Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c13.4

c13.4

While recounting the achievements of these rulers, we should also remember that private enterprise was also active in the cause of education. There were gentlemen in whom "power" and "goodness" were combined in equal proportions. Maḥmūd Gāwān, the nobleman of Bīdar, was liberal to prodigality, and the best of the colleges founded by him still stands in a mutilated state to testify to the beneficence of the donor. The generosity of some nobles in the reigns of 'Alāuddīn and Sikandar has already been mentioned. Indeed, the cause of education had its friends among the nobility and the gentry, whose patronage was a potent factor in its furtherance.