THIS work is by common consent, and not undeservedly, con­sidered superior to all the other General Histories of India. The author, Muhammad Kásim Hindú Sháh, surnamed Firishta, was born at Astarábád, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, about A.D. 1570.* His father, a learned man, by name Ghulám 'Alí Hindú Sháh, left his native country, when our author was very young, and travelled into India. He eventually reached Ahmad-nagar in the Dakhin, during the reign of Murtazá Nizám Sháh, and was appointed to instruct Mírán Husain, the son of Murtazá, in the Persian language; but he died soon after this selection, and Firishta was left an orphan in early youth.

The introduction which his father's acquirements had procured for him at Court, secured for the son the favour and patronage of Murtazá Nizám Sháh, so that we find him the confidential coun­sellor of his sovereign, and holding the office of Captain of the Guard, on the day that the King was deposed by Prince Mírán Husain, although he was then only sixteen or seventeen years of age.* He would have met the same fate as all the rest of the King's attendants, had not the Prince recognized him, and per­sonally interposed to save his life.

When Mírán Husain was himself deposed and murdered, in less than a year after this event, Firishta appears to have taken no active part in the troubles and revolutions which ensued. As he was a Shí'a, his religious persuasions were an obstacle to his acquiring any influence at a Court where the Sunní was the pre­dominant doctrine; and he not long after quitted Ahmadnagar, and proceeded to Bíjápúr, where he arrived, according to his own statement, in the year 1589, and was kindly received by the regent and minister, Diláwar Khán, by whom he was presented to Ibráhím 'Ádil Sháh, the reigning monarch. It was not appa­rently till after the flight of the regent that he was again intro­duced at the Court of Bíjápúr, by 'Ináyat Khán of Shíráz. This occurred about the year 1593. The King, who had up to this period shown him no particular favour, received him graciously, and presented to him a copy of the Rauzatu-s Safá, remarking that no competent person had hitherto written a general history of the Muhammadans in India, except Nizámu-d dín Bakhshí, and that his work was too brief and imperfect, especially as con­cerned the Dakhin. The King at the same time enjoined him to supply the deficiency, and to avoid the falsehoods and flatteries which had always disfigured works of that nature. Previous to his introduction by 'Ináyat Khán, he seems to have been engaged in a military capacity, for he speaks of his being wounded and taken a prisoner by Jamál Khán, the usurper of Ahmadnagar,— but into the details of this there is no occasion to enter.

He shortly after effected his escape, and spent nearly the whole of the remainder of his life in high honour at the Court of Ibráhím 'Ádil Sháh, devoting his leisure to the composition of his history. He speaks little of himself after this occurrence, but in A.D. 1594 he escorted the Princess Begam Sultána from Bíjápúr to Ahmadnagar, was present at her nuptials with Prince Dániyál Mirzá at Mungí Paitan, and attended her as far as Búr­hánpúr in Khándesh, the capital of her husband's government.

After his return to Bíjápúr, he was deputed on a mission to the Emperor Jahángír, for the purpose, as General Briggs, with great probability, supposes, of conveying his sovereign's con­dolence on the death of Akbar, and his congratulations on Jahángír's accession to the throne of the most potent empire in the East. Firishta overtook the Court of Jahángír near Lahore, on its route to Kashmír, in the year 1606. He probably took a circuitous route on his return, for we find him speaking of Rohtás in Bihár as being the strongest fortress he had seen in India. During his travels, which at one time reached even to Badakhshán, he must, of course, have extended his observation, and amassed the materials which were made use of in his history.

The date of his death is altogether unknown. Briggs supposes that it occurred in 1612, making him only forty-one years of age. M. J. Mohl supposes him to have revised his work up to at least 1623, making his age not less than seventy-three.

The work is divided into an Introduction, twelve Chapters, and a Conclusion.

CONTENTS.*

Introduction.—Upon the Hindús, and the progress of early Muhammadanism in India, pp. 5-30.

Conclusion.—An account of the climate and geography of India, pp. 786-892.

SIZE.—Folio, in two volumes;—vol. i. comprising 730 pages, and vol. ii. 892 pages, each containing 20 lines.

The introduction gives a very imperfect view of Indian History previous to the Muhammadan invasion, and may be considered of equal value and authenticity with the first ten Books of Livy, or Dr. Henry's first volume of the History of Great Britain, based on the poems of Ossian.* Most of the other Indian historians have followed in his wake, and not one of them has yet attempted anything like a critical account of this dark period. Dynasties and races are confounded, in order to form an unbroken series of kings; but it is possible that some of the synchronisms between Persian and Indian heroes may be derived from traditionary poems or some ancient records, now unknown.

The value of the work commences from the Muhammadan period, the history of which he has compiled from the best sources available. It is also very full upon the minor dynasties, as might be expected from the circumstances under which it was written.

The author states in his preface that he is indebted for his materials to thirty-five different histories, but he has quoted in the body of his work several more, besides those he has enume­rated, and such conscientious and excellent use has he made of his predecessors, so entirely has he exhausted all the prominent facts mentioned by them, that they have been rendered almost useless to any but the most anxious and attentive student of Indian History, who may hope here and there to glean some­thing of interest which Firishta may have overlooked. Hence it is with great difficulty that any MSS. of those authorities are now procurable. He is also free from prejudice and par­tiality; he does not even flatter the prince in whose reign he lived; and though not entirely without sectarian bitterness when noticing Saiyids, and though not exempt from Mu­hammadan bigotry, when speaking of the wholesale massacres of the defenceless Hindús, he is more divested of that feeling than any other author of his own religious creed who recounts similar atrocities.*

Dow, indeed, has observed of him, that “he seems as much divested of religious prejudices, as he is of political flattery or fear. He never passes a good action without conferring upon it its own reward of praise, nor a bad one, let the villanous actor be never so high, without stigmatizing it with infamy.”* But some of the few Extracts which follow will show that this indis­criminate praise requires to be received with some qualification.

This history is styled by the author himself Gulshan-i Ibráhímí and Nauras-náma. The former name is derived from the king to whom it was dedicated, and hence it is frequently quoted under the name of Táríkh-i Ibráhímí. The latter name was given to it in commemoration of the new capital, Nauras, which his patron, Ibráhím 'Ádil Sháh, commenced building in the year 1599.

Firishta presented the first draught of his history to Ibráhím 'Ádil Sháh in A.D. 1606, but it is evident that during the rest of his life he was engaged in revising it, and even adding whole chapters, where it was deficient. It is supposed by General Briggs that, as the existence of Portuguese factories at Surát in A.D. 1611 is one of the last things mentioned, he completed the work about that period, and shortly after died; but he enters into a detailed description of Asír in A.D. 1614-15,* and there seems even reason to suppose that he mentions an event of a date even ten years subsequent to that.*