A Concise History of Science in India c7.s5.2

c7.s5.2

As to promotion and patronage of learning, Sultan Mahmūd of the House of Ghazna did much to develop Muhammadan learning through the establishment of ‘a university supplied with a vast collection of curious books in various languages. It contained also a museum of natural curiosities’.a Qutb-ud-dīn, of the ‘Slave’ Dynasty, himself proficient in Arabic, Persian and sciences, established several mosques which, like Christian churches of Medieval Europe, acted as centres of religion and secular learning. Of the Tughluq kings, Ghiyāsuddīn built many public buildings for educational purposes, and provided for stipends to learned men; Muḥammad was skilled in logic, medicine, astronomy and mathematics and Greek philosophy; Fīrūz established at Fīrūzābād a Mādrasah after his name, which, in the beauty of its architecture and scholarly reputation, surpassed all other Indian Mādrasahs of the time.a Fīrūz also showed considerable interest in Sanskrit technical literature and caused a few of them to be translated into Persian. Hindu astronomers also received encouragement in his court. Sultan Sikandar Lodī's reign is important in the literary and scientific history of India in the fact that during his time the Hindus seriously took to the study of Persian in which, as Blochmann observes, they soon attained a great proficiency and even caught up with the Muhammadans in literary excellences.