A History of Agriculture in India v2.c50.24

v2.c50.24

The best account of the Sultanates of Deccan is provided by Firishta. Muhammed Kasim Hindu Shah, surnamed Firishta, was born at Astarabad, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, about A.D. 1570. His father travelled in India and eventually reached Ahmadnagar in Deccan, and was employed by Murtaza Nizam Shah as a Persian tutor for his son. After his father's death, he proceeded to Bijapur in 1589 and was employed by Ibrahim Adil Shah. He wrote his history of India, known as *Tarikh-i-Firishta*, on a suggestion from Ibrahim Adil Shah, who felt the need of a general history of the Muhammedans in India avoiding falsehoods and flatteries which had disfigured works of this nature. Firishta completed his history in 1612 when Jahangir was ruling over Delhi. He named it *Gulshan-i-Ibrahimi* after his patron, and *Nauras-nama*, after the new capital Nauras, which the king commenced building in 1599. Firishta made extensive use of Barni’s *Tarikh-i-Firozshahi* in dealing with the Sultanate of Delhi in his history.