The collection of letters of Mahmud Gawan, the great minister of the Bahmani kingdom, is known as:

The collection of letters of Mahmud Gawan, the famous minister of the Bahmani kingdom, is known as "Riyaz-ul-Insha" ("Gardens of Letter-Writing").

About the Riyaz-ul-Insha:

• It contains letters written by Mahmud Gawan to rulers, nobles, scholars and friends in India, Persia, Central Asia and the Ottoman empire.
• The letters show his wide contacts, his learning, and his fine Persian prose style.
• They give information about the politics, administration and diplomacy of the Bahmani kingdom.
• Mahmud Gawan also wrote "Manazir-ul-Insha", a work on the art of letter-writing.
• "Insha" means the art of composing letters and documents; it was an important literary skill in Persian culture.

About Mahmud Gawan:

• He was born in Persia (Gilan) in 1411, and came to the Deccan as a merchant.
• He joined the service of the Bahmani sultans and became the chief minister (wazir) under Muhammad Shah III.

His reforms:

• He divided the large provinces (tarafs) into smaller ones, to reduce the power of the governors.
• He brought some land under direct royal control (khalisa).
• He reformed the revenue system by measuring land and fixing revenue.
• He improved the army and paid the soldiers regularly.

His military successes:

He conquered Goa, Belgaum and other areas from Vijayanagara and others.

His madrasa:

He built a famous madrasa (college) at Bidar, a three-storeyed building with a large library.

His death:

• He was a "foreigner" (afaqi), and the conflict between the foreign nobles and the Deccani nobles led to a conspiracy against him.
• He was executed in 1481 on false charges of treason, by the order of the sultan, who later regretted it.
• After his death, the Bahmani kingdom declined rapidly.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Manazir-ul-Insha is his work on letter-writing.
• ✗Insha-i-Abul Fazl contains Abul Fazl's letters.
• ✗Tuhfat-ul-Mujahidin is a history of Malabar.