The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians

The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians is a book comprising translations of medieval Persian chronicles based on the work of Henry Miers Elliot. It was originally published as a set of eight volumes between 1867–1877 in London. The translations were in part overseen by Elliot, whose efforts were then extended and edited posthumously by John Dowson.

The book has been reprinted several times, and is also available online. Elliot was keen to contrast what he saw as the justice and efficiency of the British rule compared to cruelty and despotism of Muslim rule. He expressed hope that it "will make our native subjects more sensible of the immense advantages accruing to them under the mildness and equity of our rule."^[1]

Background

Henry Miers Elliot was born in 1808. He was an administrator who worked for the British East India Company (EIC) and rose to the position of foreign secretary under the Governor-Generalships of Henry Hardinge and James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie. His academic capability in oriental languages, classics and mathematics enabled him to pass the open entrance examination for the EIC in 1826, foregoing the place at New College, Oxford that he had been expected to attend.^[2]

Elliot's interest in studies of India was indulged as a leisure pursuit throughout his time in the country and arose out of researches made by him in attempts to develop policies relating to land and revenue. British historians of India, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, had largely ignored the rural aristocracy and fiscal matters, which Elliot believed could usefully be investigated by resort to hitherto neglected medieval chronicles. He saw his Bibliographical Index to the Historians of Mohammedan India , published in 1849, as a prelude to a study of 231 Arabic and Persian historians of India and also a resource that would prove to be of benefit to future historians.^[2]^[3] He said that he wanted his researches to be

... useful depositories of knowledge from which the labour and diligence of succeeding scholars may extract materials for the creation of a better and more solid structure.^[3]

Ill-health prevented Elliot from completing his more detailed study: he left India in search of a more amenable climate and died in 1853 at Simonstown, South Africa.^[2]

John Dowson was asked by Elliot's widow, Rebecca, to complete the work of her husband. Dowson had been born in 1820 and had held various teaching posts relating to oriental languages, of which he seems likely to have mastered Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Telugu and Hindustani. Those posts included a period as tutor at the EIC's Haileybury college, a professorship at University College, London and, from around 1859 until 1877, a professorship at the Staff College, Camberley. His efforts based on the work of Elliot resulted in the eight volumes titled The History of India, as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, published in London by Trübner & Co between 1867 and 1877. Around half of the material extracted from Elliot's bibliographic index were translated by Dowson himself^[a] and, according to Katherine Prior, he also left his mark by giving "... more of a historical emphasis than Elliot had planned." Some years later, Dowson began work on a volume concerning medieval Gujarat that was also based on Elliot's papers. This was incomplete at the time of his death in 1881 and was later published in a completely different form — as The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians: The Local Muhammadan Dynasties: Gujarat — under the editorship of Edward Clive Bayley.^[5]

Assessments

The literary work of Elliot was criticised around the time of his death. Francis H. Robinson wrote in 1853 that Elliot's evangelical trait tended to "criminate" those about whom he wrote.^[2] Dowson's academic reputation was established through his involvement in the project, although he did receive some criticism both of his competence and methods. Prior notes that, "Ironically, in the longer term, the apparent comprehensiveness of his work seriously retarded scholarly re-examination of the manuscripts on which it was based".^[5]

In 1903, Stanley Lane-Poole praised the efforts of Elliot and Dowson but also cautioned about it, saying:

To realise Medieval India there is no better way than to dive into the eight volumes of the priceless History of India as Told by its Own Historians which Sir H. M. Elliot conceived and began and which Professor Dowson edited and completed with infinite labour and learning. It is a revelation of Indian life as seen through the eyes of the Persian court annalists. It is, however, a mine to be worked, not a consecutive history, and its wide leaps in chronology, its repetitions, recurrences, and omissions, render it no easy guide for general readers.^[6]

Another Francis Robinson, writing in 2010, notes that the Elliott and Dowson work "... should always be read with Peter Hardy's Historians of Medieval India (Delhi, 1997) to hand."^[7]

Ramya Sreenivasan explains that the early and medieval historiography of India has often been approached in the form of dichotomic Hindu and Muslim categories, two strands of mutually exclusive political outlooks and cultures that have their origins in the two literary epic forms that generally, but not always, are typical of those periods. She notes that the effects of this can be seen in the works of later historians such as James Tod, another EIC administrator and gentleman-scholar, who strenuously favoured the notion of Hindu chivalry and Muslim deceitfulness while working in Rajputana.^[8]

Richard Eaton believes that present-day Hindu nationalists have "selectively used" Elliot and Dowson's "selective translations" in their efforts to denigrate pre-modern Muslim rulers. He says that

... Elliot, keen to contrast what he understood as the justice and efficiency of British rule with the cruelty and despotism of the Muslim rulers who had preceded that rule, was anything but sympathetic to the "Muhammadan" period of Indian history ... [He noted] the far greater benefits that Englishmen had brought to Indians in a mere half-century than Muslims had brought in five centuries ... Elliot's motives for delegitimising the Indo-Muslim rulers who had preceded English rule are thus quite clear.^[4]

Criticisms

Eaton states that Elliot saw the British rule as much superior in contrast to the Muslim rule and "was anything but sympathetic" to the Muhammadan period of Indian history. Elliot notes of far greater advantages to Indians than under Muslim rule and expressed hope that it "will make our native subjects more sensible of the immense advantages accruing to them under the mildness and equity of our rule."^[9]

Mohammad Habib, a nationalist historian who had presented his own secular view of Indian history by challenging the historical and translation methods of European colonial historians like Elliot, criticized him for focusing "inordinately" on the political activities of Muslim rulers instead of focusing on the lives of the people and their cultural activities. He blamed it on Elliot's reliance on faulty translations and not recognising the historical value of literary and cultural sources like masnavis and maktubat (Sufi literature).^[10]

The contents are not complete translations of works. A. J. Arberry notes the Tabakat-i Nasiri, Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi and Zafarnama as being among those of which only parts were published (though in the last case, a chronicle of Timur, only a small part of the book concerned India). Arberry also points out that the quality of sources selected was variable and that the documents from which the translations were made were sometimes but one version of several that were available.^[11]^[b]

Volume I: Introduction

Early Arab Geographers
Historians of Sind

Volume II: To the Year A.D. 1260

Tarikhu-l Hind of Biruni
Tarikh-i-Yamini of 'Utbi
Tarikhu-s Subuktigin of Baihaki
Jawami ul-Hikayat of Muhammad 'ufi
Taju-l Ma-asir of Hasan Nizami
Kamilu-t Tawarikh of Ibn Asir
Nizamu-t Tawarikh of Baizawi
Tabakat-i Nasiri of Minhaju-s Siraj
Jahan Kusha of Juwaini

Volume III: To the Year A.D. 1398

Jami'u-t Tawarikh, of Rashid-al-Din
Tazjiyatu-l Amsar wa Tajriyatu-l asar, of 'Abdu-llah, Wassaf
Tarikh-i Binakiti, of Fakhru-d din, Binakiti
Tarikh-i Guzida, of Hamdu-lla, Mustaufi
Tarikh-i 'Alai; or, Khazainu-l Futuh, of Amir Khusru: (History of Alauddin Khalji)
Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi, of Ziauddin Barani: (History of Firuz Shah)
Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi, of Shams-i Siraj, 'Afif
Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi, of Sultan Firoz Shah
Malfuzat-i Timuri, and Tuzak-i Timuri (supposedly Timur's memoirs but almost certainly a later fabrication^[13])
Zafar-nama, of Sharafu-d din, Yazdi

Volume IV: To the Year A.D. 1450

Tarikh-i Hafiz Abru
Tarikh-i Mubarak Shahi, of Yahya bin Ahmad
Matla'u-s Sa'dain, of Abdur Razzaq
Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ,of Mirkhond
Khulasatu-l Akhbar, of Khondamir
Dasturu-l Wuzra, of Khondamir
Habib al-Siyar, of Khondamir
Tarikh-i Ibrahimi; or, Tarikh-i Humayuni, of Ibrahim bin Hariri
Tuzk-e-Babri; or, Waki'at-i Babari: The Autobiography of Babur
Tabakat-i Babari, of Shaikh Zain
Lubbu-t Tawarikh, of Yahya bin 'Abdu-l Latif
Nusakh-i Jahan-ara, of Kazi Ahmad
Tarikh-i Sher Shahi; or, Tuhfat-i Akbar Shahi, of 'Abbas Khan Sarwani
Tarikh-i Daudi, of 'Abdu-lla

Volume V: End of the Afghan Dynasty and the First Thirty-Eight Years of the Reign of Akbar

Tarikh-i Salatin-i Afaghana, of Ahmad Yadgar
Makhzan-i-Afghani and Tarikh-i Khan-Jahan Lodi, of Ni'amatu-lla
Humayun-nama, of Khondamir
Tarikh-i Rashidi, of Haidar Mirza Doghlat
Tazkiratu-l Waki'at, of Jauhar
Tarikh-i Alfi, of Maulana Ahmad and others
Tabakat-i Akbari, of Nizamuddin Ahmad, Bakhshi
Muntakhab al-Tawarikh; or, Tarikh-i Badauni, of Mulla `Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni

Volume VI: Akbar and Jahangir

Akbar-nama of Shaikh Abu-l Fazl
Takmila-i Akbar-nama of 'Inayatu-lla
Akbar-nama of Shaikh Illahdad Faizi Sirhindi
Waki'at of Shaikh Faizi
Wikaya of Asad Beg
Tarikh-i Hakki of Shaikh 'Abdu-l Hakk
Zubdatu-t Tawarikh of Shaikh Nuru-l Hakk
Rauzatu-t Tahirin of Tahir Muhammad
Muntakhabu-t Tawarikh; or, Ahsanu-t Tawarikh of Hasan bin Muhammad
Tarikh-i Firishta of Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah Firishta
Ma-asir-i Rahimi of Muhammad 'Abdu-l Baki
Anfa'u-l Akhbar of Muhammad Amin
Tarikh-i Salim Shahi; Tuzak-i Jahangiri of the Emperor Jahangir
Dwazda-Sala-i Jahangiri; Waki'at Jahangiri of the Emperor Jahangir
Tatimma-i Waki'at-i Jahangiri of Muhammad Hadi
Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri of Mu'tamad Khan
Ma-asir-i Jahangiri of Kamgar Khan
Intikhab-i Jahangiri-Shahi
Subh-i Sadik of Sadik Isfahani

Volume VII: From Shah-Jahan to the Early Years of the Reign of Muhammad Shah

Padshahnama, of Muhammad Amin Kazwini
Badshah-nama, of Abdul Hamid Lahori
Shah Jahan-nama, of 'Inayat Khan
Badshah-nama, of Muhammad Waris
'Amal-i Salih, of Muhammad Salih Kambu
Shah Jahan-nama, of Muhammad Sadik Khan
Majalisu-s Salatin, of Muhammad Sharif Hanafi
Tarikh-i Mufazzali, of Mufazzal Khan
Mir-at-i 'alam, Mir-at-i Jahan-numa, of Bakhtawar Khan
Zinatu-t Tawarikh, of 'Azizu-llah
Lubbu-t Tawarikh-i Hind, of Rai Bhara Mal
'alamgir-nama, of Muhammad Kazim
Ma-asir-i 'alamgiri, of Muhammad Saki Musta'idd Khan
Futuhat-i 'alamgiri, of Muhammad Ma'sum
Tarikh-i Mulk-i asham, of Shahabu-d din Talash
Wakai', of Ni'amat Khan
Jang-nama, of Ni'amat Khan
Ruka'at-i 'alamgiri, of the Emperor Aurangzeb
Muntakhab-al Lubab, of Khafi Khan
Tarikh, of Iradat Khan
Tarikh-i Bahadur Shahi
Tarikh-i Shah 'alam Bahadur Shahi
'Ibrat-nama, of Muhammad Kasim

Volume VIII: To End of the Muhammadan Empire in India

Mukhtasiru-t Tawarikh
Khulasatu-t Tawarikh, of Subhan Rai
Haft Gulshan-i Muhammad-Shahi, of Muhammad Hadi Kamwar Khan
Tazkira-i Chaghatai, of Muhammad Hadi Kamwar Khan
Tarikh-i Chaghatai, of Muhammad Shafi, Teharani
Burhanu-l Futuh, of Muhammad Ali
Kanzu-l Mahfuz
Tarikh-i Hindi, of Rustam Ali
Tarikh-i Nadiru-z Zamani, of Khushhal Chand
Jauhar-i Samsam, of Muhammad Muhsin Sadiki
Tazkira, of anand Ram Mukhlis
Nadir-nama, of Mirza Muhammad Mahdi
Tahmasp-nama, of Miskin
Bahru-t Tawarikh
Muhammad-nama
Tarikh-i Muhammad Shahi, of Yusuf Muhammad Khan
Tarikh-i Ahmad Shah
Bayan-i Waki, of Khwaja Abdu-l Karim Khan
Tarikh-i 'alamgir-sani
Tarikh-i Manazilu-l Futuh, of Muhammad Ja'far Shamlu
Jam-i Jahan-numa, of Muzaffar Husain
Farhatu-n Nazirin, of Muhammad Aslam
Tarikh-i Faiz Bakhsh, of Sheo Parshad
Hadikatu-l Akalim, of Murtaza Husain
Jam-i Jahan-numa, of Kudratu-llah
Ma-asiru-l Umara, of Shah Nawaz Khan Samsamu-d daula
Tazkiratu-l Umara, of Kewal Ram
Sawanih-i Akbari, of Amir Haidar Husaini
Siyaru-l Muta-akhkhirin, of Ghulam Husain Khan
Mulakhkhasu-t Tawarikh, of Farzand Ali Husain
Tarikh-i Mamalik-i Hind, of Ghulam Basit
Chahar Gulzar Shuja'i, of Hari Charan Das
Tarikh-i Shahadat-i Farrukh Siyar, of Mirza Muhammad Bakhsh
Waki'at-i Azfari
Bahru-l Mawwaj, of Muhammad Ali Khan Ansari
Ibrat-nama, of Fakir Khairu-d din Muhammad
Chahar Gulshan, of Ram Chatar Man
Tarikh-i Ibrahim Khan
Lubbu-s Siyar, of Abu Talib Londoni
Ausaf-i asaf
Tarikh, of Jugal Kishwar
Gulistan-i Rahmat, of Nawab Mustajab Khan
Gul-i Rahmat, of Sa'adat Yar Khan
Sahihu-l Akhbar, of Sarup Chand
Tarikh-i Muzaffari, of Muhammad Ali Khan
Shah-nama, or Munawwaru-l Kalam, of Sheo Das
Ikhtisaru-t Tawarikh, of Sawan Singh
Mir-at-i Aftab-numa, of Shah Nawaz Khan
Intikhabu-t Tawarikh, of Mirza Masita
Sa'adat-i Jawed, of Harnam Singh
Ma'danu-s Sa'adat, of Saiyid Sultan Ali
Majma'u-l Akhbar, of Harsukh Rai
Kashifu-l Akhbar, of Inayat Husain
Zubdatu-l Akhbar, of Umrao Singh
Muntakhab-i Khulasatu-t Tawarikh, of Ram Parshad
Akhbar-i Muhabbat, of Nawab Muhabbat Khan
Tarikh-i Shah 'alam, of Manu Lal
Shah 'alam-nama, of Ghulam Ali Khan
Imadu-s Sa'adat, of Mir Ghulam Ali
Nigar-nama-i Hind, of Saiyid Ghulam Ali
Muntakhabu-t Tawarikh, of Sadasukh
Ashrafu-t Tawarikh, of Kishan Dayal
Jinanu-l Firdaus, of Mirza Muhammad Yusufi
Tarikh-i Henry, of Saiyid Muhammad Bakir Ali Khan
Balwant-nama, of Fakir Khairu-d din Muhammad
Yadgar-i Bahaduri, of Bahadur Singh
Jami'u-t Tawarikh, of Fakir Muhammad
Jam-i Jam, of Saiyid Ahmad Khan
Majma'u-l Muluk and Zubdatu-l Gharaib, of Muhammad Riza
Akhbarat-i Hind, of Muhammad Riza
Miftahu-t Tawarikh, of Thomas William Beale

References

Notes

^ In contradiction to Katherine Prior's assessment that Dowson translated around half of the material, Richard Eaton has said that "the bulk" was translated by Elliot.^[4]
^ Arberry believes, for example, that the Tabakat-i Nasiri lacks sufficient depth, that the Zafar-nama material was derived mainly from an abridgement and that the Tarikh-i 'Alai includes "some remarkable bombast".^[12]

Citations

^ "Temple desecration in pre-modern India" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Penner (2006)
^ ^a ^b Wahi (1990)
^ ^a ^b Eaton (2000), p. 246
^ ^a ^b Prior (2004)
^ Lane-Poole (1903), p. v-vi
^ Robinson (2010), p. 11
^ Sreenivasan (2007), pp. 12–14
^ "Temple desecration in pre-modern India" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
^ "Kashmir's Contested Pasts: Narratives, Geographies, and the Historical Imagination". Archived from the original on 22 October 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
^ Arberry (1995), pp. 153, 273, 366
^ Arberry (1995), pp. 153, 281, 366
^ Hameed ud-Din (2011). "Abū Ṭāleb Ḥosaynī". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 18 September 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.

Bibliography

Arberry, A. J. (1995), Classical Persian Literature (Reprinted ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9780203985434
Eaton, Richard Maxwell (2000), "Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States", in Gilmartin, David; Lawrence, Bruce B. (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia, University Press of Florida, ISBN 9780813017815
Lane-Poole, Stanley (1903), Medieval India under Muhammadan Rule, London{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Penner, Peter (October 2006). "Elliot, Sir Henry Miers (1808–1853)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8663. Retrieved 2 October 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Prior, Katherine (2004). "Dowson, John (1820–1881)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7991. Retrieved 2 October 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Robinson, Francis (2010), Islam in South Asia: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199804269
Sreenivasan, Ramya (2007), The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen: Heroic Pasts in India c. 1500-1900, University of Washington Press, ISBN 9780295987606
Wahi, Tripta (1990), "Henry Miers Elliot: A Reappraisal", The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 122 (1): 64–90, doi:10.1017/S0035869X00107865, JSTOR 25212571, S2CID 162117838 (subscription required)

External links

Elliot, Henry Miers (1849). Bibliographical Index to the Historians of Muhammedan India. Vol. 1. Calcutta: J. Thomas at the Baptist Mission Press.
Elliot, H. M. (Henry Miers), Sir; Ed. John Dowson (1871). The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period. London : Trübner & Co.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

---Volume 1

---Volume 2

---Volume 3

---Volume 4

---Volume 5

---Volume 6

---Volume 7

---Volume 8