part of the duties fell to the share of Fakír Azizuddin. He was one of the ablest and certainly the most honest of all Ranjít Singh's courtiers.
Azizuddin was of so engaging a disposition, and so perfect a courtier in his manners, that he made few declared enemies, though many were doubtless jealous of his influence. One reason of his popularity, as a Muhammadan minister at a Hindu Court, was the liberality of his belief. He was a Sufi, a sect held, indeed, as infidel by orthodox Muhammadans, but to which the best thinkers and poets of the East have belonged. He had no love for the barren dogmata of the Kurán, but looked on all religions as equally to be respected and disregarded. On one occasion Ranjít Singh asked him whether he preferred the Hindu or the Muhammadan religion. 'I am,' he replied, 'a man floating in the midst of a mighty river. I turn my eyes towards the land, but can distinguish no difference in either bank.' He was celebrated as the most eloquent man of his day, and he was as able with his pen as with his tongue. The state papers drawn up by him are models of elegance and good taste, according to the Oriental standard. He was himself a ripe scholar in all branches of Eastern science, and was also a generous and discriminating patron of learning. At Lahore he founded at his own expense a College for the study of Persian and Arabic, and to this institution many of the Arabic scholars of the Punjab of the past generation owed their training.
