A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.46

c6.46

The Muslims gave themselves much to genuine historical writing than the Hindus, and a number of historical works were composed in Persian under the patronage of Muslim monarchs in the Deccan. Many, however, have either perished or are still to see the light of day; Ferishta mentions several works which he used in the composition of his great history but they are no longer accessible. The most important among those that survive and bear on the period covered by this book may be briefly noticed here. The *Futuh-us-salatin* by Isāmy is the only extant contemporary work on the history of the Bāhmani kingdom. The author was the grandson of an old Sipah Salar Isāmy who was compelled by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak to leave Delhi for Daulatabad in A.D. 1327; the grandfather died on the way, but young Isāmy made his home there. He attached himself to the first Bāhmani sultan, began to write his work in 1358 and completed it the next year. Modelled on the *Shāh Nāmā* of Firdausi, the work is written in limpid verse and narrates the history of the sultanate of Delhi to the time of Muhammad bin Tughlak. It then gives a vivid picture of the years of political turmoil in the Deccan which preceded the foundation of the Bāhmani kingdom besides much valuable and accurate information on the Muslim conquest of the Deccan and South India and on the reign and character of the first Bāhmani sultan. Other works on the Bāhmani kingdom were late compositions written long after the extinction of the sultanate and from the particular standpoint of one or other of the succession states. Notable among them is the *Burhan-i-maasir* of Ali bin Aziz-ullah Taba Tabai of Simmin (Persia)—a contemporary of the more famous Ferishta, and like him at first a courtier of the Nizam Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar. Little is known of the life and activities of Taba Tabai; he began his history in 1591 and completed it in the next five years. It is a history of the Nizam Shahis to which is prefixed an account of the Bāhmani sultans as an introduction. His bias in favour of his patrons is evident throughout his narrative; but in some respects his statements seem to be more authentic than those of Ferishta and better in accord with the evidence from coins. But beyond a shadow of doubt Ferishta is the prince of Muslim historians of the period. The wide range and sweep of his work which forms a general history of Muslim rule in India, the number of authorities he consulted, and the general sense of perspective that dominates the entire narration impart a monumental character to his history. Covering wide ground, and often at second hand, he is sometimes inaccurate in detail: writing in the court of the Adil Shahis of Bijapur at the instance of Ibrahim II, he narrates Deccan affairs in a way that puts his patrons in the most favourable light. There is no doubt that this history, finished in 1606, is the most comprehensive and readable account of Indian Islam. A Persian by birth, Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah Ferishta came to Ahmadnagar with his father at the age of twelve in 1582. The father became tutor to a Nizam Shahi prince, but died soon after. Young Ferishta took to a military career, but a palace revolution deprived him of his position as captain of the king's guard. Being a Shiah and having few friends at Ahmadnagar, he migrated to Bijapur where he obtained an appointment in the army. We do not know how and when he changed the sword for the pen and found his true vocation.