Focus
Inspite of
being unlettered, Nawab Hyder Ali made special bandobast for his son
and heir, Sultan Tipu’s education and made special arrangements to
provide him with both religious and contemporary knowledge to make
him a multi–skilled person. A military wizard, Ghazi Khan gave him
the military training. As a result he could easily speak on any
subject unhesitantly during his early youth itself. He was reckoned
amongst eminent scholars and intellectuals. He was also interested
in palmistry, science, medicine, engineering and music. He held
great expertise in calligraphy as well. In addition to this, he had
written more than 45 books himself or got it written under his
supervision. He used to get some good religious books read out at
lunch or dinner time instead of resorting to gossiping. A number of
Muslim scholars used to be present in his court all the time. He
preferred to use Persian in written letters and common talks.
However, he knew Kannada, Marathi, Telugu and Arabic too. He was at
home in Urdu. He had learnt French also. He also knew English to an
extent. In this way, he could converse in the prominent European
languages. He had great penchant for books on religion and Sufism.
He also used to read books on logic, philosophy, history, Quranic
exegesis, Hadith and Fiqh. Sources suggest that he used to read some
books at night until he fell asleep. He had his personal library in
the palace, which contained an exquisite collection of rare books on
different subjects. The books were looked after by a librarian. A
proper department had been established in the Capital for binding
books. After binding, the names of Allah, Muhammad, members of the
Holy Prophet’s family, and the rightly guided caliphs were printed
on the title page. On the top and bottom were inscribed the words,
Sultanat-e-Khudadad and
respectively. Tipu used to put his signature and stamp on every book
he read. Most of the books in his library bore his signature and
stamp. He used to put his signatures in an artistic and intricate
style. First, he used Tipu Sultan as his name ‘Nabi Malik’.
According to Kirk Patrick, the British supervisor of the library
appointed by the Company, his wittings were superior to others and
exceptionally lucid and compact. The British historian Mill said
that despite being an eastern ruler, he was a treasure trove of
knowledge. Amazingly, he was the first eastern ruler, rather the
first person to think about sending his son abroad to a European
country (France) in 1792 for higher education. In this connection,
he even established contact with the French government through his
ambassador there. In reply, they asked him to get the prince learn
the French language and make arrangements for bearing an annual
expenditure of 50,000 rupees. The Sultan agreed to it. However, he
could not pay further attention to it because the third battle of
Mysore against the British had already commenced. In 1785, he
received a book in French from Europe about the science of medicine.
He gave instructions for its translation. Evidences of his academic
and educational interest could be gauged from this incident. In 1785
, he established a university in Srirangapatnam by the name of
Jamia-i-Umoor where both religious and modern education were
imparted simultaneously. Apart from it, the Qazis of the Sultanate
and the Imams of mosques were given instructions to establish a
madarsa in each mosque also, where education should be imparted to
children and the details of the children and their books be made
available to the Sultan. If a child bunks school, then the Taluqdar
of the concerned area is supposed to make the child present in the
madarsa.
From “Tipu Sultan (A Life History)” by Md. Ilyas Nadwi, pp. 293-94