Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi (
nisba
The Arabic language, Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to:
* Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation
**c ...
of
Sirhind
Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab.
Demographics
In the 2011 census Sirhind-Fatehgarh had a population of 60852. Males constituted 54% of the population and female ...
) was a 15th century Indian chronicler who wrote ''Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi'', a
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
chronicle of the
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526). . Written during the reign of
Mubarak Shah, his work is an important source of information for the
Sayyid dynasty
The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451. Founded by Khizr Khan, a former governor of Multan, they succeeded the Tughlaq dynasty and ruled the sultanate as a vassal of the Timu ...
.
''Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi''
Yahya expected to become a courtier of
Mubarak Shah (r. 1431-1434), a ruler of the
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526). . Therefore, he wrote ''Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi'' and presented it to the Sultan, hoping to win the royal patronage.
The book begins with the conquests of
Muhammad of Ghor
Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad ibn Sam ( fa, معز الدین محمد بن سام), also Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad Ghori, also Ghūri ( fa, معز الدین محمد غوری) (1144 – March 15, 1206), commonly known as Muhammad of Ghor, also Gh ...
(1149-1206), and ends abruptly in 1434. Several earlier royal chroniclers had written texts describing the 13th-15th century history of the Delhi Sultanate. For example,
Minhaj-i-Siraj
Minhaj-al-Din Abu Amr Othman ibn Siraj-al-Din Muhammad Juzjani (born 1193), simply known as Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, was a 13th-century Persian historian born in the region of Ghur.
In 1227, Juzjani migrated to Ucch then to Delhi. Juzjani was th ...
covered the period up to 1259 in his ''
Tabaqat-i Nasiri
''Tabaqat-i Nasiri'' ( fa, ), named for ''Sultan'' Nasir-ud-Din, is an elaborate history of the Islamic world written in Persian by Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani and completed in 1260. Consisting of 23 volumes and written in a blunt straightforward st ...
'',
Ziauddin Barani
Ziauddin Barani (1285–1358 CE) was a Muslim political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate located in present-day Northern India during Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the ''Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi'' (also ...
covered 1259-1356, and Shams-i Siraj Afif covered 1356-1388. Yahya carried forward this chronology all the way to 1434.
For the events up to 1351, Yahya selectively borrowed from the earlier writers, and arranged the material in a chronological order. For the events after 1351, he relied on personal memory and observations, besides the accounts of some trustworthy narrators. His work is a regional history, generally limited to military and political events. For example, Yahya omitted the
economic reforms of
Alauddin Khalji
Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over lar ...
(r. 1296-1316).
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
{{Historians of Islam
15th-century Indian historians
Delhi Sultanate
15th-century Indian Muslims
15th-century Persian-language writers
Indian male writers
Writers from Delhi
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
People from Fatehgarh Sahib district