Ahmad Yadgar - 16th century historian of the Afghans in India

By Khan Barmazid




Ahmad Yadgar, 16th century historian of the Afghans in India. The details of his life are not known. The only information he gives about himself is that he was a courtier of the Afghan ruler of Bengal, Daud Shah Karrani (1572-76), who ordered him to write a history of Afghan rule in India along the lines of Juzjani’s Ṭabaqat-e Naṣeri and Barani’s Tariḵ-e-Firizshahi. The work he compiled, called Tariḵh-e-shahi or Tariḵh-e-salaṭin-e afaghena, gives an account of the reigns of the Lodi and Sur sultans. The oldest extant manuscript was transcribed in 1054/1644, and the work was published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Aḥmad Yadgar has recorded his indebtedness to such earlier works as Neẓam-al-din’s Ṭabaqat-e -Akbari (compiled 1594), and Aḥmad bin Bahbal’s Madan-e akhbar-e Aḥmadi (1611). This would indicate that the Tarikh-e-shahi was completed after 1611, probably in Emperor Jahangir’s reign (1605-27). It appears to have been carelessly written, and is deficient in providing correct dates of events. It does not achieve the level of the Ṭabaqat-e Naṣeri or the Tarikh-e-Firuzshahi.

Source;  “Ahmad Yadgar,” by Hameed-ud-Din