Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c3.13

c3.13

In his chapter on Akbar, Mr. Law disbelieves the story of his illiteracy, in spite of his son’s statements, as well as those of the Catholic missionaries, and he relies on the spurious Memoirs which were translated by Major Price. That these Memoirs are spurious is the view of so great an authority as Dr. Rieu, and is also proved by the fact that they contain statements which it is impossible that Jahāngīr can have written. Mr. Law also thinks that though ’Alāu-d-dīn was originally unlettered, he afterwards took to study, learnt to read royal addresses and became acquainted with the best Persian authors. For this he relies upon a passage in Briggs’ translation of Ferishta. The sentence in the original Persian is a little obscure, and I am not quite certain of the meaning, but judging from the Newal Kishore text, p. 110 (describing ’Alāu-d-dīn’s reign), it seems to me that the passage in Briggs is partly a flourish of the General’s and partly a mistranslation. What, I think, Ferishta says is that ’Alāu-d-dīn used to have papers and books read to him, but he found that his munshīs falsified the purports, and so gave up the practice. Afterwards he substituted for these readings the putting of questions to learned men,