Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c21.12

c21.12

word "hindisah (numerical figures)." [See Blochmann's *Ā'ini-Akbarī*, p. 103; cf. Gladwin's *Ā'ini-Akbarī*, p. 85, which mentions Akbar's practice of writing the date of the month on the page where the reader stopped.] The passage plainly attributes to Akbar a knowledge of the numerical figures and their daily transcription with his own hand and pen on the pages of the books. It is a common practice to make a boy learn and write the numerical figures along with or even subsequent to the letters of the alphabet, and I do not think that Akbar had been in his boyhood an exception to this rule. Be that as it may, the passage testifies to Akbar's ability to write, and read at least the numerical figures.