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

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§ 823. ʿAlī b. Ḥāmid b. Abī Bakr al-Kūfī, having been compelled by adverse circumstances to leave his native land, settled at Uc̲h̲h. In his fifty-eighth year, ah 613/1216–7, or not long after, he conceived the idea of writing an account of the Muḥammadan conquest of Sind and went to Alōr and Bhakkar with a view to obtaining information on the subject. Maulānā Qāḍī Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī T̲̲h̲aqafī, a descendant of one of the conquerors, showed him an Arabic book composed (or transcribed) by one of his ancestors. ʿAlī b. Ḥāmid translated this book into Persian and dedicated the translation to ʿAin al-Mulk Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Ḥusain b. Abī Bakr al-As̲h̲ʿarī, who was Wazīr to the ruler of Sindh, Nāṣir al-Dīn Qubāc̲h̲ah.

C̲h̲ac̲h̲-nāmah,¹ as it is usually called, or Tārīk̲h̲ i Hind or Fatḥ-nāmah, as it is called in the preface, a historical romance telling the story of C̲h̲ac̲h̲, the Rājah of Alōr, and the conquest of Sind by M. b. Qāsim al-T̲h̲aqafī, ah 92/710: Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (ah 1061/1651. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii, no. 4 (Lahore, August 1926), p. 56), Rieu i 290b (a fragment (foll. 25) only. 19th cent.), iii 948b (ah 1248/1832), Blochet i 630 (1st ¶ half of 19th cent.), Bānkīpūr vii 597 (ah 1272/1856), Ivanow 184 (ad 1871), Ethé 435 (n.d.).

According to Elliot and Dowson History of India i p. 137 the C̲h̲ac̲h̲-nāmah is common in India.

English translation: The Chachnamah, an ancient history of Sind, giving the Hindu period down to the Arab Conquest. Translated … by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg…. Karāc̲h̲i 1900°(a continuation translated from other Persian sources and entitled A history of Sind. Volume II was published by Mīrzā Qilīc̲h̲ Bēg in 1902, The Chachnamah being by an afterthought regarded as A History of Sind. Volume I).

Translated extracts: (1) Account of the expedition of Chach … extracted from the Chach Nameh … by Ensign Postans² (in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vii (1838) pp. 93–96, 297–310), (2) Of the early history of Sindh, from the “Chuch Namuh” and other authorities. [Translated] By Lieut. Postans ¹ (in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. x (1841) pp. 183–97, 267–71), (3) Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 138–211.

Description: Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 131–7.

§ 824. Mīr M. Maʿṣūm “Nāmī” b. S. Ṣafāʾī al-Ḥusainī al-Tirmid̲h̲ī al-Bhakkarī, the son of a S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Islām at Bhakkar, went to Gujrāt some time after his father’s death, which occurred in 991/1583, and became a friend of the historian Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad (for whom see p. 341 supra). He entered Akbar’s service and in the 40th regnal year, ah 1003–4/1595–6, was given a manṣab of 250. In 1012/1603–4 he was sent on a mission to S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās, and after his return Jahāngīr gave him the title of Amīn al-Mulk. He returned to Bhakkar in 1015/1606–7 and died there soon after.

According to ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī he was the author of a dīwān and of a mat̲h̲nawī in the metre of [“Jāmī’s”] Yūsuf u Zalīk̲h̲ā. According to Taqī Kās̲h̲ī [as summarised in Sprenger p. 37] he wrote two dīwāns of g̲h̲azals, two sāqī-nāmahs and five mat̲h̲nawīs ((1) Ḥusn u Nāz in the metre of Yūsuf u Zalīk̲h̲ā, (2) Parī-ṣūrat in the metre of Lailā Majnūn, (3)–(5) [titles not stated] in the metres of the Haft paikar, the Sikandar-nāmah and the Mak̲h̲zan al-asrār). In the Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-umarāʾ the title of the last, the only one there mentioned, is given as Maʿdin al-afkār. There seem to be no recorded manuscripts of these ¶ works except possibly the Dīwān i Nāmī described by Flügel (i no. 629), which is shown by the chronograms which it contains to be by a poet of the tenth century, and less probably the apparently different Dīwān i Nāmī described by Dorn (no. 475 (1) transcribed in 1043/1634). A short medical work of his, the Mufradāt i Maʿṣūmī or Mufradāt i Nāmī, has been preserved (see Bānkīpūr xi no. 985, Ivanow 1550).

Tārīk̲h̲ i Sind, often called Tārīk̲h̲̲ i Maʿṣūmī, a history of Sind from the Muḥammadan conquest to its annexation by Akbar divided into four chapters called juzʾ ((1) the conquest of Sind, (2) its history under the governors appointed by the Kings of Hindūstān to 801/1399 and under the Sūmrah and Sammah dynasties to 916/1510, (3) the Arg̲h̲ūn dynasty to the death of Sulṭān Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān in 982/1574 and some rulers of Tattah to 993/1585, (4) history of Sind from 982/1574 to Akbar’s annexation and of the subsequent governors to ah 1008/1599–1600): Ivanow 185 (ah 1046/1636–7), Rehatsek p. 71 no. 7, (ah 1080/1669–70), Rieu i 291a (17th cent.), 292a (17th cent.), 292a (18th cent.), iii 949a (ad 1849), 949a (with some additional matter. ad 1851), Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (ah 1159/1746. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii no. 4 (Lahore, August 1926), p. 56), Ethé 436 (ah 1186/1772), 437 (ah 1216/1802), Ross and Browne 239 (circ. ad 1864), i.o. 3747, 3873, 3916, r.a.s. P. 70 = Morley 59 (ah 1233/1817), Āṣafīyah i p. 226 nos. 292 (ah 1227/1812), 674, iii p. 96 no. 1373, Lindesiana p. 194 no. 377 (ah 1247/1831–2), Blochet i 632 (ah 1260/1844), Bānkīpūr vii 599 (19th cent.).

Edition: Taʾrīkh-i-Sind, best known as Taʾrīkh-i-Maʿṣūmī, by Sazzid Muhammad Maʿṣūm Bakkarī … edited … by U.M. Daudpota. Poona 1938 (Bhandarkar Institute).

English translation:³ A history of Sind … written … by Mahomed Masoom; and translated … by Captain G.G. Malet … assisted by Peer Mahomed … Edited by R.H. Thomas. Bombay 1855°* (Selections from the records of the Bombay Government. No. xiii.—New series).

Sind’hī translation: by Muns̲h̲ī Nandīrām, place? 1861 (see The Chach­namah … translated … by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg, Karāc̲h̲ī 1900°, p. ii).

Translations of extracts: (1) Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 215–52, (2) A history of Sind. Volume II (in two parts). Part I.—Giving ¶ the Mussulman period from the Arab Conquest to the beginning of the reign of the Kalhórahs [from the Tārīk̲h̲ i Maʿṣūmī and the Tuḥfat al-kirām]. Part II—Giving the reigns of the Kalhórahs and the Tálpurs down to the British Conquest [from the Tuḥfat al-kirām, the Fatḥ-nāmah of M. ʿAẓīm, and the Frīr-nāmah]. Translated[or summarised] from Persian books by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg … Karāc̲h̲ī 1902°.

[Ṭabaqāt i Akbarī ii p. 500; Muntak̲h̲ab al-tawārīk̲h̲ iii pp. 364–75; Akbar-nāmah iii p. 424 (continuation), p. 836; Āʾīn i Akbarī p. 230 no. 329 (merely his name in the list of Dū-ṣad-u-panjāhīs), Blochmann’s trans. p. 514 (the fullest biography in English); Taqī Kās̲h̲ī K̲h̲ulāṣat al-as̲h̲ʿār, appendix ix (summarised Sprenger p. 37); Safīnah i K̲h̲wus̲h̲gū (Bodl. 376 no. 460); Riyāḍ al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ (Ivanow Curzon 57 no. 1635); ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qānīʿ” Maqālāt al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ, near the end; Idem Tuḥfat al-kirām, towards the end of Mujallad iii; Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-umarāʾ iii pp. 326–9; Suḥuf i Ibrāhīm; Mak̲h̲zan al-g̲h̲arāʾib no. 2754; Morley pp. 72–3; Sprenger pp. 37, 65; Elliot and Dowson History of India i p. 213; Haft āsmān pp. 126–7; Rieu i p. 291; Beale Oriental biographical dictionary p. 269; Niẓāmī Badāyūnī Qāmūs al-mas̲h̲āhīr (in Urdu) ii p. 201.]

§ 825. “Idrākī” Bēg-Lārī Tattawī, of the Arg̲h̲ūn tribe, was the author of a mat̲h̲nawī entitled C̲H̲NYR-nāmah,⁴ which he composed in 1010/1601–2, as is shown by a hemistich quoted in the Maqālāt al-shuʿarāʾ by ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qāniʿ”, who had seen no other poems by this author. ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qāniʿ” does not mention the Bēg-Lār-nāmah in his short notice of “Idrākī”, nor is the author’s name mentioned in the Bēg-Lār-nāmah itself. The work is, however, ascribed to Idrākī T’hattawī in a manuscript (b.m. Or. 2073, Rieu iii p. 1061) containing notices of 29 mss. in the library of the Mullās of Tattah, which was drawn up for Sir H.M. Elliot in 1266 by S. Ṣābir ʿAlī, a grandson of ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qāniʿ”.

Bēg-Lār-nāmah, a biography of K̲h̲ān i Zamān Amīr (or S̲h̲āh) Qāsim K̲h̲ān b. Amīr S. Qāsim Bēg-Lār, a military commander who flourished under the Tark̲h̲ān rulers in Akbar’s time and who had reached his seventieth year in 1017/1608–9, the date of composition (though there are later additions): Blochet i 631⁵ (ah 1078/1667), Bānkīpūr vii 598 (ah 1233/1818), Rieu iii 949b (ah 1265/1849), i.o. 4398 (lacunæ. ah 1269/1852). Three copies in Sind were known to Sir H.M. Elliot.

¶ Description and 7 pp. of translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 289–99.

[ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qāniʿ” Maqālāt al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ (i.o. 4398 fol. 4b); Rieu iii 1096b (ad p. 949b).]

§ 826. Mīr Ṭāhir Muḥammad “Nisyānī” b. S. Ḥasan, of Tattah, was in the service of Mīrzā G̲h̲āzī Bēg Tark̲h̲ān “Waqārī” (Governor of Sind ah 1008/1599–1018/1609), and was in his twenty-fifth year when at the time of Akbar’s death, ah 1014/1605, he received permission to return to Tattah, his native town. He there devoted himself to the study of the Persian poets under Maulānā Isḥāq al-Bhakkarī. It was at the request of Mīrzā S̲h̲āh Muḥammad Bēg ʿĀdil K̲h̲ān, eldest son of S̲h̲āh Bēg K̲h̲ān Arg̲h̲ūn (Governor of Qandahār ah 1002/1593–4–1028/1619 and of Tattah ah 1028/1619), that he began in 1021/1612–13 his Tārīk̲h̲ i Ṭāhirī, which he completed in 1030/1620–1, being then in his fortieth year.

Tārīk̲h̲ i Ṭāhirī, a history of Tattah from the earliest times to ah 1018/1609: Bānkīpūr vii 600 (ah 1223/1808), Rieu i 292b (lacuna near beginning. 19th cent.), iii 949b (19th cent.).

Description and 33 pp. of translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 253–88.

§ 827. Mīrzā M. Ṣāliḥ Tark̲h̲ān b. Mīrzā ʿĪsā Tark̲h̲ān (who became Ṣūbah-dār of Tattah in 1061/1651 and who was a great-grandson of Mīrzā ʿĪsā Tark̲h̲ān, the founder of the Tark̲h̲ān dynasty extinguished by Akbar), desiring to read an early history of his ancestors entitled Tark̲h̲ān-nāmah, asked S. Jamāl b. Mīr Jalāl al-Dīn al-Ḥusainī al-S̲h̲īrāzī to find a copy of this book. S. Jamāl was unsuccessful, and therefore he wrote in 1065/1654–5⁶ a Tark̲h̲ān-nāmah of his own, which he compiled from a number of works mentioned in his preface, but mainly, according to Elliot and Dowson i p. 301, from M. Maʿṣūm’s Tārīk̲h̲ i Sind (for which see p. 512 supra).

Tark̲h̲ān-nāmah,⁷ a history of the Arg̲h̲ūn and Tark̲h̲ān rulers of Sind (ah 926/1520–961/1554 and 961/1554–1000/1592 respectively) preceded by an account of their Mongol ancestors and continued to the death of Mīrzā ʿĪsā Tark̲h̲ān in 1061/1651 and the succession of his son Mīrzā M. Ṣāliḥ to the Ṣūbah-dārī of Tattah: Rieu iii 950a (ah 1265/1849), 950a (circ. ad 1850), 950b (19th cent.), i.o. 3871 (19th cent.).

¶ Description and 23 pp. of translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India i pp. 300–26.

§ 828. Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr “Qāniʿ” Tattawī was born in 1140/1727–8 and was still alive in 1202/1787–8 (see p. 108 supra). In addition to the works mentioned on p. 138 he wrote Iʿlān i g̲h̲am, an account of the martyrs of Karbalāʾ, Maklī-nāmah, notices of the saints of Mount Maklī, and a Muk̲h̲tār-nāmah (see Rieu iii p. 1061b).

(1)

Tuḥfat al-kirām (a chronogram = 1180/1766–7, the date of inception, ah 1181 being given as the date of completion, but later dates (e.g. 1188) occur), a history in three volumes (mujallad), of which the first is a general history from the earliest times, the second an account of the seven climates in the manner of the Haft iqlīm with notices of the celebrated men of the principal countries and cities, and the third a special history of Sind:⁸ Bānkīpūr vi 479 (ah 1233/1817–18), Rieu ii 846a (ah 1246/1830), iii 950b (vol. i only. ad 1851), 950b (vol. ii only. 19th cent.), 950b (vol. iii only. ah 1261/1845), 950b (vol. iii only. ah 1266/1850), i.o. 4535 (vol. iii only. ah 1295/1878).

Edition (of vols. ii and iii only): Lucknow 1304/1886–7* (3 vols.).⁹

Translations of extracts: see p. 108 supra.

(2)

Tārīk̲h̲ i ʿAbbāsīyah, two histories of the Kalhōṛah dynasty, one in prose and the other in verse, both unfinished: Rieu iii 1061b (extracts only).

§ 829. M. ʿAẓīm al-Dīn Ḥusainī S̲h̲īrāzī Tattawī lived in the reign of Mīr Fatḥ-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān Tālpur, ruler of Sind from 1197/1783 to 1216/1801.

¶ Fatḥ-nāmah, a metrical history of the ʿAbbāsī or Tālpur¹⁰ Amīrs of Sind, written in 1199/1785¹¹ and dedicated to Mīr Fatḥ-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān:¹² Ivanow Curzon 303 (defective. Early 19th cent.), Rieu iii 1041a (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850), 1056a xv (extracts only).

Condensed English translation: A history of Sind. Volume II … Translated from Persian books by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg. Karāc̲h̲ī 1902°, pp. 165–202.

§ 830. Of unknown authorship is

(Tawārīk̲h̲ i ʿAbbāsiyān),¹³ a sketch of the history of the Kalhōṛah dynasty to about 1226/1811, the last event for which a date is given being the death of Miyān M. ʿAlī K̲h̲ān b. M. ʿĀrif K̲h̲ān b. Miyān ʿAbd al-Nabī K̲h̲ān in that year: i.o. D.P. 755 foll. 13–20.

§ 831. Muẓaffar ʿAlī.

Short account of the decline of the Kalhōṛah dynasty and the rise of the Tālpurs: no mss. recorded.

English translation: A narrative of events which led to the decline and subversion of the Sovereignty of the former Rulers of Sind,—and to the usurpation of that State by its present possessors, who are of the tribe of Bulooch—originally from Talpoor. Translated from the Persian by Captain Pogson (extracted from the Calcutta Magazine). Pp. 272–88. [Calcutta 1831*.]

§ 832. Muʿizz al-Daulah Muʿīn al-Mulk Fīrūz-Jang Mir Ṣūbadār K̲h̲ān was the son of Mīr Fatḥ-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān Tālpur, ruler of Sind from 1197/1783 to 1216/1801. A mystical mat̲h̲nawī entitled Judāʾī-nāmah by “Mir Soubdarkhan, émir du Sind” is described in Blochet iii no. 1933, but it is not clear whether its author was the same Ṣūbadār K̲h̲ān.¹⁴

Fatḥ-nāmah, a metrical history of the Tālpurs, especially of Mīr Fatḥ-ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, completed in 1254/1838 (?): Bānkīpūr Suppt. i 1931 (Bengali year 1253/1846).

§ 833. Mīr Yār-Muḥammad K̲h̲ān was a son of Mīr Murād ʿAlī K̲h̲ān Tālpur, Ruler of Sind from 1244/1828 to 1249/1833, and on his father’s death became, like ¶ each of his three brothers, the ruler of a quarter of Sind. In 1259/1843, after the conquest of Sind by Sir Charles Napier, Mīr Yār-Muḥammad K̲h̲ān was taken, like the other Mīrs, as a state prisoner first to Bombay and then to the village of Sasūr, about 24 miles from Poonah. In 1260/1844 they were taken to Calcutta and shortly after Mīr Yār-Muḥammad K̲h̲ān accepted the choice of living at Hazaribagh. In 1270/1854 the East India Company gave the Mīrs permission to return to Sind, if they liked, and in Rajab 1273/Feb.–March 1857 Mīr Yār-Muḥammad K̲h̲ān reached Ḥaidarābād.

Frīr-nāmah, a history of Sind in the time of the Tālpur dynasty based in its earlier part on the Fatḥ-nāmah and in its later part on personal experience, written in 1857 [1859?]¹⁵ and dedicated to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Bartle Frere, with whose Commissionership the work ends: no mss. recorded.

Condensed English translation: A history of Sind. Volume II … translated from Persian hooks by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg …, Karāc̲h̲ī 1902°, pp. 202–39.

[A history of Sind. Volume II … translated from Persian books by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg, pp. ii, 220, 221, 237, 238.]

§ 834. K̲h̲ān Bahādur K̲h̲udā-dād K̲h̲ān son of Rāḍō K̲h̲ān (otherwise Riḍā M. K̲h̲ān), an Afg̲h̲ān of the Tarīn tribe, entered the service of Government in 1853, and in 1855 he was employed in the Jāgīr and Political Department. He served for many years with credit as Mīr Muns̲h̲ī to the Commissioner in Sind. In 1892 he received the title of K̲h̲ān Bahādur and on his retirement in 1899 to his home at Sukkur he was given a jāgīr. He says that in 1862 he published a Makrān-nāmah and in 1867 a K̲h̲alīj-nāmah on the Persian Gulf. In 1869 he was ordered to write an account of the famous ruined places in Sind. This account, he says, was translated into English and published. Another work of his, Waqāʾiʿ al-sair i Jaisalmēr, an account of a tour in 1859, was published at Karāc̲h̲ī in 1875*.

Lubb i tārīk̲h̲ i Sindh (on English title-page Lab [sic] tarikh Sind), a history of Sind from the earliest times to ah 1318/1900, the date of completion, with a summary in English.

Edition: Amritsar 1318/1900°*.

¶ [Autobiographical statements in the Lubb i tārīk̲h̲ i Sind; Ṣaḥīfah i zarrīn (in Urdu) by Prāg Narāyan Bhārgava, Lucknow 1902, Bombay section, pp. 52–3; Portrait, ibid. facing p. 49.]

§ 835. Other works:

(1)

Naẓārat al-Sind, i.e. Personal observations on Sindh by Lieut. T. Postans (London 1843*) translated into Persian by Bis̲h̲an Narāyan, who added a few notes on subsequent events down to 1858: Ivanow 186 (ad 1859).

(2)

Tawārīk̲h̲ i tāzah-nawāʾī, a history of Sind, by Mīrzā ʿAṭā Muḥammad S̲h̲ikārpūrī: Rieu iii 1040b (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850).

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