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 S̲h̲āh (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 Shāh. Firishta acted as a go-between, later in 1590, for Burhān Niẓām S̲h̲āh who was seeking Bīd̲j̲āpūrī support. His history the Guls̲h̲an-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.
1.
Wa Mirzā Jāni dar Muharram-e- sanah-e- alf October 1591 A.D. be kinār-e-āb-e-Sind āmdah dar zameene ke atrāf-e ān āb-o- challeh 0bood farood āmad wa Khān-e- Khānān dar barābar āmdah ou rā muhāsirah namood wa muddat-e du māh har ruz jang shudeh…… dar ān ayyām mardum-e-Sind rāh-e-āmad-o-shud-e-ghalleh bar lashkar-e- Khān-e Khānān chunān bastand ke nāne beh jāne arzān gashteh bood:
2.
1.In the Muharram of 1000(A.H.)/ October 1591 Mirza Jāni arrived at the banks of the river Sindh at a spot which was surrounded by water and mire. Khān-e-Khānān also arrived and put him under siege. And for two months fighting continued (between them) every day. During those days, people of Sindh had sealed the route of transportation of provisions for Khān-e-Khānān’s army so completely that life had become cheaper than a bread.