Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.108

c10.108

A remarkable feature of Delhi at this time was the abundance of its literary societies. Prince Muḥammad,² the eldest son of the Sulṭān, was a youth of very promising talents and evinced great taste for literature. He himself made a choice collection of poems extracted from the most celebrated authors. This work contained twenty thousand couplets which were esteemed the most select specimens then extant. This prince, with his marked literary tastes, took the lead in the formation of literary societies. Amīr Khusrau the famous poet was the tutor of this prince and used to preside in the prince’s literary society; the place chosen for the meeting of the members of this society was the prince’s palace.³