Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c3.14

c3.14

and getting their *vivâ voce* answers. But whatever Ferishta meant to say, it is clear that he is merely abstracting Barnī, who is his chief authority for the reign of ’Alāu-d-dīn. Barnī’s accounts will be found in the Bib. Ind. edition of his work, p. 289 *et seq.*, and also, though with many lacunæ, in Elliot’s *History of India*, iii. 183, etc. Barnī says nothing about ’Alāu-d-dīn’s proficiency, any more than does Ferishta, in the Persian, speak of his private studies. According to Barnī, ’Alāu-d-dīn had no acquaintance with learning, and never associated with the learned. He also represents ’Alāu-d-dīn as saying, “Although I have not studied the Science or the Book, I am a Musalmān of a Musalmān stock” (Elliot, iii. 189). The original of this passage will be found at p. 295, six lines from foot of the Bib. Ind. ed., and is more explicit than in Elliot. What ’Alāu-d-dīn says there is, “Though I have not any knowledge, and have not read anything—*agarchi ’ilmi u kitābi nakhwānda ām*—yet I am Muhammadan-born, and my family has been Muhammadan for generations.”