356 Lieut .-Colonel Briggs on the Life and Writings of Ferishta. 



quitted it in a few days, not even considering it necessary to leave a single 

 soldier behind him to tlie east of the Indus. During these commotions 

 thirteen kingdoms and six independent Muhamedan principalities had been 

 erected in different parts of the empire. The feeble possessors of tlie throne 

 of Dehli, though unable to maintain their own authority, laid claim to the 

 obedience of all these petty states ; and efforts were made by them at 

 different periods to recover their lost dominions. Their power, however, 

 had vanished ; and rose and fell alternately, till the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century, when it finally passed into the hands of a new race. 



At that time Kashmir, Multan, Sind, Guzerat, Malwa, Behar, and Ben- 

 gal, had each its sovereign to the north of the Nerbudda ; while in the 

 Deccan, the cities of Burhanpur, Elichpur, Ahmudnuggur, Bidur, Hydera- 

 bad, and Bijapur, were become tlie capitals of independent states, derived 

 from the fallen emj)ire of Dehli. Of each of these kingdoms Ferishta has 

 thought it necessary to write a separate history ; and his method of arranging 

 this part of liis work sliews great judgment ; while tlie narratives themselves 

 evince an indefatigable spirit of enquiry, and often a great knowledge of the 

 human heart. There is indeed, in my opinion, no point in which Ferishta 

 so far excels all other oriental historians, as in the judicious and excellent 

 remarks which he makes on the characters of individuals. His observations 

 are generally free from prejudice, and always full of candour and sincerity ; 

 and it was on this account, perhaps, tliat he thought it right, as it was 

 certainly judicious, to abstain from making any remarks on the personal 

 character of his patron and prince, Ibrahim Adil Shah II. Ilis singular 

 good taste in this respect, and the impartiality with which he weighs the 

 actions of Muhamedans of all sects, although himself of the Sheea persuasion, 

 and living among Soonies, by whom the former were always more or less 

 persecuted, must raise the character of Ferishta very higli in the scale of 

 historians. 



The period to which I have brought the abstract of the work is by far 

 more interesting than any other in the history. In tlie latter end of the 

 fifteenth century, when the several minor kingdoms of Ilindoostan were in 

 the zenith of their glory, the Portuguese first reached the Indian shores ; 

 and for more than a century continued to monopolise the intercourse 

 between tlie East and tlie West. Their connexion with the Muhamedan 

 sovereigns of the western coast of the Peninsula, is doubly interesting ; as 

 we obtain from tiie pages of Ferishta details explanatory of the imperfect 



