Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4.s2.t2.3.2

c4.s2.t2.3.2

It was perhaps due to such a reflection that poet warned his son, some time later, against following in the footsteps of his father who, as he told him, had spent the whole of his life in ‘spinning a yarn.’¹ Thus it should be remembered that Amir Khusrau often plays a double character in his writings. He is a historian without completely renouncing the office of a court poet and a courtier; and amazing as it may appear, he meets the demands of all three positions in his writngs. The Kaza'in-ul-Futuh, in particular, has a value of its own. Here the author gives a systematic account of the first fifteen years of Sultan ‘Ala-ud-din Khalji and it appears from its topographical and other details that the author was a personal witness of some at least of the scenes, even of those in the distant South. It is the only contemporary history of the period and the facts are narrated with admirable accuracy and wealth of detail.² On the whole, we can agree in our estimate of Amir Khusrau with Professor Cowell, that although his style is full of exaggeration and metaphorical description, the facts of history are given with tolerable fidelity.³ I may add here in passing that many historians of a later date have followed his version of contemporary events, without however, always acknowledging the source of their information.⁴ I am, however, concerned with Amir Khusrau in an even wider sense. I consider him pre-eminently as a historian of contemporary social life.