History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c14.16

c14.16

The full name of the work is *Masālik-al-abṣār-fi mamālik-al-amṣār* which means ways of sight regarding the countries and cities of the world. The author of the work was Shihāb-al-Din Ahmad bin Sahioe popularly known as Al-marāshi. He was born in the year 697 A.H. (1297 A.D.) and died at Damascus in 749 A.H. (1348 A.D.). He does not say much about himself except that his ancestors, like himself, were employed in the service of the Sultans of Egypt. His father Qazi Muḥi-al-Din was a royal amanuensis who dealt with confidential despatches at Damascus. He was dismissed from office and it was after some time that he became the head of the department of secret correspondence in Egypt. The author, being a man of considerable literary attainments, assisted his father in both offices. Shihāb-al-Din is said to have written seven works on different subjects of which the Masālik is known to us. So far as I am aware there is only one copy of the work and that too is incomplete in the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris which Quartrémere has translated in Tome XIII of his *Notices et extraits*. Sir Henry Elliot has translated (III, pp. 573—85) extracts from the French translation of Quartrémere into English. I have utilised a rotograph copy of the portion dealing with India which was obtained by me through the good offices of Professor Sylvain Levi from the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris. The colophon of the MS. contains the names of the work and the author who is surnamed Al-marāshi instead of Al-marākashi. There are two dates at the top—964 A.H. (1556 A.D.), and 1032 A.H. (1622 A.D.)—but it is not clear what they signify. The title page contains the name of the author in Arabic and its French equivalent is given as Shihāb-al-Dīn bin Ahmad bin Shāhīr vulgo dicte al-Marāshi.