Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of the age. Comment.
The early writings in Persian on the history of Turks who came to India are traceable to the 12th Century. As far as Delhi Sultanate is concerned we have a continuity of available texts in Persian till the end of the Sultanate (1526).
Many of the authors were attached to the court as officials while a few were independent scholars not associated with any official position. In general, the available histories put forward the official version of events, rather than a critical evaluation of the policies and events. It is rare that one comes across any critical reference to the reigning Sultan. Abdu’r Razzaq’s Matla’us Sa’dain (travelogue), Tutsi’s Siyasatnama (administration & polity), Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s Adabu’l-Harb wa’as- Shuja’at (warfare), are a few important ones. A few Arabic works are also available for the period. Ibn Battuta (Rihla) and Shihab-al Din al-Umari (Masalik al-absar Mamalik al-Ansar) have provided excellent travel accounts.
The pioneer of history-writing in the Indo-Persian tradition was Muhammad bin Mansur, popularly known as Fakhr-i Mudabbir. His writings included a book of genealogies of the Prophet of Islam and the Muslim rulers, including Qutbuddin Aibak. Minhaj Siraj Juzjani was another important historian of the 13th century. However, the most important figure in Indo-Persian historiography was Ziauddin Barani in the 14th century. His Tarikh-i Firuzshahi is a milestone in the tradition of history-writing in medieval India. It was written for the enlightenment of the rulers of his times. Under the Mughals, this tradition of history-writing continued and reached new heights. Abul Fazl, Nizamuddin Ahmad, Abdul Qadir Badauni, Khwaja Kamgar Husaini, and Abdul Hamid Lahori were some important historians of the Mughal period.