The history of India : as told by its own historians. Volume II/Note C. — The Historians of the Ghaznivides
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Sir H. M. Elliot Edited by John Dowson, 1867
Volume II: To the Year A.D. 1260
Appendix Note C.— The Historians of the GhaznividesNote C : The Historians of the Ghaznivides
The contents of this volume relate more especially to the history of the Ghaznivides. It therefore seems expedient to take a general review of the authors who have particularly treated of that dynasty.
First in order comes 'Utbi, who has already been sufficiently noticed. It may be remarked generally that he is deficient in dates, and, though the chief and earliest authority on all which relates to the early invasions of India, he evidently had no personal knowledge of that country, a circumstance which of course greatly detracts
[p.430]: from his value. He is fuller in the reign of Subuktigin and the transactions in Turkistan than any of his successors.
Thirty years later comes Abu-l Fazl Baihati, of whose voluminous and important work only a portion has come down to us.
After an interval of more than two centuries follows the Nizamu-t Tawarikh, composed in 674 h., about a century after the extinction of the dynasty. The short notice which this work devotes to the Ghaznivides has been translated as an extract from that work, but it is of little authority, and confuses dates irremediably towards the close of the dynasty, in which the transactions were carried on too far eastward to be within the foreign ken of the author. Indeed he confesses that he knows nothing of their successors, the Ghorians, beyond the names of three of their kings.
The next, but after a period of two hundred years from 'Utbi is the Tahakat-i Nasiri, the chief value of which is that it quotes the lost volumes of Abu-l Fazl Baihaki. It is for this reason, however, greatly to be regretted, especially as he is one of the earliest Muhammadan authors who wrote in India, that his notice of Mahmud's reign is so very curt ; for it is that in which we most feel the want of Baihaki's familiar gossiping narrative. It is true he is quoted in the Jami’ u-l Hikayat, Tar'ihh-i Guzida, Raujat us Safi, and Firishta; yet it may be doubted if any except the author of the first ever saw his Tarikh-i Nasiri, which is mentioned by name in the Tabakat. In some of the other Ghaznivide reigns, this work differs from others, as will be seen from the passages which are extracted in the article Tabakat-i Nasiri in this volume.
The great copyist and extractor, Rashidu-d din, follows after the lapse of about twenty years. In his Jami'u-t Tawarikh, he follows 'Utbi implicitly, as far as the Yamimi extends, taking out not only his facts, but giving a literal translation of that work, even to the images and similes. So little does he attempt to improve upon the Yamini, that he even leaves out the important expedition to Somnat, which was undertaken after the close of that work. This resource fails him altogether in the later reigns, which are consequently very unsatisfactorily disposed of in the Jami'u-t Tawarikh. 1
About twenty years later follows the Tarikk-i Guzida of Hamdu-lla
1 [See an article by Major Lees, in Jour. B, A. S., Vol. iii. N.S., 1868.]
[p. 431]:
Mustaufi — although, he mentions the Makamat of Abu Nasr Miska'ti, and the Mujalladat of Abu-l Fazl Baihaki, he does not appear to have read them : at least he gives no information derived from them, and altogether his account of Mahmud's reign is very meagre. He mentions the names of the towns taken by him, omitting, however, all notice of Somnat, and without stating the dates of their capture. He is so often quoted by Mirkhond, Khondamir, and Firishta, that he has had more credit than he deserves in this portion of his universal history.
After a long interval of about a century, we have Mirkhond, who in his Rajatu-s Safa has given us the first detailed account of the history of the Ghaznivides. It is founded in the early portion upon the Yamini, but in later reigns rests upon some other authorities which are not quoted. Those which are mentioned, as the Nasiri and Guzida, are too meagre to have furnished the fuller information found in the Rauzatu-s Safa. This portion has been translated by F. Wilken into Latin, and published with the original text at Berlin in 1832, under the title of Historia Gasnevidarum. He has added in footnotes passages from Firishta and Haidar Razi, where the details are more complete than in the Rauzatu-s Safa. Haidar Razi, however, is no original authority. I have found all the passages, except two, quoted by "Wilken to be word for word the same as the Tar'ikh-i Alfi, even where other authorities are quoted, as Ibn Asir, Ibn Kasir, and Hafiz Abru. The chief omission to be noted in Mirkhond's account is that of the expeditions to India intervening between those of Kanauj and Somnat, and the attack upon the Jats of Jud after Mahmud's return from Somnat.
Mirkhond is followed by his nephew Khondamir in the Khulasatu-l Akhbar and the Habibu-s Siyar. The former has been translated by Price with additions from Firishta, and from the latter a translation will be found in a later volume of this work. He follows the Rausata-s Safa closely, and has no new authorities, omitting some passages, but dealing more copiously with the biographies of cotemporary poets and ministers. Altogether, Mirkhond's narrative is preferable, and in this, as well as in many other portions of his history Khondamir might have saved himself the trouble of attempt- ing to rival his uncle.
[p.432]: The next autliority of any value is the Tar'ikh-i Alfl. Like as in other portions of that work, it is, in the history of the Ghaznivides, also somewhat deficient in connexion, and troublesome, from adopting a new era ; but. altogether, it is copious and correct. 'Utbi and Mirkhond are the chief authorities of the Tarikh-i Alfl, but something is added from the less known histories, which have already been mentioned as being quoted at second hand by Haidar Razi. It is to be regretted that Abu-1 Fazl Baihaki is not amongst them. Here also we have no detailed account of the Indian expeditions between those of Kanauj and Somnat, and that to Thanesar is not mentioned.
Nizamu-d din Ahmad, in his Tabakat-i Akbari, gives a succinct account of the history of the Ghaznivides, and is particular in mentioning his dates. He notices very cursorily the events in Turkistan, Sistan, and 'Irak, confining his attention principally to what related to India. In his work we, for the first time, find mention of several expeditions to India, which are passed over by his predecessors ; and it is, therefore, to be regretted that he does not signify on what authority he relates them. The only probable source, among those, mentioned as his general authorities, is the Zainul Akhbar. Nizamu-d din is followed closely by Firishta.
'Abdu-1 Kadir, in his Tarikh-i Baddun'i, follows Nizamu-d din implicitly ; but, in order to show the variations, he occasionally quotes the Nizamu-t Tawar'ikh, and the Lubbu-t Tawarikh. He adds, also, some verses of poets who were contemporary with the Ghaznivides.
The Muntakhabu-t Tawarikh of Khaki Shirazi is very brief, and scarcely deserves notice. It chiefly follows the Habibu-s Siyar.
We next come to the history of Firishta, which gives the most complete and detailed account which we have of the Ghaznivides. Dr. Bird complains of the author's ignorance of the geography of Upper India ; but he has exhibited no more than his predecessors, and in one or two iustances attempts corrections. His chief resource is the Tabakat-i Akbari, but he has also used the Tar'ikh-i Yamini, the Tarikh-i Guzida, the Rauzatu-s Safa, and the Habihu-s Siyar. Some of the other works which he quotes there is reason to believe he never saw. The translation by Briggs is generally correct and faithful in this portion,, and there, are no omissions in it of any great consequence.
[p.433]: The Khulasatu-t Tawarikh discusses this history in a peculiar fashion of its own. It omits all notice of transactions on the frontiers of Persia and Turkistan, and confines itself solely to India, insomuch that it leaves out whole reigns in which the sovereign had no connection with India : and, in consequence, preposterously confines the whole number of reigns to seven only. There is no other novelty in this chapter, except that it substitutes two new readings of places, which if they axe derived from the history of Mahmud by 'Unsuri, which is quoted in the preface, may be considered authentic.
These are all the authorities which it seems necessary to notice, as all the subsequent ones follow in the wake of Firishta. Abu-1 Fida, Ibn Shuhna, Ibn Asir, Ibn Kasir, Nikbi, and Lari, have had all that is valuable in them extracted by the diligence of European authors, who have translated, abridged, or commented on the reigns of the Ghaznivides. The Turkish histories of the period, such as the Nakhbatu-t Tawar'ikh, and the work of Munajjim Bashi, we may fairly presume to have been exhausted by the industry of Hammer-Purgstall amongst the fourteen different histories which he quotes as authorities upon Mahmud's reign — so that the only hope now left us for ascertaining any new fact with respect to the history of the Ghaznivides is in the recovery of the missing volumes of Memoirs, which we know to have been written by contemporary writers, and to have been in existence less than two centuries ago — such as those of Abu-l Fazl Baihaki, Abu Nasr Mishkani, and Mulla Muhammad Ghaznawi. The Makamat of Abu Nazr Mishkati' (Mishkani) is mentioned by Firishta (Briggs I. 32 and 97), and the same author is referred to in Wilken (Gasnevidarum, p. 189). Firishta quotes from him the anecdote about Mas'ud, which has been given from the Tabakat-i Nasiri [supra, p. 271), and which is there also attributed to Abu Nasr Mishkan. The Tar'ikh-i Mulla Muhammad Ghajnawi is mentioned by 'Abdu-r Rahman,who wrote the Mir-Atu-l Asrar and Mir-at-i Mas'ud'i, in Jahangir's time. The author was contemporary with Sultan Mahmud, of whom his work is said to give an ample account.
1 [In Briggs' translation, the name is written "Mukutty."]