History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c86.s2.24

v5.c86.s2.24

The intellectual decline of the Muslims was hastened by the peculiar position of the faithful in India. They had made India their permanent home; many of them were Indians by race; and all had become so in their personal appearance, thoughts, manners and customs. And yet their religious teachers urged them to look back to ancient Arabia and draw their mental sustenance from the far-off age of the Prophet. The language of their religion must be Arabic, which not one in a hundred fully understood; their cultural language was Persian, which a few more learnt with difficulty and used with an impurity that excited the laughter and scorn of the Persian born. The greatest Indo-Persian poet was Amir Khusrau, but even he was ranked with third-class poets among the natives of Persia. Faizi, our second best, was held to be still inferior. Witness the scorn poured by Babur and Shaikh Ali Hazin alike on the Indian use of Persian.