In Volume 1-1: Qurʾānic Literature, History, and Biography | Section 2, History, Biography, etc.

previous chapter: 12.24 Aʿẓamgaṛh

§ 930. A friend of Burhān al-Mulk Saʿādat K̲h̲ān, Governor of Oudh, wrote

An account of Burhān al-Mulk’s part in the military operations against Nādir S̲h̲āh.

¶ English translation [from a ms. in the possession of the translator]: Memoirs of Delhi and Faizábád, being a translation of the “Táríḳh Farahbaḳhsh” of Muhammad Faiz Baḳhsh … by W. Hoey, vol. i, appendix (14 pp.).

§ 931. Maulawī K̲h̲air al-Dīn Muḥammad Ilāhābādī died about 1827 (see pp. 409–410 supra).

“A circumstantial account of the affairs of Oude from the death of Shujāʿ ud-Daulah ah 1188 to the assassination of Muk̲h̲tār ud-Daulah, on the 27th of Ṣafar, ah 1189, and the subsequent defeat and capture of Maḥbūb ʿAlī K̲h̲ān”: Rieu iii 948a (circ. ad 1850).

§ 932. Muns̲h̲ī Inʿām ʿAlī b. M. K̲h̲wurram S̲h̲āh Muns̲h̲ī was for ten years in the service of Ṣafdar-Jang (1739–1756) and for twelve years in that of S̲h̲ujāʿ al-Daulah (1756–1775). He then retired to Bijnaur, his native place.

Auṣāf al-Āṣaf, in five nusk̲h̲ahs ((i) historical, (ii) letters, (iii) anecdotes, (iv) g̲h̲azals and qiṭʿahs, (v) Rēk̲h̲tah poems), the first being divided into five rukns ((i) Saʿādat K̲h̲ān, (ii) Ṣafdar-Jang, (iii) S̲h̲ujāʿ al-Daulah, (iv) Āṣaf al-Daulah (d. 1212/1797) to 1198/1783, (v) Wazīr ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, who succeeded in 1212/1797 but was deposed after a few months, this last rukn being an addition to the original draft, which was written in 1199/1784–5): Rieu iii 960b (Nusk̲h̲ah i only, copied from an autograph. Circ. 1850).

§ 933. It was presumably in the time of Āṣaf al-Daulah that “Mauzūn” wrote his

Āṣaf-nāmah, a mat̲h̲nawī on the campaign of Āṣaf al-Daulah against G̲h̲ulām-Muḥammad K̲h̲ān, of Rāmpūr: Būhār 421 (19th cent.), possibly also i.o. 4056.

§ 934. Abū Ṭālib Iṣfahānī (for whom see p. 112–113 supra) was born at Lucknow in 1166/1752–3. He held various appointments under the Government of Oudh and the E.I.Co.’s agents there, and died at Lucknow in 1220/1805–6. It was in 1211/1796–7 at Calcutta that Captain Richardson asked him to write a history of the time of Āṣaf al-Daulah (1775–97). He accordingly wrote his

Tafḍīḥ al-g̲h̲āfilīn, of which no mss. seem to be mentioned in library catalogues.

English translation [from a ms. in the translator’s possession]: History of Ásafu’d Daulah, … being a translation of “Tafzíhu’l gháfilín,” … compiled by Abu Tálib … and translated … by W. Hoey, Allahabad 1885*.

¶ § 935. Āg̲h̲ā M. ʿAlī Bihbahānī wrote

Tārīk̲h̲ i Wazīr ʿAlī, presumably a history of Wazīr ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, who became Nawwāb of Oudh on Āṣaf al-Daulah’s death in September 1797 but was deposed by Sir John Shore in January 1798: no mss. recorded.

Abridgment: K̲h̲ulāṣah i Tārik̲h̲ i Wazīr ʿAlī: Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (see Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii no. 4 (August 1926) p. 60).

§ 936. An anonymous author completed on 6 D̲h̲ū ’l-Ḥijjah 1215/1800 his

Iqbāl-nāmah, a metrical account of the accession of Wazīr ʿAlī K̲h̲ān and his dethronement by Sir John Shore: Būhār 423 (ah 1316/1898–9).

§ 937. For the Maʿdin al-saʿādat of S. Sulṭān ʿAlī Ḥusainī Ṣafawī Ardabīlī, a history of the Indian Tīmūrids and of the Nawwābs of Oudh dedicated to Saʿādat ʿAlī K̲h̲ān and brought down to his seventh year, ah 1218/1803–4, see p. 408 supra.

§ 938. S. G̲h̲ulām-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān Naqawī b. S.M. Akmal K̲h̲ān, born at Rai Bareilly, was taken in his eighth year to Delhi, where his father was physician to S̲h̲āh-ʿĀlam and tutor to Prince M. Akbar. In 1202/1788, when Delhi fell into the power of the Rohillah G̲h̲ulām-Qādir K̲h̲ān, G̲h̲ulām-ʿAlī, who was still a student, and his father fled to Lucknow and the Deccan respectively. In 1213/1798–9 he joined his father in the Deccan and wandered about South India with him for seven years. After his father’s death he returned to Oudh, and in 1222/1807 he entered the service of Colonel John Baillie (ʿImād al-Daulah Afḍal al-Mulk J.B. Bahādur Arslān-Jang), the British Resident at Lucknow. In the printer’s colophon to the 1864 edition of the ʿImād al-saʿādat he is described as John Baillie’s Mīr Muns̲h̲ī.

For his Nigār-nāmah i Hind, an account of the Battle of Pānīpat (1174/1761) written after the ʿImād al-saʿādat and likewise for John Baillie, see p. 313 supra.

ʿImād al-saʿādat, a history of Burhān al-Mulk Saʿādat K̲h̲ān and his successors to 1216/1801, in the time of Saʿādat-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān (1798–1814), with an account of the British Residents to 1223, completed in S̲h̲aʿbān 1223/1808: Rieu i 308a (ah 1227/1812), iii 961a (19th cent.), 1030b (extracts only. Circ. ad 1844), 1052b (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850), Āṣafīyah i p. 248 no. 458 (ah 1239/1823–4), Lindesiana p. 144 no. 437 (ah 1261/1845), Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (ah 1266/1849–50. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii no. 4 (August 1926) p. 59), ʿAlīgaṛh Subḥ. mss. p. 58 no. 955 (4) (ad 1892), Bānkīpūr vii 604, Berlin 506, i.o. d.p. 616, Ivanow 193, r.a.s. p. 91 = Morley 89.

Editions: [Lucknow,] 1864°*, 1897°.

¶ Description: Elliot and Dowson History of India viii pp. 394–5.

[ʿImād al-saʿādat, preface; Rieu i 308a; Bānkīpūr vii 604.]

§ 939. M. Faiḍ-Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ b. G̲h̲ulām-Sarwar left his birthplace Kākōrī in Ṣafar 1183/1769, when still a boy, for Faiḍābād (Fyzabad), the seat of S̲h̲ujāʿ al-Daulah’s government. Some years later he became Taḥwīldār of the Treasury under the eunuch Jawāhir ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, the Nāẓir (d. 1214/1799), and held the same appointment under his successor Dārāb ʿAlī Khān.

(1)

Faraḥ-bak̲h̲s̲h̲ (called in some copies Baḥr al-ifāḍat), a history of Fyzabad from 1179/1765–6 to 1233/1817–18, the date of composition, preceded by an account of the Indian Tīmūrids to the downfall of the Saiyids: Rieu i 309b (ah 1247/1832), 310b (1st pt. (i.e. the Tīmūrids) only. ad 1865), iii 1026a (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850).

English, translation: Memoirs of Delhi and Faizábád, being a translation of the “Táríkh Farahbaḳhsh” … by W. Hoey. 2 vols. Allahabad 1888–9°*.

Abridgment: Ḥasb al-irs̲h̲ād dar bayān i aḥwāl i Faiḍābād, by S. Mahdī ʿAlī “Imāmī”: Rieu i 310b (ah 1240/1825).

(2)

Autobiography with numerous biographical notes on his relations, friends etc., who belonged to different zamīndār families of Lucknow, Faiḍābād etc., with many references to contemporary political events, written, at least partly, in 1230/1815: Ivanow Curzon 87 (rather bad condition).

§ 940. Qādī M. Ṣādiq K̲h̲ān “Ak̲h̲tar” Hūglawi, one of the qāḍī-zādagān of Hūglī, near Calcutta, lived at Lucknow in the time of G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar and received the title of Malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ. According to the S̲h̲amʿ i anjuman he died at Lucknow after the Mutiny. According to the Riyāḍ al-afkār (as summarised by ʿAbd al-Muqtadir) “he lived for some time at Lucknow and the Deccan”. Of his works Sprenger mentions (1) Sarāpā sūz, an Urdu mat̲h̲nawī composed in 1231/1816 and lithographed at Lucknow, (2) Ṣubḥ i ṣādiq, an autobiography in ornate Persian, (3) Maḥāmid i Ḥaidarī, (4) a tad̲h̲kirah of Persian poets,² “which is said to be very valuable,” and (5) an ins̲h̲āʾ entitled Haft ak̲h̲tar. Sprenger says that the first three had been printed but not the last two. The S̲h̲amʿ i anjuman mentions (1) Ṣubḥ i ṣādiq, (2) Nūr al-ins̲h̲āʾ, (3) Maḥāmid i Ḥaidarīyah, (4) Nuqūd al-ḥikam, and (5) dīwān i fārisī u Urdū-yi rēk̲h̲tah. In the Riyāḍ al-afkār only no. (3) and another work Ḥadīqat al-irs̲h̲ād (on ins̲h̲āʾ)³ are mentioned. For his Mak̲h̲zan al-jawāhir see p. 118 supra. The Maḥāmid i Ḥaidarīyah (Edition: Lucknow 1238/1823*), a panegyric in prose and verse (by ¶ M. Ṣādiq himself, not by various authors) on G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar, contains nothing of historical interest.

Guldastah i maḥabbat, an account, in prose and verse, of the meeting of Lord Hastings and G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar.

Edition: Lucknow 1239/1823–4 (see Sprenger p. v).

[Riyāḍ al-afkār (see Bānkīpūr Suppt. i p. 49); Sprenger p. 599; S̲h̲amʿ i anjuman pp. 63–4; Bānkīpūr ix p. 123.]

§ 941. It was at the request of Lieut. John Doeswell Shakespeare, Second Assistant to Colonel [afterwards Sir] John Low, Resident at Lucknow 1831–42, that ʿAbd al-Aḥad b. Maulawī M. Fāʾiq, who had been twelve years in the E.I.Co.’s service, composed in 1253/1837–8 his

Waqāʾiʿ i dil-pad̲h̲īr, a history of Pāds̲h̲āh Bēgam, wife of G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar (S̲h̲āh-Zamǎn, who reigned ah 1229/1814–1244/1827), to the year 1253/1837–8, when she tried to place upon the throne Munnā Jān, a pretended son of her husband’s successor: Rieu iii 961b (ah 1266/1849), Ivanow Curzon 46 (ah 1279/1862), Āṣafīyah iii p. 112 no. 1273.

§ 942. It was for G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar (1814–27) that M. Ṣāliḥ wrote his

Baḥr al-saʿādat, a history of Oudh described by Sprenger as a revised edition of the ʿImād al-saʿādat: Rieu iii 1053b (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850).

§ 943. To the reign of G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar (1814–27) presumably belongs

Rūz-nāmc̲h̲ah i darbār i Abū ’l-Muẓaffar G̲h̲āzī al-Dīn Ḥaidar Bāds̲h̲āh i Awad’h: Āṣafīyah i p. 240 no. 702.

§ 944. M. Muḥtas̲h̲am K̲h̲ān was the son of Nawwāb Maḥabbat K̲h̲ān “Maḥabbat”, who wrote works in Persian, Urdu and Pushtu (see Blumhardt Cat. of Hindustani MSS. no. 161, Garcin de Tassy ii 349, Ethé 2452, etc.), and the grandson of the celebrated Rohillah chieftain, Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān (for whom see pp. 311–312 supra).

Tārīk̲h̲ i Muḥtas̲h̲am, a history of the Oudh dynasty to the death of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ḥaidar in 1253/1837, the date of composition:⁴ Bānkīpūr vii 605 (ah 1217/1802–3!! In this copy the account of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ḥaidar’s ¶ predecessors occupies more than half of the work and fills 173 leaves or thereabouts), i.o. 4090 (contains the reign of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ḥaidar and little more, the account of his predecessors being reduced to a sketch of about 17 leaves. ad 1839).

§ 945. Apparently of unknown authorship is the

Tārīk̲h̲ i S̲h̲āhīyah i Nīs̲h̲āpūrīyah,⁵ a history of Oudh from the time of Saʿādat K̲h̲ān [not Saʿādat-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān] to 1254/1838 in the reign of M. ʿAlī S̲h̲āh: Rāmpūr (see Nad̲h̲īr Aḥmad 60).

§ 946. Fak̲h̲r al-Daulah Dabīr al-Mulk Rājah Ratan Sing’h “Zak̲h̲mī” b. Rāy Bālak Rām, a Saksēnah Kāyast’h, whose grandfather was Dīwān and Atālīq to Āṣaf al-Daulah and afterwards Nāẓim of Barēlī, was born at Lucknow ah 1197/1782–3, went to Calcutta in 1218/1803–4 and served the E.I.Co. for some years. In 1230/1814–15 he returned to Lucknow and eventually became Minister of Finance. He died in 1851.⁶ He wrote a tad̲h̲kirah entitled Anīs al-ʿās̲h̲iqīn, a philosophical treatise called Jām i gītī-numā (see Rieu iii 1096) and a dīwān (lith. Lucknow 1253/1837–8. See Sprenger 570).

Sulṭān al-tawārīk̲h̲, a detailed history of the Oudh dynasty to the death of M. ʿAlī S̲h̲āh in 1258/1842: Rieu iii 962 (ah 1265/1849), i.o. 3961 (ad 1878).

[Sulṭān al-tawārīk̲h̲ (b.m. ms.) foll. 248–51; Beale Oriental Biographical Dictionary p. 332; Sprenger 570; Rieu iii 962.]

§ 947. S. Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥaidar, as he is usually called, or S. Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥusainī Ḥaidarī, as he calls himself in a versified chronogram at the beginning of his history, or S. Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥaidar Ḥasanī al-Ḥusainī al-Mas̲h̲hadī Ṭūn [sic; read Ṭūsī?] Ṭabasī al-maʿrūf bah S. Muḥammad Mīr Ṣāḥib Zāʾir, as he is called on the title-page of the Urdu translation, says in that work that he became translator to the Lucknow Observatory in the reign of Naṣīr al-Daulah M. ʿAlī S̲h̲āh (ah 1253/1837–1258/1842), and that he had translated nineteen scientific works, most of which had been printed. Garcin de Tassy mentions a Risālah i maqnāṭīs [Delhi 1850* according to Blumhardt], a Risālah i ālāt i riyāḍī and a translation of Paley’s Natural theology. The last, entitled Maʿrifat i ṭabīʿī (Garcin gives a different title), was published, according to Blumhardt, at Delhi ¶ in 1848* (Garcin says Lucknow 1848). Another work with which he was associated was The Lucknow Almanac far the year 1849. Translated into Persian by Syud Kumalooddeen and assistants … (Taqwīm i sulṭānī), Lucknow 1849° (see Edwards under Ephemerides). Sprenger tells us that “In 1849,⁷ Kamál aldyn Ḥaydar, Munshiy to the observatory, wishing to ingratiate himself at court, wrote a history of the Royal family of Oudh. Two passages happened to displease His Majesty, and instantly the observatory was abolished and printing was forbidden at Lucknow, lest this objectionable production might be published”.

(Tārīk̲h̲ i Awad’h), a history of the Oudh dynasty to the accession of Wājid ʿAlī S̲h̲āh in 1263/1847: Rieu iii 962b (ad 1849), 963a (ad 1848) [These mss. contain at the end (1) a metrical narrative by “Aḥmad”⁸ of an attempt on the life of the Wazīr Amīn al-Daulah, (2) a circumstantial account of affairs in Oudh at the beginning of Wājid ʿAlī’s reign, to June 1849 in the 1st ms., to Oct. 1848 in the 2nd, (3) a history of the Observatory], Ivanow 2nd Suppt. 931 (enlarged version, extending to ad 1858. Defective and damaged. Autograph?).

Edition: There seems to be no trustworthy evidence that the Persian text has been published. Rieu probably had the Urdu translation in mind when he said that the work had been published under the title of Sawāniḥāt i Salāṭīn i Awad’h at Lucknow in 1879.

Urdu translation: Tawārīk̲h̲ i Awad’h, Lucknow 1879°* (in 2 vols. with separate title-pages, vol. i called Sawāniḥāt i Salāṭīn i Awad’h and extending from Saʿādat K̲h̲ān to Amjad ʿAlī S̲h̲āh, vol. ii called Qaiṣar al-tawārīk̲h̲ and extending from the accession of Wājid ʿAlī S̲h̲āh to the suppression of the Indian Mutiny).

[Autobiographical statements in the Tārīk̲h̲ i Awad’h (see Rieu iii 962b); Sprenger p. vi; Garcin de Tassy i pp. 548–9.]

§ 948. Pūran C̲h̲and was probably employed in the Dīwān i Wizārat at Lucknow, since he says that on 5 Ṣafar 1268 he was present there as usual (ḥasb i dastūr) and was conversing with Mus̲h̲īr al-Daulah (Ījāz al-siyar fol. 15a). On a certain occasion he accompanied Rāy Pratāp Narāyan (fol. 288a) and on another he was sitting in the court of Aḥmad K̲h̲ān Bangas̲h̲ at Farruk̲h̲ābād (fol. 290a). In the preface to the Ījāz al-siyar he gives a list of 18 works which he had written ¶ or edited. The Ījāz al-siyar is there described as an abridgment of the Sulṭān al-siyar, which he hoped shortly to complete.

Ījāz al-siyar, a history of Oudh written in 1267/1850–1 (but, as already stated, the date 1268 is mentioned) for Wājid ʿAlī S̲h̲āh: i.o. 3886 (probably ad 1850–1 or soon after, perhaps autograph).

§ 949. Lāl-jī, son of Muns̲h̲ī Sītal Pars̲h̲ād, son of Muns̲h̲ī S̲h̲īv Kumār, a resident (mutawaṭṭin) of Kaṛṛā, wrote his Sulṭān al-ḥikāyāt in Muḥarram 1270/1853.

Sulṭān al-ḥikāyāt, a concise history of Oudh from the time of Burhān al-Mulk Saʿādat K̲h̲ān to that of Wājid ʿAlī S̲h̲āh: i.o. 3902 (ad 1893).

§ 950. Nawwāb Amīr ʿAlī K̲h̲ān has already been mentioned (p. 509 supra) as the author of the Amīr-nāmah and the Bēring-nāmah.

Wazīr-nāmah, begun apparently in 1288/1871–2, completed in 1292/1875, and divided into four bābs ((i) a short account of the Qarā-Yūsufī dynasty of Oudh to the end of Wājid ʿAlī’s reign, (ii) the mission of the Queen-Mother to England to appeal against the annexation of Oudh, (iii) Wājid ʿAlī’s residence at Garden Reach, Calcutta, and the author’s services to him, (iv) works or extracts from works in prose and verse by Wājid ʿAlī S̲h̲āh, poems by the author and others).

Edition: Cawnpore 1293/1876*.

§ 951. Kunwar Durgā-Pars̲h̲ād “Mihr” Sandīlī has already been mentioned (p. 386 supra) as the author of the Gulistān i Hind.

Būstān i Awad’h, a history of Oudh in six daftars ((i) Hindu kings, (ii) Wazīrs of the Delhi Emperors, (iii) Kings of Oudh, (iv) the period of the Mutiny, (v) the author’s ancestors, (vi) on Sandīlah and its notables, Wājid ʿAlī’s death etc.

Edition: Lucknow 1892°*.

§ 952. Mīr Saiyid Muḥammad “S̲h̲āʿir” b. S. ʿAbd al-Jalīl⁹ Ḥusainī Wāsiṭī Bilgrāmī was born at Bilgrām in 1101/1689. When his father retired in 1130/1717–18 from the offices of Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī and Waqāʾiʿ-nawīs in the sarkārs of Bhakkar and Sīwistān, S. Muḥammad was appointed to these offices by Farruk̲h̲-siyar and he held them through the period of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion. In 1155/1732 he left Sīwistān and returned to Bilgrām, where he died on 8 S̲h̲aʿbān 1185/12 November 1772.

¶ He wrote poetry in Persian, Arabic and Urdu, made an abridgment of the Mustaṭraf under the title al-Juzʾ al-as̲h̲raf min al-Mustaṭraf, and compiled a small collection of his father’s letters. He was the maternal uncle of G̲h̲ulām-ʿAlī “Azād” Bilgrāmī.

Tabṣirat al-nāẓirīn, composed ah 1182/1768 and divided into a muqaddimah (on seven Bilgrāmī Saiyids anterior to ah 1100/1688–9), a maqālah (chronologically arranged information concerning events which occurred from ah 1101/1689–90, the date of the author’s birth, to ah 1182/1768–9 in the lives of Bilgrāmī Saiyids and others, especially their births, marriages and deaths, and in the contemporary history of India) and a k̲h̲ātimah (on solar eclipses, chronograms etc.): Rieu iii 963b (ad 1852), Ivanow 190 (ah 1290/1873), Bānkīpūr vii 606 (ad 1875), Āṣafīyah iii p. 98 nos. 1422, 1494, i.o. 3912 (ad 1882).

[Safīnah i K̲h̲wus̲h̲gū (Bānkīpūr viii p. 111); Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-kirām; Tabṣirat al-nāẓirīn; Subḥat al-marjān 87–9; S̲h̲amʿ i anjuman p. 234; Raḥman ʿAlī 83; Ḥayāt i Jalīl (in Urdu) by S. Maqbūl Aḥmad Ṣamdanī, Allahabad 1929, pp. 159–63.]

§ 953. Saiyid ʿĀbid Ḥusain, a resident of Sahasrām, was a pleader (wakīl) in the Civil Court of Mīrzāpūr.

Tārīk̲h̲ i Jāʾis (chronogram = 1285 Faṣlī = ah 1295/1878), a short (23 pp.) history of the village of Jāʾis (once in the S̲h̲arqī kingdom of Jaunpūr, later in the Mānikpūr sarkār of the ṣūbah of Ilāhābād, now in the Rāy Barēlī district of Oudh), with accounts of some of its famous men, based mainly on the Maẓhar al-ʿajāʾib of S. Ḥusain ʿAlī.

Edition: Allahabad 1295/1878*.

§ 954. Other works:

(1)

Aḥwāl i Nawwāb Burhān al-Mulk wa-g̲h̲airah: Ethé 527 (14) (foll. 1246–135a).

(2)

Burhān i Awad’h, by Maulawī S. Ibn i Ḥasan: ʿAlīgaṛh Subḥ. mss. p. 58 no. 954 (14).

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