Transoxiana, Khwarizm, Seistan, Hareva, Egypt and Damascus and received rich rewards. According to Barani, the Sultan on his return from Saragdwāri in 741 A.H. (1340 A.D.) found time to do nothing else except entertaining the foreign visitors who were feasted on a lavish scale at the royal expense.³ It would be wearisome to enumerate all the instances of lavish generosity that have been recorded by contemporary writers. Barani mentions the Sultan's generosity as if it were a fault or a vice, because his class was opposed to him. The royal marches from and to the capital were accompanied by showers of gold and silver coins among the populace, and yet we come across no evidence of financial bankruptcy. On the contrary, we gather from the Fatūḥāt, the Sīrat and 'Afif's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi that soon after his accession to the throne Firuz abolished a number of taxes confining himself rigorously to those prescribed in the Law.