A GENERAL History of India from the time of the Ghaznívides to the accession of Muhammad Akbar II., at the close of the year 1806.
The author Nawáb Muhabbat Khán is not to be confounded with his contemporary and namesake, the second son of Háfiz Rahmat, favourably known as the author of Ríázu-l Muhabbat, a grammar and dictionary of the Pushtú language, written in Persian. A manuscript of his work in the East India Library has been much quoted by Dr. Bernhard Dorn, in his Annotations to the History of the Afgháns. The same writer is author also of the poem called Asrár-i Muhabbat, having called his two chief works, like the author to whom this article is devoted, after his own name—Muhabbat. M. Garcin de Tassy devotes an article to him in his Histoire de la Littérature Hindoui et Hindoustani.*
The style of the author of the Akhbár-i Muhabbat is slovenly and inaccurate, as is often observable in works written in India by foreigners from Afghánistán. He dwells with peculiar pleasure upon the deeds of his ancestors, and is very proud of a lineage, which he traces through Diler Khán, Daryá Khán, Saul, Abraham and Noah, up to Adam.
The work is in too abridged a form to be of much use, except towards the end, where the author expands the narrative, giving an unusually minute account of the Durrání invasions, and some of the transactions of Sháh 'Álam's reign, to which he assigns only thirteen years, contrary to the usual mode of reckoning. Certain portions also of the reigns of Jahángír and his successors are enlarged upon, when he has the opportunity of recounting the exploits of Daryá Khán, Khán Jahán Lodí, Bahádur Khán, Diler Khán, and other heroes of the author's race and family.
In his Preface he quotes several authorities, as Akbar-náma by
Abú-l Fazl, an anonymous history of Shahábu-d dín Ghorí, an
anonymous history of 'Aláu-d dín Khiljí, the Táríkh-i Afághana
by Husain Khán, the Zafar-náma by Sharafu-d dín, the Tímúrnáma
of Hátifí, Bábar's Memoirs, the Táríkh-i Akbarí by 'Atá
Beg Kazwíní, the Kitáb-i Akbar-Sháhí by Shaikh Illahdád Faizí,
the Tabakát-i Akbarí by Nizámu-d dín Ahmad, the Ikbál-náma
of Mu'tamad Khán, the Autobiography of Jahángír, the Táríkh-i
Sháh-Jahání by Wáris Khán, the Táríkh-i 'Álamgírí by Muhammad
Kázim, two works under the name of Táríkh-i Bahádur-
Most of these are of ordinary currency, and are often quoted in Prefaces without being read. The perusal, and even the existence of the anonymous works, may be doubted. He mentions also the history of Násiru-d dín and Mahmúd by 'Unsurí, and the Táríkh-i Fíroz-Sháhí by 'Izzu-d dín, though why either should be quoted it is impossible to say, inasmuch as only two lines are devoted to Fíroz Sháh's reign, and only thirty pages to the entire Khiljí and Tughlik dynasties. In the Ghaznívide dynasty he follows the words and the defective arrangement of the Khulásatu-t Tawáríkh, which he does not quote, ascribing, like that work, only seven reigns to the whole dynasty. This is another instance of the shameless fraud of which we have shown the author of the Khulásat himself to have been guilty.
He informs us that in the latter part of his history he benefited by the verbal information derived from his father, uncle, brothers, and other trustworthy persons. He quotes also two new works, the Daryá-i Dilerí and the Risála-i Dilerí, which most probably relate to the achievements of his ancestors.
[There can be no doubt that he either used the Táríkh-i Manázila-i Futúh, the Táríkh-i Ibráhím Khán, and the Nigárnáma-i Hind, or if he did not, that he and the authors of these works all copied from the same original authority.]