History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c14.s1.6

c14.s1.6

The *Zafar-al-Walih bi Muzaffar wa Aliah* of ‘Abdullah Muhammad bin Siraj-al-Din ‘Omar Al-Makki surnamed Hajjī-ad-Dabīr is another important work which deserves to be noted. A portion of this valuable work has been published in two volumes by Sir Denison Ross with a critical introduction under the title of “An Arabic History of Gujarat.” The unpublished portion, of which the proof sheets were generously lent to me by Sir Denison Ross, gives a fairly detailed history of the first two Tughluqs. The Hajjī began writing his book in 1015 A.H. (1605 A.D.) and as Sir Denison Ross points out, was still engaged upon the work when the *Mīrat-i-Sikandarī* was published about 1611 A.D. For the first two Tughluqs the Hajjī has copiously consulted Barani’s *Tarīkh-i-Firuz Shahi*. But he supplements and sometimes corrects Barani from other sources such as the *Tabqāt-i-Bahādur Shahi* of Husām Khan written in the tenth century A.H. which so far as I know is no longer available. In the body of his work he makes mention of several other works which he has utilised in preparing his history. Husām Khan often differs from Barani, but as we are not aware of the sources which he consulted, we cannot always prefer his version to that of Barani unless it is supported by other independent evidence. The Hajjī often makes parallel quotations from Barani and Husām Khan without expressing his own opinion. He is well-informed about the history of Gujarat and the Deccan and in describing the origin of Hasan Kāngū he is in agreement with the *Burhān-i-Māsir* though he never mentions the name of this work. He is a careful and honest compiler and in an age when copying was much in vogue and authors used to palm off other peoples' writings as their own, he has the frankness to state the names of the writers whose version he reproduces.