Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.229

c10.229

learned men who were attracted to Delhi by the Emperor's liberality and literary taste. It was this fact that made Abūl 'Abbās Aḥmad burst forth into a high-flown statement which cannot perhaps be taken without a pinch of salt. He says that at the Royal Court at Delhi there were a thousand poets skilled in one of the three languages, Arabic, Persian or Indian, and twelve hundred physicians; and that at his private meals the Sulṭān received learned lawyers to the number of two hundred, who sat with him at the table and conversed on learned subjects. He also refers to an arrangement under which men of letters, whether native or foreign, were under the inspection of the Ṣadri-Jahān and some secretaries.¹ Be that as it may, the Sulṭān should be given his due share of praise for his encouragement of literary men in the first few years of his administration with a profusion reputed to have been without a parallel. Of the learned men who visited his Court at the time may be mentioned Naṣīruddīn, 'Abdul 'Azīz, Shamsuddīn, 'Aẓududdīn, Majduddīn and Burhānuddīn.²