Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c3.34

c3.34

Burton gave the title of *Vikram and the Vampyre*. We have again an early instance of an educated lady in Māh Malik, also called Jalālu-d-duniyāu-uddīn, the granddaughter of ’Alāu-d-dīn Jahānsoz. Minhāj, who was in a manner brought up by her, speaks of her with great admiration in his *Ṭabaqāt-i-Nāṣirī*, and says (vol. i. p. 392 of Raverty) that her handwriting was like royal pearls. Then there was Sulṭān Rezia, in whom Ferishta finds that there was nothing wanting except that she was not a man. Minhāj makes the same remark, and adds that as her evil fate did not make her a man, all her talents were useless to her. Indeed, it seems that she, and Durgāvatī of the Gond country, and Chānd Bībī, and many others, were all born too soon.