Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/162

 130 MOHAMMAD TAGHLAK AND FIROZ SHAH economist; among the Karaunas it was Mohammad Taghlak, the man of ideas. The history of the East, as we have said, centres in its kings, and the history of Eastern dynasties is apt to consist of the rise of one great man and the decay of his successors. Mohammad Taghlak was the most striking figure in mediaeval India. He was a man with ideas far beyond his age. Ala-ad- din had brought a vigorous but uncultivated mind to bear upon the problems of government; Mohammad Taghlak was even more daring in his plans, but they were the ideals of a man of trained intellect and tutored imagination. He was perfect in the humanities of his day, a keen student of Persian poetry, a master of style, supremely eloquent in an age of rhetoric, a philosopher trained in logic and Greek metaphysics with whom scholars feared to argue, a mathematician, and a lover of science. Contemporary writers extol his skill in com- position and his exquisite calligraphy, and his beautiful coinage bears witness to his critical taste in the art of engrossing Arabic, a language which he read and under- stood, though he could not speak it fluently. In short, he was complete in all that high culture could give in that age and country, and he added to the finish of his training a natural genius for original con- ception, a marvellous memory, and an indomitable will. His idea of a central capital, and his plan of a nominal token currency, like most of his schemes, were good; but he made no allowance for the native dislike of in- novations, he hurried his novel measures, impatient of their slow adoption by the people, and when his subjects