The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c5.23.3

c5.23.3

Nevertheless its value as our main original source can hardly be over estimated. Although the author is known to have lived till the accession of Balban, it is unfortunate that he did not continue his history down to the death of Mahmud. The history of the period from 658/1260 to 664/1265 is thus left a perfect blank which has not been filled up by any subsequent writer. Ferishta mentions a work by Ainuddin Bijapuri, entitled *Mulhiqat-i-Tabaqat-i-Nasiri*, from which he draws some of his informations not found in any other known history. But neither the *Mulhiqat* nor its author is known at the present day. Ferishta quotes from another author, named Sadar Jahan Gujrati, the name of whose work is equally unknown. For the rest of the period, consequently, we are exclusively dependent on Ziauddin Barani, the author of *Tarikh-i-Firozshahi*, completed in 1359 and dedicated to Firoz Tughluq. Although he claims to have resumed the history from where Minhaj-i-Siraj left off, his account opens with the first year of Balban's reign. The work is anecdotal in character and is very deficient in dates and details. He is guilty of distortion of facts and of colouring the account with his own personal opinions. He is fond of long discourses which he puts in the mouth of the historical personages and thus strains after effect.