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

previous chapter: 12.26 Bengal and Orissa

§ 977. An author who does not mention his name but who tells us incidentally in his account of the year 847/1443–4 that he was born on the 18th of D̲h̲ū ’l-Ḥijjah in that year, when his father was taking part in the expedition of Sulṭān ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn [Aḥmad] b. Aḥmad Bahmanī against the fort of Mudkal, wrote a history of the Muẓaffarid dynasty which contains no title in the preface but which on the title-page of the India Office manuscript is called with doubtful correctness Tārīk̲h̲ i Muẓaffar-S̲h̲āhī.¹

¶ Tārīk̲h̲ i Muẓaffar-S̲h̲āhī [?], a flowery history of the Muẓaffarids to the year 889/1484 or thereabouts written in the reign of Maḥmud S̲h̲āh Bēgarah and beginning with the words Bar wāqif i hūs̲h̲mand: Rieu iii 966a (about half of the work, corresponding to foll. 1–107a in the i.o. ms. 17th cent.), i.o. 3842 (ah 1299/1881–2).

§ 978. For the general history al-Ṭabaqāt al-Maḥmūd-S̲h̲āhīyah, which contains much information about Gujrāt to the year 905/1499–1500, see p. 84 supra.

§ 979. A work entitled Maʾāt̲h̲ir i Maḥmūd-S̲h̲āhī was written by a certain ʿAbd al-K̲h̲āliq BRḤĀM[?]Ī YWNĪ (Pūnī?), known as (al-maʿrūf bi) Sar-birahnah, who died in 895/1489–90 [according to ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Namīdīhī (?) al-Ṭabaqāt al-Maḥmūd-Shāhīyah (Eton 160. Cf. p. 84 supra), under the year mentioned]. According to Rieu, who does not specify his authority, “a history of Gujrāt entitled Maāsir i Maḥmūdshāhī, also called Tārīkh i Maḥmūdshāhī” was written by ʿAbd al-Karīm Hamadānī, who “had long been attached to Khwājah Maḥmūd Gāvān, the celebrated minister of the Bahmanīs” and who wrote a life of Maḥmūd i Gāwān which Firis̲h̲tah summarises at the end of his account of Sulṭān Muḥammad S̲h̲āh Bahmanī. A supplement to one of these works, probably the first, or possibly to yet another work of the same title, was written by order of Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh Bēgarah by an author whose preface contains neither his own name nor the title of his work.

(Ḍamīmah i Maʾāt̲h̲ir i Maḥmūd-S̲h̲āhī),² a flowery history of the reign of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Shāh Bēgarah from the time when he despatched an army against Bahādur Gīlānī [in 896/1490–1 according to the Ẓafar al-wālih i p. 169] to the surrender of Asīr Fort by Yūsuf Ḥāfiẓ to Aʿẓam Humāyūn [in 916/1511 according to the Ẓafar al-wālih i p. 59], written by order of Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh as a supplement to the Maʾāt̲h̲ir i Maḥmūd-S̲h̲āhī of an unspecified author and beginning Ba-nām i s̲h̲ahans̲h̲āh i mulk i qidam: i.o. 3841 (apparently only the first of the two maqālahs ((1) on ¶ Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh, (2) on his contemporaries) mentioned in the preface. ah 1299/1882).

§ 980. It was by order of Abū ’l-Naṣr Sulṭān Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh ii that a certain “Qāniʿī” wrote

Tārīk̲h̲ i Muẓaffar-S̲h̲āhī [?],³ an account, in prose interspersed with many verses, of the capture of S̲h̲ādī-ābād (Māndū) in 942/1518: Rieu i 287a (ah 1223/1808), i.o. 4521 (ah 1267/1851).

§ 981. A certain “Muṭīʿī” completed ah 941 /1534–5 and dedicated to Bahādur S̲h̲āh

Ganj i maʿānī, a mat̲h̲nawī on Bahādur S̲h̲āh’s victories: Ivanow Curzon 251 (16th cent.).

§ 982. Mīr (or S̲h̲āh) Abū Turāb Walī b. S̲h̲āh Quṭb al-Dīn S̲h̲ukr Allāh, or S̲h̲āh Abū Turāb al-ʿUraiḍī al-Ḥusainī, as he is called in the Ẓafar al-wālih (p. 548¹⁸), was a S̲h̲īrāzī (Salāmī) Saiyid, whose grandfather had migrated from S̲h̲īrāz and in 898/1492–3 had settled in C̲h̲ānpānēr. In 974/1566–7 Mīr Abū Turāb was evidently an employee or a supporter of the Gujrātī noble C̲h̲ingiz K̲h̲ān who sent him to negotiate with Iʿtimād K̲h̲ān. C̲h̲ingiz K̲h̲ān was murdered in Ṣafar 975/1569, and in 980/1572–3, when Akbar first entered Gujrāt, Mīr Abū Turāb was sent by Iʿtimād K̲h̲ān to the Emperor with a letter inviting him to take the country. He accompanied Akbar on his progress through Gujrāt and received various marks of the royal favour. In 985/1577 Akbar appointed him Mīr i Ḥājj, and on his return in 987/1579 he brought with him to Āgrah a large stone bearing the impression of the Prophet’s foot (qadam i Rasūl). In 988/1580 he received permission to take this stone to Gujrāt and he erected it at Asāwal near Aḥmadābād. In 992/1583 Iʿtimād K̲h̲ān was appointed Governor of Gujrāt, and S̲h̲āh Abū Turāb Amīn i ṣūbah. He died on 13 Jumādā i ah 1003/1595 and was buried at Asāwal.

Tārīk̲h̲ i Gujrāt, a history of Gujrāt from the reign of Bahādur S̲h̲āh (ah 932/1526–943/1536) to the taking of Aḥmadābād by Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh iii in 992/1584: Rieu iii 967 (ah 1151/1738–9).

Edition: A history of Gujarat. By Mīr Abū Turāb Valī. Edited with introduction and notes by E. Denison Ross. Calcutta 1909°* (Bibliotheca Indica).

[Autobiographical statements in the Tārīk̲h̲ i Gujrāt (for these see Rieu iii 967 and Ross’s introduction to his edition and his summary of contents); ¶ Akbar-nāmah i p. 146, iii pp. 217, 281, 318, 403, 411, 454 and doubtless elsewhere (see the index to Beveridge’s translation of this volume, when it appears); Ẓafar al-wālih bi-Muẓaffar wa-ālih (in Arabic) pp. 499²², 504⁶, 506⁸, 507⁴, 548¹⁸, 567¹⁸, 603⁵, 606⁵, ^20–21; Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī, k̲h̲ātimah (Baroda 1930) p. 64, English trans. (Baroda 1928) p. 57; Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-umarāʾ iii pp. 280–5, Beveridge’s translation pp. 142–4 (summarised by Blochmann in his translation of the Āʾīn i Akbarī pp. 506–7); Rieu iii 967.]

§ 983. Sikandar b. M. Manjhū⁴ b. Akbar served under the K̲h̲ān i Aʿẓam (Mīrzā ʿAzīz Kōkah, Governor of Gujrāt) in the campaign which ended with the capture and death of Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh iii, the dethroned king of Gujrāt, in 1000/1591.

In 1026/1617 he was visited at Aḥmadābād by Jahāngīr, who mentions him in his Memoirs (tr. Rogers and Beveridge i 427) as a man well acquainted with the history of Gujrāt, who had been for eight or nine years in the Imperial service.

Mirʾāt i Sikandarī, completed ah 1020/1611 or 1022/1613 (see Bodleian 273), a history of Gujrāt from the time of Ẓafar K̲h̲ān (Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh i) to the death of Sulṭān Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh iii in 1000/1591: Blochet i 624 (ah 1022/1613 (?)), 622 (ah 1238/1822), 623 (late 18th cent.), Ivanow 195 (ah 1038/1628–9), Rieu i 287b (ah 1045/1632), 288a (ah 1162/1749), 288b (ah 1196/1782), 288b (18th cent.), 288b (ah 1211/1797), Berlin 509 (n.d.), 510 (ah 1046/1637), Bodleian 272 (ah 1046/1637), 273 (ah 1056/1647), 274 (ah 1079/1668), 275 (ah 1139/1726), Ethé 438 (bears a seal dated ah 1056/1646), 439 (ah 1046/1637), 440 (ah 1072/1662), 441–3 (of which 442 is dated ah 1049/1639), ii 3015 (old), i.o. 3844 (probably circ. ad 1882), Ross and Browne 8 (17th cent.), Lindesiana p. 157 no. 900 (ah 1094/1683), Morley 69 (ah 1196/1781), Eton 177 (ah 1200/1785–6), Rehatsek p. 76 no. 13 (ah 1213/1798–9), Bānkīpūr vii 610 (18th cent.), Bombay Fyzee 8 (ad 1849), 9 (not old), Salemann-Rosen p. 18 no. 141.

Editions: Bombay 1831°*, 1890°*.

English translation: Mirati Sikandari, or The Mirror of Sikandar … Translated by Fazlullah Lutfullah Faridi. [Bombay 1899°*.]

Cf.: The history of India as told by its own historians. The local Muhammadan dynasties. Gujarat. By … Sir E.C. Bayley … Partially based on a [nearly complete] translation [of the Mirʾāt i Sikandari] by … J. Dowson…. Forming a sequel to Sir H.M. Elliot’s History of the Muhammadan Empire of India. London 1886°*.

¶ § 984. Mīrzā M. Ḥasan b. M. ʿAlī was eight or nine years old in 1120/1708, when he went to Gujrāt from Burhānpūr (Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī i p. 13^4–5), his father having been appointed Waqāʾiʿ-nigār of the jāgīr of Prince M. Jahāndār S̲h̲āh in the ṣūbah of Aḥmadābād (M. i A. i p. 383^14–15). On his father’s death in 1157/1744 he succeeded by royal decree to his father’s manṣab, his office (Amīn or Superintendent of the Cloth Market), his title (ʿAlī Muḥammad K̲h̲ān) and jāgīr (M. i A. ii p. 326^6–7). In 1159/1746 he was appointed Dīwān of Gujrāt (M. i A. p. 340), and in 1163/1750 the title of Bahādur was conferred upon him (M. i A. ii p. 395¹⁷).

Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī, as it is usually called, or Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī i ṣūbah i Aḥmadābād Gujrāt, as the author called it, begun in 1170/1756–7 and completed in Ṣafar 1175/September 1761, a history of Gujrāt from the earliest times to Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Abdālī’s victory over the Marāṭ’hās at Pānīpat in 1174/1761 with a k̲h̲ātimah containing a description of Aḥmadābād, lives of the saints and saiyids buried there, accounts of its inhabitants, Hindu tribes and temples, measures, weights etc., t’hānahs, officials and their duties, districts and parganahs of Gujrāt, its ports, rivers, mountains and sights: Ethé ii 3016 (ah 1175/1761, transcribed by the author’s grandson,⁵ except possibly the k̲h̲ātimah, though that “seems to be written by the same hand”), Ethé 444 (ah 1199/1785), i.o. 3843 (ah 1299/1882), Lindesiana p. 122 nos. 901–2 (ah 1195/1780), Bānkīpūr vii 611 (ah 1199/1785), Rieu i 288b (ah 1202/1788), 289b (breaking off in Aurangzēb’s 13th year. 18th cent.), 289b (an abridgment. ad 1808), Leyden iii p. 13 no. 925 (ah 1202/1787), r.a.s. P. 82–4 = Morley 70–2 (ah 1238/1822–3), P. 85 = Morley 73 (detached portions), Bombay Univ. p. 263 (Sambat 1881), Bombay Fyzee 7 (ad 1849).

Editions: (1) Bombay 1306–7/1888–89°*,⁶ (2) Mirat-i-Ahmadi … by Ali Muham­mad Khan. Edited by Syed Nawab Ali…. Baroda 1927–8* (2 vols. Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, 33 and 34), Mirat-i-Ahmadi. Supplement (Persian text) … critically edited … by Syed Nawab Ali … Baroda 1930* (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, 50). Cf. also p. 656 n. 2.

¶ ms. English translation made in 1878–86 by Lt.-Col. J.W. Watson: Ethé ii 3016, inserted leaves.

English translation of the history down to Akbar’s invasion, i.e. about one-sixth of the whole work: The political and statistical history of Gujarát, translated from the Persian of Alí Mohammed Khán … to which are added … annotations and … introduction. By J. Bird. London 1835°* (Oriental Translation Fund).

English translation of the K̲h̲ātimah: The Supplement to the Mirat-i-Ahmadi. Translated … by Syed Nawab Ali … and C.N. Seddon … Baroda (Bombay printed) 1924* (Education Department); Mirat-i-Ahmadi. Supplement. Translated … by Syed Nawab Ali … and C.N. Seddon … Re-issue—corrected. Baroda (Calcutta printed) 1928* (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, 43).

Translations of extracts: The history of India as told by its own historians. The local Muhammadan dynasties. Gujarat. By … Sir Edward Clive Bayley … Partially based on a translation [of parts of the Mirʾāt i Sikandarī and the Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī] by … J. Dowson…. Forming a sequel to Sir H.M. Elliot’s History of the Muhammadan Empire of India. London 1886°*.

For an Urdu translation and two incomplete Gujrātī translations see Bombay Univ. p. 264.

[Autobiographical statements in the Mirʾāt i Aḥmadī (two or three of these in Rieu i 289 and in the foreword to the English translation of the K̲h̲ātimah); Rieu i 289.]

§ 985. Ranc̲h̲hōṛ-jī, a son of the celebrated Dīwān Amar-jī of Jūnāgaṛh, was born in Samwat 1824 Vikramī/ad 1767. Most of his life was devoted to the service of the Nawwābs of Jūnāgaṛh as was that of his father Amar-jī and that of his elder brother Raghunāth-jī, who was likewise Dīwān, and who died in 1819. Like them he played a prominent part in the incessant warfare between Jūnāgaṛh and the neighbouring states. According to James Burgess Ranc̲h̲hōṛ-jī was in his turn Dīwān of Jūnāgaṛh, but this does not seem to be expressly stated in the Waqāʾiʿ i Sōraṭ’h.

Tārīk̲h̲ i Sōraṭ’h or Waqāʾiʿ i Sōraṭ’h, a history of Sōraṭ’h⁷ or Saurāshṭrā, especially of Jūnāgaṛh and Nawanagar, in the author’s time with a sketch of its earlier history, completed (according to the Edinburgh Univ. ¶ catalogue) in Jēṭh of Samwat 1886/16 D̲h̲ū ’l-Ḥijjah 1245/9 June 1830:⁸ Bombay Fyzee 11 (autograph? ah 1245/1830?), 12 (Samwat 1892/ad 1835–6. Fuller than 11 and apparently a revised edition), Edinburgh 235 (ah 1287/1870), Rieu iii 1041a (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850), i.o. 4527 (extract relating to Jūnāgaṛh down to Akbar’s conquest. ad 1849).

English translation by E. Rehatsek revised by Col. J.W. Watson and edited with an introduction by J. Burgess: Târikh-i-Soraṭh, a history of the provinces of Soraṭh and Hâlâr in Kâṭhiâwâḍ. By Ranchoḍji Amarji…. Translated from the Persian. Bombay 1882°*.

ms. Gujarātī translation by Maṇi-s̲h̲ankar Jata-s̲h̲ankar Mujamundar (see Rehatsek’s translation pp. iii, 25).

[Rehatsek’s translation pp. iii, 53, 89–91, 137, 164, 173, 175, 178, 189, 190, 193, 197–202, 211, 221–2, 268–9, 276, 290–1, 298; Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. viii Káthiáwár (Bombay 1884) p. 628; H. Wilberforce-Bell The History of Kathiawad, London 1916, pp. 147, 156, 160–4, 192, 194.]

§ 986. S̲h̲. Aḥmad, alias Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ū Miyān, b. S̲h̲. Ḥāmid b. S̲h̲. Bahādur was Munṣif at Sūrat and died in 1265/1848–9. He wrote a historical work entitled Ḥadīqah i Aḥmadī in three volumes. He had intended to rewrite this and divide it into fifteen parts, but he died when he had completed only one part, to which he gave the title Ḥadīqat al-Hind.

Ḥadīqat al-Hind: Bombay Fyzee 10 (chapter xii only (on the province of Gujrāt). ah 1266/1850).

§ 987. Other works:

(1)

Ḥaqīqat (Ḥaqāʾiq, Aḥwāl) i sarkār i Gāyakwār, a short history of the Gāykwār Mahārājahs of Baroda from their origin to ad 1818, by Muns̲h̲ī Sārā-Bhāy: i.o. 4525 (ah 1269/1853), 4526 (about the first third of the same work. Same hand).

(2)

Historical notices of Sūrat and Kēc̲h̲ Makrān: i.o. 3817.

(3)

Muntak̲h̲ab i aḥwālāt i zain al-bilād Aḥmadābād, a short history of Gujrāt from the time of the Hindu Rājahs to that of Ragunat’h Rāō, when ʿAlī M. K̲h̲ān was Dīwān of the province, possibly compiled by the copyist Bāng [?] La‘l son of Tarang [?] La‘l: i.o. 4545 (ad 1849).

(4)

The Salatin-i-Baroda, being Mr. F.A.H. Elliot’s “Rulers of Baroda”, rendered into Persian … by Maulavi Farid ud-Din Ahmad. Bombay 1898*.

(5)

¶ (Tārīk̲h̲ i Bharōc̲h̲), a short history of Broach in the 18th and early 19th centuries, by Nūr al-Dīn b. Qāḍī S. Aḥmad Ḥusain Riḍawī al-S̲h̲īrāzī: i.o. 4514.

(6)

Tārīk̲h̲ i salāṭīn i Gujrāt, a very brief (21 foll.) chronicle of the rulers of Gujrāt from Sulṭān Aḥmad S̲h̲āh (ah 813/1410) to ah 961/1554, the last date mentioned in the text, or a little later: Bodleian 271 (n.d.)

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