The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c13.71

c13.71

A renaissance. Sultān Buhlūl’s energies were mainly directed towards the consolidation of his dominions, but he did not disdain the company of scholars.⁶ His son’s reign, however, saw a renaissance of learning in Dehlī.⁷ Sikandar’s example was followed by the nobles, and public taste was refined to such an extent that young men of birth thought of nothing except the pursuit of knowledge; a spiritual revival followed.⁸ The Hindus, who had generally held aloof from the new learning, now began to take an interest in it and very soon became apt pupils of the Muslims.⁹ A Hindu poet, whose takhalluṣ was Brahman, was a professor in a Muslim college.¹⁰ The sultan’s zeal for knowledge expressed itself in the translation of Sanskrit books into Persian; the granths of Vedic medicine were translated under the supervision of the learned minister, Miyān Buhwah, and named Ṭibb-i-Sikandarī.¹¹ The court poet was Jamālī Dehlawī, who lived to write odes in praise of Bābur and Humāyūn; his biography of saints, called the Siyar-u'l-auliyā, is well known and his tomb, near the Quṭb at Dehlī, still draws visitors.¹ Sulṭān Sikandar was a great patron of music and took pains in collecting musicians at his court.² Nor were handicrafts ignored; one master craftsman was Miyān Ṭahā whose skill discomfited his admirers.³ Miyān Buhwah, himself a scholar, spent all the time he could spare from the business of state in the company of the learned. His house was the meeting-place of philosophers and scholars belonging to the various Muslim countries from which his generosity had drawn them.⁴ Ibrāhīm Lodī's reign was too troubled to foster culture.⁵