136 
E. D. Ross— Historian of Shah l Alam. • [No. 2, 
Faqir Khayr-ud-Din Muhammad , the Historian of Shah ‘ Alam .—By 
E. Denison Ross, Ph.D. 
Our information with regard to the historian Faqir Khayr-ud-Dln 
Muhammad Ilahabadi is principally derived from what he himself tells 
ns in the course of his works. Of these, so far as I am aware, three 
only have hitherto been known to scholars, namely: 1. The ‘ Ihrat - 
Nama , or “ Book of Warning” described in Rieu’s Catalogue of the 
Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, Yol. Ill, p. 946, and in Sir 
H. Elliot’s History of India, Yol. YIII, pp. 237-254. 2. The Jaunpur- 
Ncima , a History of Jaunpur, described by Rieu loc. cit. Yol. I, p. 311; 
3. The Balwant-Ndma, described by Sir H. Elliot loc. cit. Yol. YIII, 
p. 416, which is another title for the Tuhfa-i-Tdza , translated, by 
F. Curwen and printed by the Allahabad Government Press, 1875. 
Of the first of these works the late Dr. Chas. Rieu wrote as follows: 
“ The l Ibrat-Nama is the fullest and most accurate account we possess 
of the chequered career and troubled times of Shah ‘Alam, and it 
has all the value of contemporary record, penned by one who had 
taken an active share in some of the principal transactions of the 
period, and was personally acquainted with the most prominent actors 
on the scene.” 
The Jaunpur-Nama contains the history of the town of Jaunpur 
from the middle of the 14th century down to the time of Akbar. It 
was written for Mr. Abraham Willard, as was also the Tuhfa-BTaza (or 
Bahuant-Nama), which contains an account of the Rajas of Benares. 
The details concerning their author which we derive from these 
works are very meagre, and only cover a period of about eight years. 
There is, however, another work by Faqir Khayr-ud-Din in the Library 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal which throws much new light on the 
author and his personality. This little book, which only comprises 45 
folios, is called by the vague title of Tazkirat-ul-'Ulama or “ Lives of the 
Learned” and is divided into three fasls and a khatima. 
