The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c7.44.3

c7.44.3

Fīrūz Shāh’s own composition, the *Futūḥāt-i-Fīrūz Shāhī*, originally inscribed on a tower of the sultan’s chief mosque, but later preserved in manuscript, records the administrative achievements of the monarch. Then there is the anonymous *Sīrat-i-Fīrūz Shāhī* of which a unique manuscript exists in Bankipore Public Library. This book contains a brief history of the sultan’s reign as far as the expedition into Gujrāt; it deals adequately with the character, reforms and building activities of Fīrūz Shāh. It also throws welcome light on the relations of the sultanate with the House of ‘Abbās. The *Sīrat* was written in 772 A.H. and claims to have been dictated by the sultan himself.¹ The details of Tīmūr’s invasion are found in the two *Ẓafar-nāmahs*, one by Niẓām-u’d-dīn Shāmī and the other by Sharf-u’d-dīn Yazdī who mainly follows Shāmī, as well as in Shihāb-u’d-dīn Aḥmad’s *‘Ajā’ib-u’l-maqdūr fī akhbārāt-i-Tīmūr*. The period of the anarchy and the rule of the earlier Sayyids are described in Yaḥyā bin Aḥmad a’s-Sahrindī’s *Tārīkh-i-Mubārak Shāhī* which, however, begins with the reign of Muḥammad bin Sām and finishes in 838 A.H. (1434 A.C.). There is no contemporary chronicle of the Afghān dynasties, and one has to rely on books written under Akbar or even Jahāngīr.