The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c13.49

c13.49

Ghiyāth-u'd-dīn Tughluq took a personal interest in the scholars of his reign and was generous in helping them.³ Nothing could, however, equal the extravagance of his son, Muḥammad, the stories of whose generosity sound almost fabulous; but they are based on authorities whose evidence cannot be questioned. Baranī records a list of some of his gifts, a justification for his remark that the sultan gave so much that the recipient was left wonderstruck. The fame of this generosity reached the four corners of the Muslim world and drew the talent of distant countries to Dehlī.⁴ The sultan was himself a great scholar; he possessed an extensive knowledge of the Persian classics, Islamic history, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. He was a learned physician who practised the experimental method.⁵ His regular companions were philosophers and scholars with whom he held constant discussions; there were few who could withstand his penetrating cross-examination.⁶ In addition to the sciences, the sultan had a great passion for poetry. He himself was a poet; he possessed undoubted powers of criticism and appreciation.⁷ The most famous poet of his reign was Badr-i-Chāch whose odes are read even to-day. He is said to have composed a *Shāh-nāmah*, which has now perished, containing thirty thousand couplets recounting the exploits of his patron.¹ The *Riyāḍ-u’ṭ-ṭāhirīn* records a characteristic anecdote. When the poet ‘Ubaid Zākānī came to Dehlī and read the first couplet of his panegyric, the sultan cried, "No more! the treasury may not possess the money to reward thee for all thy couplets." He then ordered purses full of gold to be piled round the poet right up to the poet’s head and all this money was given to him in reward.² Ibn Baṭṭūṭah records similar instances of the sultan’s extravagant patronage of letters.³ Music was well represented at the court where singers and dancers graced the banquets.⁴ The difficulties towards the end of his reign, however, temporarily dimmed the glory of Dehlī.⁵