Mahommed Kasim Ferishta

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Mahommed Kasim Ferishta (ca. 1570-ca. 1611), Persian historian, was born at Astrabad on the shores of the Caspian Sea. While he was still a child his father was summoned away from his native country into Hindustan, where he held high office in the Deccan; and by his influence the young Ferishta received court promotion.

In 1589 Ferishta removed to Bijapur, where he spent the remainder of his life under the immediate protection of the shah Ibrahim Adil Shah II, who engaged him to write a history of India. At the court of this monarch he died about 1611.

In the introduction to his work a résumé is given of the history of Hindustan prior to the times of the Mahommedan conquest, and also of the victorious progress of the Arabs through the East. The first ten books are each occupied with a history of the kings of one of the provinces; the eleventh book gives an account of the Muslims of Malabar; the twelfth a history of the Muslim saints of India; and the conclusion treats of the geography and climate of India.

Ferishtai is reputed to be one of the most trustworthy of the Oriental historians, and his work still maintains a high place as an authority. Several portions of it have been translated into English; but the best as well as the most complete translation is that published by General J. Briggs under the title of The History of the Rise of the Mahometan Power in India (London, 1829, 4 vols.). Several additions were made by Briggs to the original work of Ferishta, but he omitted the whole of the twelfth book, and various other passages which had been omitted in the copy from which he translated.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.