He founded masjids throughout all his dominions, and ap­pointed a preacher, a reader, and a sweeper to each; to all of whom he gave regular stipends. Every winter he sent clothes and shawls for the benefit of the needy, and distributed a certain amount of money to them every Friday. Cooked and uncooked victuals were daily given to the poor at various places in the city by his command. During the blessed season of the month of Ramazán, and on the day of the Prophet's decease, he rejoiced the hearts of the necessitous and poor, and behaved towards them with royal liberality. He ordained that twice a year he should be furnished with detailed accounts of the meritorious poor of his Empire, whom he then supplied with means sufficient to support them for six months, each receiving according to his wants. During his reign, nobles, shaikhs, and men of learning from the lands of Arabia and Persia, of Hind and Bukhára, induced to do so by his favour and benevolence, took up their residence at Ágra, where the King himself generally dwelt. During the fortunate reign of this monarch the fields were in a high state of cultivation, and merchants, peasants, and all God's creatures were enabled without danger to perform the duties of their respective occupations in ease and contentment. He always inquired strictly into the particulars of the lineage and ancestors of any one who came to him for service, and gave him an ap­pointment corresponding to the dignity of his forefathers, bestow­ing a jágír without inspecting the applicant's horse and arms, and commanding him to equip himself from its revenues. The military profession was in his time a very honourable one. The public roads in his territory were so well secured that there was not a sign of highwaymen and robbers throughout all his dominions. He allotted lands to the infidels who submitted to the followers of Islám in their respective countries; and whoever rebelled or was contumacious, was considered guilty of treason, and was either slain or banished.

He was so zealous a Musulmán that he utterly destroyed divers places of worship of the infidels, and left not a vestige remaining of them. He entirely ruined the shrines of Mathurá, the mine of heathenism, and turned their principal Hindu places of worship into caravanserais and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights,* and all the Hindus in Mathurá were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards, and performing their ablutions. He thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there; and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it. Every city thus conformed as he desired to the customs of Islám. In each quarter prayers were performed in public, and high and low were everywhere seized with a desire of acquiring knowledge. In Sikandar's time many tradesmen were wealthy, and so much rivalry in consequence existed amongst them, that each tried to exceed the other in his expenditure. One of the King's commands was, that twice a year money should be distributed from the royal treasury to the deserving poor of the different cities, and certain God-fearing persons were sent to inquire into the state and administer to the necessities of the unfortunate. He ordained that each jágírdár should possess all the revenues of his tenure, with the exception of those proceeding from imlák and wazáif. Thus were the holders of aíma released by this single order of the Sultán, as no one now required to have his farmán renewed. There was no inter­ference in the concerns of any of the chiefs who went to the wazír's díwán and settled their accounts with him, having drawn them up in the manner most convenient to themselves. No one was allowed to press cattle from the villagers for the purpose of carriage.

It was the custom for every chief, when he heard of the coming of a royal order, to go out two or three kos to meet its bearer;* a terrace was then erected, on which the messenger placed himself, whilst the nobleman standing beneath received the farmán in the most respectful manner with both hands, and placed it on his head and eyes; if it was to be read privately he did so, and if it was to be made known to the people, it was read from the pulpit of the Mosque. The annual procession of the spear of Sálár Mas'úd he abolished in every province of his dominions, and peremptorily enjoined its discontinuance. Women also were forbidden to perform pilgrimages to tombs.* Grain, merchandize, and goods of all descriptions were so cheap during his reign, that but small means enabled their possessor to live comfortably. On the festivals, or 'Íds, and on the anniversary of the death of the Prophet (on whom be the peace and blessing of God!), he, by order, was furnished with a list of all the prisoners in his dominions, and he then released, by a written command, all those who were confined on account of balances of public revenue. If any one who had been oppressed demanded justice whilst he was out riding, he immediately demanded who the petitioner was. The agents of the various chiefs being always in attendance on him, would take the man by the hand, and use their best exertions to give him satisfaction. If he made any one a grant of a jágír he never removed him until a fault was proved against him. When a person had once been convicted of a crime, he never again gave him any­thing, but at the same time he did not cease to treat him with honour and kindness. If singers or performers greatly skilled in the science of music came to his Court, he never allowed them to display their talents in his presence. Mírán Saiyid Rúhu-lla and Saiyid Ibn-i Rasúl, two men who were great favourites, were commanded to station themselves in the neighbourhood of the Sultán's tent, and before them all the musicians used to come and perform. The Sultán was, however, in the habit of listening to the surná, and ten performers on it, called sháhnáís, played every night in the royal darbár, commencing at nine o'clock; they were ordered only to play these four tunes: 1 Málíkúr, 2 Kalíyán, 3 Kánra, 4 Husaini, and then cease for the evening; if they ever played other tunes, they were chastised.*

Every business had its appointed time, and an established custom was never changed; no one could possibly have found fault with any of his actions, with the exception of his shaving his beard. When he had once allowed an individual meat and drink, he never, till the close of his reign, made any alteration in the allowance. It is related that Shaikh 'Abdu-l Ghaní, a man of eminence, came from Jaunpúr to visit the Sultán during the hot weather, and that a portion of food was allotted to him, which, in consequence of the heat of the weather, was accom­panied by six jars of sharbat, and that even when he came in winter-time the same quantity of sharbat was sent to him. He always behaved to the nobles and great men of his time in the way he did on the first day of the interview, whether they revisited him after the lapse of years, or remained with him doing daily service. The Sultán's conversation was under discipline, and he was never desultory. Every chief had his appointed post in his presence, where he always stood. He possessed a retentive memory. He daily received an account of the prices of all things, and an account of what had happened in the different districts of his Empire. If he perceived the slightest appearance of anything wrong, he caused instant in­quiries to be made about it. He generally resided at Ágra; it is said by some that Ágra became a city in his time, before which it had been a mere village, but one of old standing. The Hindus, indeed, assert that Ágra was a strong place in the days of Rájá Kans, who ruled in Mathurá, and who confined every one who displeased him in the fort at that place, so that in course of time it had become the established State prison. In the year when the army of Sultán Mahmúd of Ghazní invaded Hindustán, he so ruined Ágra, that it became one of the most insignificant villages in the land; after this, it improved from the time of Sultán Sikandar, and at length, in Akbar's time, became the seat of government of the Empire of Dehlí, and one of the chief cities of Hindustán.