The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Its chapters on Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad of Ghur (died 1206), on the Shamsi maliks and on Qutb al-Din Aibak describe the state of things on 1 January 1200: Aibak governing from Delhi as the sultan's lieutenant with Ajmer, Kanauj and Gwalior in Ghurid hands, Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji raiding eastward into Bihar and, in 1204 or 1205, taking Nadiya from the aged Lakshmanasena. The author was born in 1193 and writes from the reports of men who served under Aibak and Bakhtiyar, so his Indian chapters are second hand but close. He is partisan for the Ghurid and Delhi sultans and gives few dates for the 1190s.
About this source
- Title
- Tabaqat-i Nasiri
- Author
- Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani
- Author's dates
- born 1193, died after 1260
- Written
- completed 1260 at Delhi
- Language
- Persian
- Covers
- from the patriarchs to 1260; the Indian chapters cover 1175 to 1260
- Kind
- History
The Persia agent lists the same work for the Ghurid and Khwarazmian chapters; this entry is for its Indian material. Raverty's translation is Victorian and heavily annotated but still the only complete English version. The Delhi events of 1200 to 1206 are told with hindsight from 1260.
Where to read it
Editions
Translations
- H. G. Raverty, Tabakat-i-Nasiri: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, Bibliotheca Indica, vol. 1 (1881), English
- H. G. Raverty, Tabakat-i-Nasiri, vol. 2 (1881), English; the Indian chapters on the Ghurids, Aibak and Bakhtiyar Khalji are in this volume and the end of vol. 1