Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/134

 90 The Kutb Minar. I had curtains and hangings suspended. The expense of repairing and renewing these tombs and colleges was provided from their ancient endowments. Jahan-panah : This foundation of the late Sultan Muhammad Shah, my kind patron, by whose bounty I was reared and educated, I restored. All the fortifications which had been built by former sovereigns at Delhi I repaired. " I was enabled, by God's help, to build a Daru-sh shifa, or hospital, for the benefit of every one of high or low degree who was suddenly attacked by illness or overcome by suffering." 1 Firuz Shah's reigu. The reion of Firuz Shah was not celebrated for great political events, but in the con- struction of public works he has left a large number of records of his government. Accord- ing to Ferishta he erected no less than 845 different works of more or less importance and size. Among these the most beneficial to the welfare of his subjects and the prosperity of the country were the canals by means of which he rendered barren parts of his dominions fruitful. It is said that the Sultan never transacted any business without referring to the Koran for an augury, and his beneficence in commercial projects crops up amusingly when he seeks for ecclesiastical sanction for his share of ten per cent, on the outlay. 2 The Sultan engraved a code of new regulations, drawn up by himself, on the walls of his Masjid in Firuzabad. He had ordered the construction of this mosque in the year a.d. 1354. in the enceinte of his palace, and the ruins still exist near the (stone) column (at the Kotilla). The dome of this mosque was octagonal, and on its eight sides he had caused to be engraved the abridgment of the account of his conquests, which he directed him self, also the ordinances which he made on the subject of succession ; regulations for the prevention of corporal punishment and for the prevention of illegal imposts; but no traces now remain of this cupola, nor are there any ruins of it to be discovered. It is certain that it existed up to the time of the Sultan, Jahangir, but it is not known when it was destroyed. 3 When Timur took Delhi, in a.d. 1398, a service was performed in this mosque for the prince — (Tuzuk 1 Futuhat-i-Firuz Shahi. Translation in Elliot's " Historians," iii. 3S2. 2 The assessment of ten per cent, on the total outlay or the cost price of the canals, as a rent charge for the use of the irrigation water by the agriculturists. Elliot's " Historians," vol. iii. p. 301. ' Asar-ud-sunadid.