Amir Khusrau: Sufi Mystic and Poet

Yaminuddin Abul Hasan Ameer Khusro or Amir Khusrau, as he is popularly known in the Indian sub-continent, is a great name in literature and music. Born in 1252 in a Turkish family at Patiyali in the Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh, Amir Khusrau was a man of culture who was witness to the reigns of six Sultans of Delhi Sultanate spanning different dynasties: Slave, Khilji and Tughlaq.  

Amir Khusrau mixed spiritual and mundane with ease. One the one hand, he has a liking for mysticism and became a disciple of the famous Sufi Chisti saint Nizamuddin Auliya, on the other, he used to accompany the Sultanate army in their military expeditions. He was captured by the Mongols during the fight which claimed the life of Prince Muhammad, son of Slave Sultan Balban, in 1286. However, he managed to escape.  

An academic genius, Amir Khusrau was a prolific writer. 

Composed in 1289, Qiran-us-sadin is the first historical masnavi of Amir Khusrau. Written in verse, it describes the meeting between Kaiqubad, the Sultan of Delhi, and his father Bughra Khan, the governor of Bengal and son of Balban. 

His Khazain ul Futuh, also known as Tarikh-i-Alai, deals with the first fifteen years of the reign of 'Ala-ud-din Khalji.

Nuh Siphr (the nine skies), another historical  masnavi described the reign of Mubarak Khilji.

In 1291 Amir Khusrau wrote Miftah-ul-Futh where he deals with the military campaigns of Jalaluddin khilji, the founder of the Khilji dynasty. It contains the account of the suppression of the rebellion by Malik Chajju.

Milinda-panha - Questions of Menander

Milinda-panha ("Questions of Milinda) is a Buddhist text dealing with a series of dialogues between King Menander, the most famous Indo-Greek ruler and a Buddhist philosopher called Nagasena. It is written in Pali. 

Menander ruled from c 150 to 135 BC one of the Indo-Greek kingdoms that had arisen in the north-west India as a consequence of the Alexander’s conquests two centuries earlier. His dominion extended from Kabul in the north to Yamuna in the south.

At the end of Milinda-panha, Nagasena was able to convince Menander the persuasiveness of the Buddha's teachings and the king became a Buddhist monk and abdicated the throne in his son’s favour.

Menander was immensely popular. This can be gauged from the legend that has it that after his death, there was a scramble among the cities of north-west for his ashes on which monuments could be built.

Ralph Fitch: European traveller to the Mughal Court

Ralph Fitch, who has left an eyewitness account of the social life and economic condition of the Mughal India, was a European traveller and trader. He was one of the first Englishmen to visit India. During the course of his journey which he undertook in a ship named Tiger he was arrested at Hormuz from where he was taken to Goa then under the control of the Portuguese.

After being released on bail he left Goa and in 1585 he reached the Mughal court of Akbat at Fatehpur Sikri, the new capital built by the emperor near Agra.

From Fatehpur Sikri, Fitch proceeded to the eastern part of India including Bengal.

Sikandar Shah of Ilyas Shahi dynasty of Bengal

Sikandar Shah was the second ruler of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, an independent Muslim kingdom of Bengal founded by his father Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah in about AD 1345. He ascended the throne after the death of his father in 1357 and ruled Bengal for thirty-three years. During his reign he was able to ensure peace and prosperity in his kingdom which is attested by the richness of his coins. 

Soon after his accession, Sikandar Shah has to face a military campaign of the Tughlaq Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq who had earlier made an expedition to Bengal in 1353 during the rule of Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah. However like the first expedition, the second one also proved to be a failure for the Tughlaq ruler. 

Last years of Sikandar Shah were rendered unhappy by the rebellion of his son Ghiyas-ud-din Azam who killed him in 1390 in a battle at Goalpara near Pandua.

The long and prosperous rule of Sikandar Shah provided him ample opportunity to build some magnificent mosques and buildings. Chief among them is renowned Adina Mosque at Pandua (presently in Maldah district of West Bengal). Consisting of four hundred domes, this imposing mosque was built in A.D. 1368. The pillars of the mosque were taken from Hindu temples and palaces in Lakhnauti. 

Duarte Barbosa: Traveller to Vijayanagar Kingdom

Duarte Barbosa, a cousin of Magellan, was a Portuguese official in India, who worked as an interpreter of Francisco Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor of Goa in India. He served the Portuguese government in India from 1500 to 1516. During the period he visited the mighty Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar in South India.

He has left a detailed account of the VIjayanagar rulers, economic and social life of the empire which has its capital at Hampi. 

His travel compilation ‘Book of Duarte Barbosa’ was completed in 1516 and is a valuable source of the history of the medieval South India.

Ibn Batuta, Arab Traveller to India

The Arab traveller Ibn Batuta's record of his visit to India in 1333 is one of the important sources of account describing the rulers and life in India during that period. 

A native of Morocco, Ibn Battutah was born in Tangier in 1304. He arrived at Multan in 1333 during the rule of second Tughlaq ruler Muhammad bid Tughluq. After serving for eight years as the Qazi (judge) of Delhi, he was dismissed from the post by the Tughlaq Sultan.

Ibn Battutah visited the Sultanate of Madurai in 1344. He was the son-in-law of Jalal-ud-din Ahsan Shah, founder of the short-lived Maudrai Sultanate. 

He returned to Morocco in 1353. He gave his account of the travel memoirs to Ibn Juzay, a young writer commissioned by the Sultan of Morocco to compile the accounts. The resultant work was named Rehla (Travelogue).

Al Masudi, Arab Traveller and Historian

Born in Baghdad, Al Masudi was a famous Arab traveler and historian who came to Malabar on the Western coast of India in 915-16 in the course of his visit to several countries and regions in the world. He compiled his travel account and geographical notes in his historical compendium Muruj-al-Zahab wa al-Ma-adin al-Jawahir (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Stones).

Masudi is aptly known as 'Herodotus of the Arabs'.

We can get a fair amount of information about Western India from his work.