as having been one of the wonders of the age. He was very liberal,
especially to those learned in the arts. He established hospitals
for the sick and alm-houses for widows and orphans. He was the most
eloquent and accomplished prince of his time. He was skilled in many
sciences, such as physic, logic, astronomy, and mathematics. He
studied the philosophies and metaphysics of Greece, and was very
strict in religious observances.

"But," continues Firishtah, from whom the above summary is taken,
"with all these admirable qualities he was wholly devoid of mercy
or consideration for his people. The punishments he inflicted were
not only rigid and cruel, but frequently unjust. So little did he
hesitate to spill the blood of God's creatures that when anything
occurred which excited him to proceed to that horrid extremity, one
might have supposed his object was to exterminate the human species
altogether. No single week passed without his having put to death
one or more of the learned and holy men who surrounded him, or some
of the secretaries who attended him."

The slightest opposition to his will drove him into almost insane
fury, and in these fits he allowed his natural ferocity full play. His
whole life was spent in visionary schemes pursued by means equally
irrational. He began by distributing enormous sums of money amongst
his nobles, spending, so it is said, in one day as much as [pound
sterling]500,000. He bought off the invading Moghuls by immense
payments instead of repelling them by force of arms. Shortly after
this he raised a huge army for the conquest of Persia, his cavalry,
according to Firishtah, numbering 370,000 men. But nothing came
of it except that the troops, not receiving their pay, dispersed
and pillaged the country. Then he decided to try and conquer China