1794 Ferishta's History of Dekkan from the First Mahummedan Conquests: With a Continuation from Other Native Writers, of the Events in That Part of India, to the Reduction of its Last Monarchs by the Emperor Aulumgeer Aurungzebe: Also, the Reigns of His Successors in the Empire of Hindoostan to the Present Day: And the History of Bengal, from the Accession of Aliverdee Khan to the Year 1780

Description

First Edition, Leather Binding

The first edition of this English translation from gifted orientalist Jonathan Scott, published in his native Shrewsbury. 

Complete in two volumes. 

Uniformly bound in contemporary full tree calf.  

A detailed chronicle of the history of the Islamic kingdoms of southern India. Volume I documents the history of the Deccan Plateau to the end of the sixteenth century whilst Volume II covers the expansion of the Mughal empire, its decline and the foundation of independent kingdoms, concluding with a history of Bengal.

Firishta (full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi, 1570-c1611-1623) was a Persian historian. who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. Earlier in his career, Firishta had served as captain of the guards under King Murtaza Nizam Shah I, Sultan of Ahmadnagar, but had to flee when Murtaza was assassinated by his own son. Firishta fled to the Sultanate of Bijapur where he served under King Ibrahim Adil II, who implored Firishta in 1593 to write a history of India with equal emphasis on the history of Deccan dynasties as no work thus far had given equal treatment to all regions of the subcontinent.

Firishta's work comprises the majority of Volume I, but from page 400 onwards the work is continued by the work of Shaw-nowauz Khan, a nobleman of Deccan, entitled Masser al Amra, or Biography of Nobles.