The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c13.23

c13.23

The number of refugees grew very large under Balban and included a crowd of writers, poets, litterateurs, artists and men of skill.⁷ The sultan took his meals in the company of the learned; in spite of his great regard for his dignity as a monarch, he visited men of learning in their own houses.⁸ Baranī gives a long list of professors who lectured in various colleges and whose names were illustrious in those days; no branch of knowledge known to the medieval world was unrepresented in the city of Dehli which, long before, had rightly earned the title of Qubbat-u'l-Islām.⁹ Philosophers, physicians and astronomers jostled jurists, mathematicians and theologians in the assemblies of the capital. Musicians of note and well-known comedians brightened the pleasure parties of princes and nobles.¹⁰ The beloved martyr prince Muḥammad's court was long remembered in the annals of the sultanate; in his lifetime it was as famous in Fārs and Khurāsān as in Bengal