Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c21.11

c21.11

The evidence quoted below, on the other hand, has every reason to be regarded as first-hand, coming as it does from one who was the Emperor's co-religionist and personal favourite, and had greater facility for observing his habits and movements in his informal hours. Abul Faẓl, in his *A'īn-i-Akbarī* (Bibl. Indica edition, Bk. I, *A'īn*, 34, p. 115, lines 11, 12), mentions that Akbar used to listen daily to the perusal of books by paid readers, their remuneration depending on the number of leaves read; and that on the last of the leaves perused, Akbar wrote daily with his own pen in numerals the number of leaves gone through, on the basis of which the remuneration was calculated and paid in cash to the readers there and then. The passage runs thus: "Wa har ruz ke badān jā rasad, ba shumārah-i-ān, *hindisah baqalam gauharbār naqsh kunand*. Wa ba'adad awrāq khwānandah rā naqd az surkh wa sufaid bakhshish shawad." ["Whatever place (of the book, the reader) daily reached, he (Akbar) wrote with his own jewelled pen numerical figures according to the number of leaves (read). He paid the readers cash in gold or silver according to the number of leaves (read)."] Blochmann's rendering of this passage is not explicit, owing to his omission to take note of the