If a Khurasani, Greek or Arab comes here, he will not face any problems, for the people will treat him kindly, as their own, making him feel happy an… - Amir Khosrow

«« Allusions to water animals.” ‘The crocodiles of the water in their armies were waiting in ambush for the armour-backed fish. When they came upon them, with blows of their sharp arrows they caught them in fish trap. With the blows from the enemies’ maces and clubs on their tortoise-like armoured horses, they drew in their heads; the heads of the Hindus rolled like crocodiles’ eggs on the fish-backed earth. In an instant all those mermen had been drowned in blood and had fallen in the manner of fish already ritually pure. Those half killed by the spears or the arrows cried out like frogs when bitten by snakes.”

They have four books in that language (Sanskrit), which they are constantly in the habit of repeating. Their name is Bed (Vedas). They contain stories of their gods, but little advantage can be derived from their perusal.

The intellectual decline of the Muslims was hastened by the peculiar position of the faithful in India: They had made India their permanent home; many of them were Indians by race; and all had become so in their personal appearance, thoughts, manners and customs. And yet their religious teachers urged them to look back to ancient Arabia and draw their mental sustenance from the far-off age of the Prophet. The language of their religion must be Arabic, which not one in a hundred fully understood ; their cultural language was Persian, which a few more learnt with difficulty and used with an impurity that excited the laughter and acorn of the Persian born. The greatest Indo-Persian poet was Amir Khusrau, but even he was ranked with third-class poets among the natives of Persia. Faizi, our second best, was held to be still inferior. Witness the scorn poured by Babur and Shaikh Ali Hazin alike on the Persian style of the Indian Muslims.