Introduction

• Historiography is known as Ilm-al-tarikh in Arabic.
• History is the account of all human activities and is considered a responsibility to society.
• Historians collect historical data, compile books, analyze events, and examine the authenticity of historical sources.
• Historians’ works are influenced by their time, place, environment, and personal morality.
• History is constantly changing due to various obstacles, but the desire for knowledge of actual events persists.
• From ancient times, the trend of acquiring historical knowledge has continued, forming historiography as an important part of education.
• The Ghurian conquest of north India in the late twelfth century AD is a significant event in Indian history.
• The conquest led to the formation of an independent sultanate, which brought both foreign influences and the unification of India under a strong central authority.
• The conquest attracted emigrants from neighboring countries with different cultural traditions, one of which was history writing.
• The historical literature produced in the Persian language by the Muslim elite is extensive.
• History writing was considered the third most important source of knowledge, after religious scriptures and jurisprudence.
• With the arrival of the Mughals in the 16th century, the tradition of history writing reached new heights.
• During the Mughal period, the state patronized the writing of history, resulting in a vast body of historical literaturein Persian spanning two centuries.
• This chapter focuses on the tradition of history writing during the Sultanate period.

Muslim Historiography

• In the early stage of Islam, during the 9th century, Muslim scholars considered historiography as the third source of knowledge after Quran and Sunnah.
• After compiling the Hadith of the prophet, historians began writing the history of early Islam.
• This tradition of collection, compilation, and preservation of the Hadith and Islamic history continued until the 3rd century Hijra (9th and 10th C.E).
• Early Arab historiography focused mostly on religious themes and events.
• Over time, it expanded to include tribal, regional, and national history, as well as world history.
• Arab historiography became an important part of world historiography and contributed to the Muslim development of knowledge.
• Historiography evolved with a deeper analysis of cause and effect, alongside critical examination of historical events.
• As Arabic was the state language, historiography research continued naturally in Arabic.
• In 1258 AD, the Abbassid Khilafat was destroyed, and the Ilkhani dynasty was established, leading to the rise of Persian as the state language.
• Persian was further developed during the Timurids and Safavids, entering the Indian subcontinent due to political changes.
• Later, as Turkish replaced Persian, historiography began in Turkish but did not reach the same depth as in Persian.
• Turkish sultans also patronized the Persian language, and regional and dynastic history continued in Persian.
• Though Arab historiography followed Persian trends, there were distinct differences.
• The main theme of Persian historiography focused on the conduct and occupation of kings, while the general people were rarely discussed.
• “Jami-at-Tawarikh” by Rashid-ud-din followed At-Tabari’s trends but lacked the Arab historiography character.
• In contrast, “Rawatas-Safa” by Mirkhand represented Arab trends and style.
• During the Timurid period, “Tarikhi-Khani” and “Jafarnama” were composed, excellently arranging the Timurid dynastic history.
• It is said that later Muslim historiography was influenced by Arab and Persian historiography trends.
• The Persian and Turkish traditions carried the Central Asian historiography trends into the Indian subcontinent.