The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c5.22.2

c5.22.2

His work is thus the first detailed and authentic account of the Mongol conquests in Western Asia. He is pro-Mongol in his attitude—for he wrote to commemorate the reign of Mangu Khan—but the account is singularly free from inaccuracies. Like all other central Asian writers, however, his notices of India are meagre and are made only in connection with either the Shansabanis or the fugitive Khwarizmi Prince, Jalaluddin. The same may be said of a few other histories written outside India during the century. Of these, the *Sirat-i-Jalaluddin Mangbarni*, by Nuruddin Mohammad Zaidari, Nessawi, a friend and companion of the fugitive prince, completed in 1240 A.D., is important as supplying valuable detail of the prince's activity in India. The work is extremely biassed in favour of its hero, and presents a distorted picture of the conditions in which Jalaluddin appears all the more brilliant. The *Nizamut-Twarikh* of Abu Said Abdullah b. Abul Hassan al-Baizawi, the celebrated commentator of the Quran, completed in 674/1294, hardly deserves mention not only for its extremely brief account of the Ghorides and the Sultans of Delhi, but also for its grossly inaccurate statements which were evidently based on rumours and tales. Of the histories written early in the 14th century, mention should be made of the *Tarikh-i-Wassaf*, by Abdullah b. Fazlullah Shirazi, written between 1300 and 1328 A.D.