Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.27

c10.27

of number, by historians to exemplify Maḥmūd’s literary ardour. I mean the author of the *Shāh-Nāmah*,—the immortal Firdausī, who was attracted to Maḥmūd’s court by the fame of his liberality and charged by the Sulṭān with the difficult task of completing the historical poem left unfinished by Daqīqī whose life was cut short by a servant. The death of Firdausī, as well as his appointment by Maḥmūd, took place in an equally curious way, which may well repay a detailed narration ¹—