The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.44.2

c7.44.2

but he discusses the main facts of the reigns of various sultans of Dehli in greater detail. He brings his history down to 658 A.H. (1261 A.C.) when Nāṣir-u’d-dīn Maḥmūd was the reigning monarch. Minhāj was, for some time, the chief *qāḍī* of the realm, but unfortunately he was not interested in administration. His sketches of the leading nobles are, however, useful, for he indicates the various stages in their careers; many of them had started as ordinary household slaves, so it is possible to visualize the various offices and posts they held as they progressed. The story is then taken up by Ḍiyā-u’d-dīn Baranī, whose *Tārīkh-i-Firūz Shāhī* carries it to the first six years of Fīrūz Shāh’s reign. Baranī was a retired official and understood the administration; he has recorded the main developments which took place in his time. His chronology is unreliable; his likes and dislikes are too strong; his arrangement is faulty; but he was faithful in recording administrative reforms. The first part of his history is based on the result of his diligent enquiries from eye-witnesses; during the later period he was an eye-witness himself. Shams-i-Sirāj ‘Afīf, another official, wrote a history of Fīrūz Shāh’s reign and called his book by the same title, *Tārīkh-i-Fīrūz Shāhī*. He is fond of jingling, rhyming prose and many of his observations are platitudes. Yet his chronicle is extensive and, being confined to one reign, gives many administrative details.