The Nāṣirī Generations 182.1

182.1

Thus saith the feeble servant of the Almighty, Abu ’Umr-i-’Usman, Minhaj-i-Saraj, Jurjani—the Almighty God preserve him from indiscretion!—that this Tabakat is devoted to the mention of those Sultans, who were the Slaves of the Court, and servants of the Sultan-i-Ghazi, Mu’izz-ud-Din, Muhammad, son of Sam—on whom be peace!—and who, in the empire of Hindustan, sat upon the throne of sovereignty; to whom the throne of the kingdom of that contrary, a very sober one, as I shall show in as brief a manner as possible, with regard to those passages only which have led some conscientious writers to turn Turkish slaves, Khalj Turks, the descendants of Jats, low caste Hindus, and Sayyids, into Afghans or Patans. Passing over the numerous errors in the Preface of Dow’s translation to save space, I begin with his Introduction, which is taken from Firishtah’s, but a vast deal of the original is left out, for obvious reasons, and what has been retained is full of ridiculous mistakes. In the account of a Hindu king styled Kid Raj [page 8], he has: “The mountaineers of Cabul and Candahar, who are called Afgans [sic] or Patans, advanced against Keda-raja.” The words in italics are NOT in Firishtah.