Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.25

c10.25

’Unṣurī was appointed by the Sulṭān to superintend literature, and no work could be brought before Maḥmūd without his approval. Four hundred poets and learned men as also the students of the University of Ghaznī acknowledged him as their master who was invested with the recently created dignity of a poet-laureate, able by his verdict to open the way to royal favour for rising talents.² Aṣjudī, who was a powerful poet and a pupil of ’Unṣurī, composed a Qaṣīdah lauding the virtues of his patron on the occasion of the sacking of Somnāth, as also Farrukhī, another pupil of ’Unṣurī who amassed great wealth through the generosity of the monarch, of which he was deprived by robbers on his way to Samarqand, were also of the number of learned men patronized by him. Nor must I omit to mention in this connection the name of the famous poet who has been the subject of an anecdote that has been iterated, times out