Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.78

c10.78

THE House of Ghūr was succeeded by the Slave Dynasty. Its founder Quṭbuddīn received his early education in a school at Nishāpūr where he became proficient in Persian and Arabic, and acquired also some knowledge of science.¹ When he came to power in India, he was already known for his literary tastes and scholarship. Muhammadan learning was promoted by the establishment of hundreds of mosques which like the churches of Mediæval Europe were centres of both religion and learning. But Quṭb set the unhappy example of destroying Hindu temples and raising mosques on their foundations, which was so ruthlessly followed by his Lieutenant Bakhtiyār Khiljī.²