Firishta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Firishta or Ferishta (c. 1560–c. 1620), given name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah was a Persian historian.

Firishta 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 Firishta received court promotion.

In 1589 Firishta removed to Bijapur, where he spent the remainder of his life under the immediate protection of the shah Ibrahim Adil II, who engaged him to write a history of India. In the introduction to his work a resume is given of the history of Hindustan prior to the times of the Muslim 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.

Firishta is reputed as 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. 8vo). Several additions were made by Briggs to the original work of Firishta, but he omitted the whole of the twelfth book, and various other passages which had been omitted in the copy from which he translated.