Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi

Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi is a history of India of the sultanate period. The book commences from the reign of Sultan Muizuddin Muhammad bin Sam (Muhammad Ghori) and abruptly ends in 1434. The author Yahya bin Ahmad bin Abdullah Sarhindi was favourably placed in the government circle in the reign of Sultan Mubarak Shah (1421-1434 AD) of the Sayyid dynasty of Delhi. Though the book is a history of India for the period which it covers, it is the only available history for a period of forty six years from 1388 to 1434 AD. It gives the first hand information about the reigns of the first two Sayyid sultans of Delhi covering a period of about twenty years from 1414 to 1434 AD. For this period Yahya bin Ahmad is a primary source, rather the only source. The author had an access to the government records and as such his information is trustworthy. The later historians Nizamuddin Ahmed Bakshi, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Firishta also considered him as an authority.

Yahya bin Ahmad had no special interest on the history of Bengal, he refers to Bengal only when the sultans of Delhi had connections with Bengal. He, however, consulted the works of earlier historians, eg the tabaqat-i-nasiri of Minhaj and the tarikh-i-firuzshahis of Barani and Afif etc. The Tarikh-i-Muharakshahi is particularly helpful in correcting the chronology. During the Sayyid period Bengal was independent with connections with Delhi cut off. [Abdul Karim]

Bibliography Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi of Yahya bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Sarhindi, Bibliotheca Indica series, Calcutta 1931; AM Husain, The Tughlaq Dynasty, Delhi, 1976.