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The History of India, as Told by Its Own

HistoriansFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Contents [hide]

1 Background

2 Assessments

3 Contents

4 See also

5 References

6 Further reading

7 External links

Background [edit]

Henry Miers Elliot was born in 1808. He was an administrator who worked for theBritish 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.[1]

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. 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.[1][2] 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.[2]

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.[1]

John Dowson was asked by Elliot's widow, Rebecca, to complete the work of her husband. Dowson had

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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 byTrübner & 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 — asThe

History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians: The Local Muhammadan Dynasties: Gujarat — under the

editorship of Edward Clive Bayley.[4]

Assessments [edit]

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.[1] 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".[4]

In 1903, Stanley Lane-Poole praised the efforts of Elliot and Dowson, 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.[5]

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."[6]

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 been 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 inRajputana.[7] 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

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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.[3]

Contents [edit]

The contents are not complete translations of works. A. J. Arberry notes the Tabakát-i Násirí, Táríkh-i Fíroz

Sháhí and Zafar-náma as being among those of which only parts were published. 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.[8][b]

Volume I: Introduction

Early Arab Geographers

Historians of Sind

Volume II: To the Year A.D. 1260

Táríkhu-l Hind of Biruni

Táríkh Yamíní of 'Utbí

Táríkhu-s Subuktigín of Baihakí

Jawami ul-Hikayat of Muhammad 'Úfí

Táju-l Ma-ásir of Hasan Nizámí

Kámilu-t Tawáríkh of Ibn Asír

Nizámu-t Tawáríkh of Baizáwí

Tabakát-i Násirí of Minháju-s Siráj

Jahán Kushá of Juwainí

Volume III: To the Year A.D. 1398

Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, of Rashid-al-Din

Tazjiyatu-l Amsár wa Tajriyatu-l Ásár, of 'Abdu-llah, Wassáf

Táríkh-i Binákití, of Fakhru-d dín, Binákití

Táríkh-i Guzída, of Hamdu-lla, Mustaufí

Táríkh-i 'Aláí; or, Khazáínu-l Futúh, of Amir Khusru: (History of Alauddin Khilji)

Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháhí, of Ziauddin Barani: (History of Firuz Shah)

Táríkh-i Fíroz Sháhí, of Shams-i Siráj, 'Afíf

Futuhát-i Fíroz Sháhí, of Sultán Firoz Shah

Malfúzát-i Tímúrí, or Túzak-i Tímúrí: The Autobiography of Timur

Zafar-náma, of Sharafu-d dín, Yazdí

Volume IV: To the Year A.D. 1450

Táríkh-i Háfiz Abrú

Táríkh-i Mubárak Sháhí, of Yahyá bin Ahmad

Matla'u-s Sa'dain, of Abdur Razzaq

Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ,of Mirkhond

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Khulásatu-l Akhbár, of Khondamir

Dastúru-l Wuzrá, of Khondamír

Habib al-Siyar, of Khondamir

Táríkh-i Ibráhímí; or, Táríkh-i Humáyúní, of Ibráhím bin Harírí

Tuzk-e-Babri; or, Wáki'át-i Bábarí: The Autobiography of Babur

Tabakát-i Bábarí, of Shaikh Zain

Lubbu-t Tawáríkh, of Yahya bin 'Abdu-l Latíf

Nusakh-i Jahán-árá, of Kází Ahmad

Táríkh-i Sher Sháhí; or, Tuhfat-i Akbar Sháhí, of 'Abbás Khán Sarwání

Táríkh-i Dáúdí, of 'Abdu-lla

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

Táríkh-i Salátín-i Afághana, of Ahmad Yádgár

Makhzan-i Afghání and Táríkh-i Khán-Jahán Lodí, of Ni'amatu-lla

Humáyún-náma, of Khondamir

Táríkh-i Rashídí, of Haidar Mirzá Doghlat

Tazkiratu-l Wáki'át, of Jauhar

Táríkh-i Alfí, of Mauláná Ahmad and others

Tabakát-i Akbarí, of Nizamuddin Ahmad, Bakhshí

Muntakhab al-Tawarikh; or, Táríkh-i Badáúní, of Mullá `Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni

Volume VI: Akbar and Jahangir

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

Padshahnama, of Muhammad Amín Kazwíní

Bádsháh-náma, of Abdul Hamid Lahori

Sháh Jahán-náma, of 'Ináyat Khán

Bádsháh-náma, of Muhammad Wáris

'Amal-i Sálih, of Muhammad Sálih Kambú

Sháh Jahán-náma, of Muhammad Sádik Khán

Majálisu-s Salátín, of Muhammad Sharíf Hanafí

Táríkh-i Mufazzalí, of Mufazzal Khán

Mir-át-i 'Álam, Mir-át-i Jahán-numá, of Bakhtáwar Khán

Zínatu-t Tawáríkh, of 'Azízu-llah

Lubbu-t Tawáríkh-i Hind, of Ráí Bhárá Mal

'Álamgír-náma, of Muhammad Kázim

Ma-ásir-i 'Álamgírí, of Muhammad Sákí Musta'idd Khán

Futuhát-i 'Álamgírí, of Muhammad Ma'súm

Táríkh-i Mulk-i Áshám, of Shahábu-d dín Tálásh

Wakái', of Ni'amat Khán

Jang-náma, of Ni'amat Khán

Ruka'át-i 'Álamgírí, of the Emperor Aurangzeb

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Muntakhabu-l Lubáb, of Kháfí Khán

Táríkh, of Irádat Khán

Táríkh-i Bahádur Sháhí

Táríkh-i Sháh 'Álam Bahádur Sháhí

'Ibrat-náma, of Muhammad Kásim

Volume VIII: To End of the Muhammadan Empire in India