The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c5.23.2

c5.23.2

Another of his works, entitled *Adabul Harb was-Shujaat* and dedicat- to Iltutmish, has been preserved and supplies useful details about the government and military organisation of the newly established kingdom of Delhi. The famous collection of stories entitled *Jawamiul-Hikayat* by Nuruddin Muhammad Aufi, and dedicated to the *wazir* of Iltutmish, is useful only in its preface where Iltutmish’s military operations against Qubachah in 625/1227 are described and of which the author was an eye witness. For a connected contemporary account of the period, however, we are mainly dependant on the *Tabaqat-i-Nasiri* of Minhajuddin Abu Umar b. Sirajuddin al-Juzjani, completed in 658/1260. It is a general history of the world but its value consists in its first-hand account of the Shansabani conquests in India and the subsequent history of the new kingdom in which the author held high ecclesiastical and judicial offices. He was not only a contemporary, but also an actual participater in some of the events narrated in the work, which consequently suffers from personal prejudice. He is extremely biassed towards the Ghorides and the dynasty of Iltutmish and in many places conceals facts unfavourable to his patron Ulugh Khan and the Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud to whom the work is dedicated. Although generally correct with regard to facts, he is very sparing in supplying details and in some places makes contradictory statements.