[This History of Fíroz Sháh is devoted exclusively to the reign of that monarch, and therefore has a better right to the title than Barní's history, which embraces only a small portion of the reign of Fíroz, and bears the title simply because it was written or finished during his reign. Little is known of Shams-i Siráj beyond what is gleaned from his own work. He was descended from a family which dwelt at Abúhar, the country of Fíroz Sháh's Bhatti mother. His great grandfather, he says, was collector of the revenue of Abúhar, and was intimate with Ghiyásu-d dín Tughlik before he became Sultán. He himself was attached to the court of Fíroz, and accompanied him on his hunting expeditions.]
The work has met with scarcely any notice, whilst every historian who writes of the period quotes and refers to Zíáu-d dín Barní. The reason of this may be that Shams-i Siráj enters more than usual into administrative details, and devotes some chapters to the condition of the common people—a matter of the utmost indifference to Muhammadan authors in general. His untiring strain of eulogy could not have condemned him in their eyes, as they were accustomed to little else in all the other histories they consulted; so that we must either attribute the neglect of this work to the cause assigned, or to the fact of its having at a comparatively late period been rescued from some musty record room. The work, consisting of ninety chapters, contains an ample account of this Akbar of his time; and, making due allowance for the prevalent spirit of eulogium and exaggeration, it not only raises in us a respect for the virtues and munificence of Fíroz, and for the benevolence of his character, as shown by his canals and structures for public accommodation, but gives us altogether a better view of the internal condition of India under a Muhammadan sovereign than is presented to us in any other work, except the Áyín-i Akbarí.
[In style, this history has no pretensions to elegance, being, in general, very plain. The author is much given to reiterations and recapitulations, and he has certain pet phrases which he constantly uses. Sir H. Elliot desired to print a translation of the whole work, and he evidently held it in high estimation. A portion of the work had been translated for him by a munshí, but this has proved to be entirely useless. The work of translation has, consequently, fallen upon the editor, and he has endeavoured to carry out Sir H. Elliot's plan by making a close translation of the first three chapters, and by extracting from the rest of the work everything that seemed worthy of selection. The translation is close, without being servile; here and there exuberances of eloquence have been pruned out, and repetitions and tautologies have been passed over without notice, but other omissions have been marked by asterisks, or by brief descriptions in brackets of the passages omitted. Shams-i Siráj, with a better idea of method than has fallen to the lot of many of his brother historians, has divided his work into books and chapters with appropriate headings.
[Besides this history of Fíroz Sháh, the author often refers to his Manákib-i Sultán Tughlik, and he mentions his intention of writing similar memoirs of the reign of Sultán Muhammad, the son of Fíroz Sháh. Nothing more appears to be known of these works. Copies of the Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháhí are rare in India, and Colonel Lees, who has selected the work for publication in the Bibliotheca Indica, has heard only of “one copy in General Hamilton's library, and of another at Dehlí, in the possession of Nawáb Zíáu-d dín Lohárú, of which General Hamilton's is perhaps a transcript.”* The editor has had the use of four copies. One belonging to Sir H. Elliot, and another belonging to Mr. Thomas, are of quite recent production. They are evidently taken from the same original, most probably the Dehlí copy above mentioned. The other two copies belong to the library of the India Office, one having been lately purchased at the sale of the Marquis of Hastings's books. These are older productions; they are well and carefully written, and although they contain many obvious errors, they will be of the greatest service in the preparation of a correct text. None of these MSS. are perfect. The two modern copies terminate in the middle of the ninth chapter of the last book. The Hastings copy wants several chapters at the end of the first and the beginning of the second book; but it extends to the eleventh chapter of the last book, and has the final leaf of the work. The other MS. ends in the middle of the fifteenth chapter of the last book, and some leaves are missing from the fourteenth. Fortunately these missing chapters seem, from the headings given in the preface, to be of no importance.
[A considerable portion of the work was translated in abstract by Lieut. Henry Lewis, Bengal Artillery, and published in the Journal of the Archæological Society of Dehlí in 1849.]
Fíroz Sháh was born in the year 709 H. (1309 A.D.). It is
recorded that his father was named Sipah-sálár Rajab, and was
brother of Sultán Ghiyásu-d dín Tughlik Ghází. The writer of
this work has given a full account of their parentage in his
Memoirs of Sultán Tughlik (Manákib-i Sultán Tughlik). The
three brothers, Tughlik, Rajab, and Abú Bakr, came from
Khurásán to Dehlí in the reign of 'Aláu-d dín, and that monarch,
under Divine guidance, treated them with great kindness and
favour. All three were taken into the service of the Court, and
the Sultán, observing their courage and energy, conferred upon
Tughlik the country of Dípálpúr, and employed all the brothers
in public business. Tughlik was desirous that his brother Sipah-
When the messengers delivered Tughlik's message, Rána Mall,
in his pride and haughtiness, uttered unseemly and improper
observations. This, together with the Rána's refusal, was communicated
to Tughlik Sháh, who then again took counsel with
the author's ancestor, and after much debate it was decided that
Tughlik Sháh should proceed to the villages (talwandí) belonging
to Rána Mall, and demand payment of the year's revenue.
Next day Tughlik proceeded thither and demanded payment in
ready money of the whole amount. The mukaddims and chaud-