Baranī also spelled Barni the first known Muslim to write a history of India; he resided for 17 years at Delhi as nadīm (boon companion) of Sultan Mu?ammad ibn Tughluq. Using mainly hearsay evidence and his personal experiences at court, Baranī in 1357 wrote the Tārīkh-e Fīrūz Shāhī (“History of Fīrūz Shāh”), a didactic work setting down the duties of the Indian sultan toward Islām. In his Fatawā-ye jahāndārī (“Rulings on Temporal Government”), influenced by ?ūfī mysticism, he expounded a religious philosophy of history that viewed the events in the lives of great men as manifestations of divine providence. According to Baranī, the Delhi sultans from Ghiyā?-ud-Dīn Balban (reigned 1266–87) to Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq (reigned from 1351) who had followed his guidelines for the good Islāmic ruler had prospered, while those who had deviated from those precepts had failed. |