The Persian chronicler Ferishta (1560-1620) composed his great work, published in this four-volume English translation in 1829, at the court of Bijapur - where he spent most of his life - under the patronage of King Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It covers Muslim India from around 975 to 1612 and is notable for its balance, despite Ferishta's close involvement with some of the events and people he records. Valuable additions to the text made by the translator, East India Company officer John Briggs (1785-1875), include genealogical tables and notes, as well as a comparative chronology of events in Europe and India. Volume 2 examines the descendants of Timur (or Tamerlane) and the founding by Babur of the Mughal dynasty in the early sixteenth century. It also contains coverage of the kings of the Deccan to the dissolution of the Bahmani sultanate after 1518.
