IN the perusal of a history in which the author in many instances writes from personal observ­ation, and amid scenes wherein he is himself an actor, it is always pleasing to have some account of his life: to know at least whence he came, who he was, in what age he lived, and what was his fate. It would be peculiarly interesting had we the means of developing all these particulars regarding Ferishta; but his modesty has prevented our knowing half as much of him as we could wish; and it is to be regretted, that events, of which we have only a slender account, have combined to leave us almost without a trace of the end of this excellent historian. From the mention he occa­sionally makes of himself, in order to verify his narrative, we learn that Mahomed Kasim, sur­named Ferishta, was born at Astrabad, on the border of the Caspian sea; that he was the son of Gholam Ally Hindoo Shah, a learned man, who, quitting his native country, travelled into India, and eventually reached Ahmudnuggur in the Deccan, during the reign of Moortuza Nizam Shah. Ferishta has left us in ignorance of the precise date of his birth; but as he states that he had only attained his twelfth year when he reached Ahmudnuggur, and that he was a fellow-student with the young Prince Meeran Hoossein Nizam Shah, who deposed his father at the age of sixteen, in the year 1587, it is fair to conclude that our author was but little older than this Prince; and we may therefore assume that he was born about the year 1570. Gholam Ally Hindoo Shah, the father of Ferishta, was selected, on account of his erudition, to instruct the Prince Meeran Hoossein in the Persian language, and it seems probable that the former died at Ahmudnuggur not long after his arrival there. Ferishta was thus left an orphan in his youth; but the introduction which his father's acquirements had procured for him at court, se­cured to his son the patronage and favour of the King Moortuza Nizam Shah, so that we find him on the day his royal master was dethroned holding the office of captain of the guard. On this occasion, he only escaped the common fate of the King's attendants owing to the Prince Meeran Hoossein recognising him, and personally inter­posing to save his life. Meeran Hoossein was himself deposed and murdered in less than a year. Ferishta, then aged seventeen, appears to have taken no active part in the revolutions which suc­ceeded the death of his patron. His religious per­suasion (he being a Sheea) prevented his having many friends among the stronger party at court, and this circumstance naturally made him anxious to avoid the scenes which were likely to ensue; so that we find him not long after quitting Ahmud-nuggur, and proceeding to the neighbouring court of Beejapoor.

According to his own statement, he reached that city in the year 1589, and was kindly received by the minister and regent Dilawur Khan, who in­troduced him to the King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. From the station Ferishta filled under Moortuza Nizam Shah, it seems likely that he entered the service of Ibrahim Adil Shah II. in a military ca­pacity; a supposition which is rather confirmed by the mention he makes of himself immedi­ately after his arrival at Beejapoor. Scarcely had he reached that capital, when Dilawur Khan in­duced the young King to take the field in support of Boorhan Nizam Shah, the legitimate sovereign of Ahmudnuggur, against an usurper named Jumal Khan, a person who at the same time wielded the sceptre, and pretended to work miracles as the leader of a new religious sect. The regent of Beejapoor was as anxious to bring the enemy to action as the young King Ibrahim was desirous to delay, until Boorhan Nizam Shah should bring his forces into the field. * Jumal Khan, how­ever, at the head of the troops of Ahmudnug-gur, advanced by the route of Purenda towards Beejapoor; and Dilawur Khan, contrary to the King's commands, attacked him in the vicinity of the Bheema river. During the action, several Beejapoor chiefs of distinction deserted Dilawur Khan, and returned to Darasun, a spot situated at the junction of the Sena and Bheema rivers, where the King remained encamped. Dilawur Khan was defeated, and the Beejapoor army re­treated during the night to Shahdoorg. Ferishta modestly remarks; — “The wounds which I re-“ceived during the action prevented my travel-“ling, and I fell a prisoner into the hands of Jumal “Khan, but afterwards effected my escape;” so that when Jumal Khan was compelled to fall back to oppose Boorhan Nizam Shah, now in the field on the north, Ferishta was enabled to rejoin the Bee-japoor army. On the retreat of Jumal Khan, the Beejapoor troops pursued him for nearly one hun­dred and sixty miles, as far as the Rohunkehra Ghat, when a second disagreement took place between the King and his minister Dilawur Khan. A great coolness had subsisted between them ever since the battle of Darasun, and this subsequent difference determined the King to free himself from Dilawur Khan's trammels; but the attachment of the royal household servants and the body-guard to the minister rendered such a project exceedingly difficult. At length, however, the King gained over Ein-ool-Moolk Geelany, whose division was encamped at the distance of a mile from the re­gent, to support him.

The King, having mounted his horse secretly, left his tent to proceed to Ein-ool-Moolk's camp, when his foster-brother Elias Khan, who was on duty, perceiving him, ran up, and asked whither he was going. He replied, “Ask no “questions; but if you choose to accompany me, “do so.” Elias Khan instantly followed with a hundred horsemen; and during the night several chieftains, together with about three thousand men, joined him also. “Among this number,” says Fe-rishta, “was the author of this history.” Dilawur Khan in vain endeavoured to regain his power, but was compelled to fly to Ahmudnuggur.

No further mention is made of himself by Fe-rishta for several years; and it appears likely, that shortly after this period he commenced the com­pilation of his history, in furtherance of which, he observes, his patron, Ibrahim Adil Shah, spared no expense to procure the most ample materials. But of the thirty-four standard books mentioned as the sources whence he drew his information, be­sides twenty others alluded to in his history, very few are now extant. Ferishta seems to have finished his account of the Beejapoor kings in 1596, at the age of twenty-six, and the remaining portions of his work must have been composed in the few following years. At the age of thirty-four, he escorted the Princess Begum Sooltana from Bee-japoor to Ahmudnuggur, was present at her nup­tials with the Prince Daniel Mirza, at Moongy Peitun in 1604, and “attended her palanquin” as far as Boorhanpoor in Kandeish, the capital of her husband's government.

After his return to Beejapoor, he was deputed on a mission to the Great Mogul Jehangeer, the successor of Akbur. The latter prince is stated to have died of grief on hearing of the death of his son Daniel, who did not long survive his mar­riage with the Beejapoor princess. Ferishta over­took the court of Jehangeer near Lahore, on his route to Kashmeer, in the year 1606; and al­though our author does not mention the object of his mission, yet knowing as we do the con­nection which subsisted between the two families, and that Jehangeer had lately ascended the throne, it may be fairly inferred that Ferishta was selected as one of the most accomplished persons of the Beejapoor court, to convey his sovereign's condo­lence on the loss of a father, and also his con­gratulation to Jehangeer on his accession to the throne of the most potent kingdom in the East.*

From the work being sometimes denominated Nowrus Nama, we are led to suppose it was finished during the residence of Ibrahim Adil Shah in his new capital, styled Nowrus, which he commenced building in 1599; and Ferishta makes mention of the existence of the Portuguese and the English factories at Surat, in the year 1611, about which time his work was probably brought to a close, when he had attained his forty-first year; and the following reasons lead to the supposition that he died shortly after. Owing to some supersti­tious fancy, Ibrahim Adil Shah was induced to remove his court from his capital, after reigning thirty-two years, and he selected the village of Torgha, situated about three miles due west of Beejapoor, for the site of the new town, which he denominated Nowrus (Novel), a favourite appel­lation given at the time to a new coin struck on the occasion, and which soon became a fa­miliar term at court for all the new fashions, thus accounting for a work like that of Ferishta being so denominated. Ibrahim Adil Shah abandoned Nowrus in a few years, and returned to reside per­manently at Beejapoor, where he died in the year 1626, fifteen years after we have any traces of Ferishta. The fashion which pervaded the court of Beejapoor for fine buildings appears to have prevailed most about this period; and the superb mosque, calculated to contain five thousand persons kneeling, built by his uncle Ally Adil Shah I., pro­bably gave rise to the taste which produced those superb works now remaining as monuments of the magnificence of the Beejapoor court. The palace of Kamil Khan the Regent; the mosque and re­servoir of Chand Beeby; the chaste and beautiful tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah II., the patron of Ferishta; and the mausoleum over his son Ma-homed, whose cupola excedes in diameter that of St. Paul's, being inferior in size only to that of St. Peter's at Rome, are now standing and in good repair; and, together with the numerous fine edi­fices which are scattered for miles over the plain, afford ample proofs of the splendour of the times. Had Ferishta lived long after completing his history, considering the distinction which he had attained at court, it seems probable we should have known more of him, either as a minister or as an author. We may conclude, also, that he would have pro­cured and completed the history of the Golconda sovereigns now extant, to which he alludes, but which he had then failed in obtaining; and also that of Khoosrow Shah of Budukhshan, which he promised to write. Had he died at Beejapoor after the return of the court, it is probable so eminent a person would not have been denied some mausoleum to commemorate his name. It seems, therefore, extremely likely that the death of our author occurred during the residence of the court at Nowrus, as, subsequently to the aban­donment of that city, its buildings fell so rapidly to decay, that, with the exception of a part of the uncompleted wall, and some few ruins of palaces, little remains that is worthy of notice.

The only monument, therefore, of this indus­trious historian is to be found in his works, of which the following pages are a translation.