Tārikh-i- Firishta / Gulshan-i-Ibrāhīmī

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Introductory notes

Firishta, or Muḥammad Ḳāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī (c.1572-1624), his family being recently domiciled in Aḥmadnagar in the 1580s, was in the service of Murtaḍā Niẓām Shāh (1565-88). He fled, along with the gharibān and gharīb-zādā (the foreigners and their descendants), during a forced migration from Ahmadnagar to Bījāpūr in 1589. In 1589, Firishta was presented at the Bīdjāpūrī court, and on 8 January 1590 began service under Ibrāhīm ʿĀdil S̲h̲āh. Firishta acted as a go-between, later in 1590, for Burhān Niẓām S̲h̲āh who was seeking Bīdjāpūrī support. His history the Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī / Tārikh-i-Firishta is in two parts, the first dated 1606-7 and the second, newly titled, Taʾrīkh-i Nawras-nāma, dated 1609-10. This brief extract, from his narrative of the conquest of Sindh by Akbar in 1591, and the defeat of Mirza Jani Beg (d.1601) of the Turkhan Dynasty, the last independent ruler of Sindh, portrays the disruptions and shortages caused by these territorial wars.

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[Page 215]

و میرزا جانی در محرّم سنه الف 1000اکتبر 1591م به کنار آب سند آمده در زمینی که اطراف آن آب و چهله بود فرود آمد و خانخانان در برابر آمد اورا محاصره نمود و مدّت دو ماه هر روز جنگ شده........درآن ایّام مردم سند راه آمد و شد غلّه بر لشکر خانخانان چنان بستند که نانی به جانی ارزان گشته بود :

گشت زان تنگی جهانی تنگدل
گرسنه نالان و سیران سنگدل
هر که را دیدار نان بودی هوس
قرص خور در آسمان دیدی و بس

This text is in its original language, and has an English translation:
Translation

This is a selection from the original text

Keywords

bread, provision, scarcity, تنگی, غلّه, غلّه

Source text

Title: Tarikh-e-Farishta

Author: Firishta, Muḥammad Ḳāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī

Editor(s): Mohammad Raza Naziri

Publisher: Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries

Publication date: 2010

Original compiled c.1606-1610

Place of publication: Tehran

Provenance/location: Original compiled c.1606-1610

Digital edition

Original author(s): Firishta Muḥammad Ḳāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī

Original editor(s): Md. Ehteshamuddin Institute of Persian Research, Aligarh Muslim University , Azarmi Dukht Safavi Institute of Persian Research, Aligarh Muslim University

Language: Persian

Selection used:

  • 1 ) pages 215 to 216

Responsibility:

Texts collected by: Ayesha Mukherjee, Amlan Das Gupta, Azarmi Dukht Safavi

Texts transcribed by: Muhammad Irshad Alam, Bonisha Bhattacharya, Arshdeep Singh Brar, Muhammad Ehteshamuddin, Kahkashan Khalil, Sarbajit Mitra

Texts encoded by: Bonisha Bhattacharya, Shreya Bose, Lucy Corley, Kinshuk Das, Bedbyas Datta, Arshdeep Singh Brar, Sarbajit Mitra, Josh Monk, Reesoom Pal

Encoding checking by: Hannah Petrie, Gary Stringer, Charlotte Tupman

Genre: India > chronicle histories

For more information about the project, contact Dr Ayesha Mukherjee at the University of Exeter.

Acknowledgements