Firishta

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Firishta
Born
Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi

c. 1570
Astarabad, Safavid Iran
Died1620

Firishta or Ferešte (Persian: فِرِشتہ), full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi[1][a] (Persian: مُحَمَّد قاسِم ہِندُو شاہ), was a Persian[2] historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. He was born in 1570 and died in 1620.[3] The name Firishta means 'angel' in Persian.

Life

Firishta was born c. 1570 at

Astarabad on the shores of the Caspian Sea to Gholam Ali Hindu Shah.[1] While Firishta was still a child, his father was summoned away from his native country into Ahmednagar, India, to teach Persian to the young prince Miran Husain Nizam Shah, with whom Firishta studied.[citation needed
]

In 1587 Firishta was serving as the captain of guards of King

Deccani Muslims committed a general massacre of the foreign population, especially Shias of Iranian origin.[4][5] However, Prince Miran spared the life of his former friend, who then left for Bijapur to enter the service of King Ibrahim Adil II in 1589.[citation needed
]

Having been in military positions until then, Firishta was not immediately successful in

Deccanis to power and ending Shia domination by dismissing them from their posts.[7][8] In 1593 Ibrahim Shah II ultimately implored Firishta to write a history of India with equal emphasis on the history of Deccan dynasties as no work thus far had given equal treatment to all regions of the subcontinent.[citation needed
]

Overview of work

The work was variously known as the Tarikh-i Firishta and the Gulshan-i Ibrahimi. In the introduction, a resume of the history of Hindustan prior to the times of the

Sikandar Butshikan in Kashmir.[citation needed
]

Tarikh-i Firishta consists primarily of the following chapter's (maqala ),:[6][full citation needed], and some of them like The Kings of Dakhin have subchapters (rawza)

  1. The Kings of Ghazni and Lahore
  2. The Kings of Dehli
  3. The Kings of Dakhin - divided into 6 chapters:
    1. Gulbarga
    2. Bijapur
    3. Ahmadnagar
    4. Tilanga
    5. Birar
    6. Bidar
  4. The Kings of Gujarat
  5. The Kings of Malwa
  6. The Kings of Khandesh
  7. The Kings of Bengal and Bihar
  8. The Kings of Multan
  9. The Rulers of Sind
  10. The Kings of Kashmir
  11. An account of Malabar
  12. An account of Saints of India
  13. Conclusion - An account of the climate and geography of India (Khatima)

Contemporary scholars and historians variously write that the works of Firishta drew from Tabaqat-i-Akbari by Nizamud-din,[10] Tarikh-i-Rashidi by Mirza Haider[10][full citation needed] and Barani's Tarikh.[11][full citation needed] At least one historian, Peter Jackson, explicitly states that Firishta relied upon the works of Barani and Sarhindi, and that his work cannot be relied upon as a first hand account of events, and that at places in the Tarikh he is suspected of having relied upon legends and his own imagination.[12][full citation needed]

Legacy

According to T. N. Devare, Firishta's account is the most widely quoted history of the

Adil Shahi dynasty. Devare believes that to be a fabricated story. Other sources for Deccani history mentioned by Devare are those of Mir Rafi-uddin Ibrahim-i Shirazi, or "Rafi'", Mir Ibrahim Lari-e Asadkhani, and Ibrahim Zubayri, the author of the Basatin as-Salatin (67, fn 2). Devare observed that the work is "a general history of India from the earliest period up to Firishta's time written at the behest of Ibrahim Adilshah II and presented to him in 1015 AH/1606 CE. It seems, however, that it was supplemented by the author himself as it records events up to AH 1033 (1626 CE)" (Devare 272).[citation needed
]

On the other hand, Tarikh-i-Farishti is said to be independent and reliable on the topic of north Indian politics of the period, ostensibly that of Emperor

Bijapur.[13]

Despite his fabricated story of Yusuf's Ottoman origin, Firishta's account continues to be a very popular story and has found wide acceptance in Bijapur today.

In 1768, when the East India Company officer and Orientalist Alexander Dow translated Firishta's text into English language, it came to be seen as an authoritative source of historical information by the English.[14]

Firishta's work still maintains a high place and is considered reliable in many respects. Several portions of it have been translated into English; but the best as well as the most complete translation is that published by General

Indian history in Decline and Fall. [citation needed
]

Works

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Also spelled "Moḥammad-Qāsem Hendušāh Astarābādī".[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-933273-33-7
    .
  2. S2CID 162273460
    . Another tendency of Firishta (a Persian of Astarabad) is to underline (...)
  3. ^ "Medieval Period". Government of Maharashtra. Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  4. ISBN 978-1-108-48193-9
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-231-15811-4
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780559693335
    . Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  7. ISBN 9788126901234
    .
  8. ISBN 9780865439801
    .
  9. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ferishta, Mahommed Kasim". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 274.
  10. ^
    ISBN 9788187879497
    . Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  11. ISBN 9788178240961
    . Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  12. ISBN 9780521543293
    . Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  13. ISBN 9789698120016
    . Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  14. ISBN 9781107118560
    .
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