History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c4.23

v1.c4.23

In his letters and speeches, he frequently quotes verses to point his remarks. But these "familiar quotations" were a part of the mental equipment of every cultured Muhammadan, and do not prove any special taste for poetry. Indeed his historian remarks, "This emperor did not like to hear useless poetry, still less laudatory verses. But he made an exception in favour of poems containing good counsels."* The moral precepts of Sadi and Hafiz he had evidently learnt by rote in his youth, and he quoted them to his last day, but he does not seem to have studied these poets in later life. Once he asked for the works of a poet named Mulla Shah.† But we may rightly hold that, unlike his grandfather he was not fond of poetry, and unlike Shah Jahan he had no passion for history. "His favourite study was theological works,—Commentaries on the Quran, the Traditions of Muhammad, Canon Law, the works of Imam Muhammad Ghazzali, selections from the letters of Shaikh Sharf Yahia of Munir, and Shaikh Zainuddin Qutb Muhi Shirazi, and other works of that class."‡ We also learn that he highly prized the Nihaiyya of Mulla Abdullah Tabbakh.* Like many other pious Muslims, and even some ladies of the Mughal royal family, Aurangzib committed the Quran to memory.