The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c15.43

c15.43

The government never tried to force its own culture on an unwilling people. The Muslim colleges and schools were open to all who cared to enter their portals; but no one was obliged to do so. Muslim rulers and men of letters respected the culture and the knowledge of the Hindus; al-Bīrūnī had interpreted these so well that they could not be despised; Muslim sovereigns employed scholars to translate Sanskrit books into Persian; it is significant that Muslim scholars were available to do it. Indeed one has only to read the glowing panegyrics on Hindu learning and science to be convinced of the respect in which they were held.⁸ The Hindu tradition tion in architecture mingled with the simplicity of Muslim design and enriched the very niches which the Faithful faced while praying to the Eternal God.¹ The plaintive and meditative melodies of Hind evoked a response in the bold hearts of stalwart Turkish warriors.² The great Khusraw was not too proud to sing his compositions to the cadences of Hindu music; when he lost his spiritual guide, the saint Niẓām-u’d-dīn, who was also his greatest friend, the sorrow of his heart found melancholy expression in Hindi verse.³ It was the patronage of Muslim provincial courts which laid the foundation of vernacular literatures.