Rafi al-Din Shirazi

Rafi al-Din Shirazi (c. AH 947 (1540/1541) – 1620),[1] also known as Rafi al-Din Ibrahim,[2] was a Persian chronicler, diplomat, and merchant who served under sultans Ali I and Ibrahim II of the Sultanate of Bijapur.[3] Born in Shiraz in Persia[4] in around AH 947 (1540/1541),[5] his father was Nur al-Din Shirazi.[2] He immigrated to the Sultanate of Bijapur in India[1] for purposes of trading[5] by request of Afzal Khan, a Bijapuri statesman and his relative.[1] He eventually became employed in the court of the sultanate, and began holding various administrative positions in the 1560s.[6] Early in his career he held roles such as a scribe, courtly kitchen official,[5] and treasurer,[6] while later serving as the ambassador to the neighbouring Ahmadnagar Sultanate from AH 1005 (1596/1597) and governor of Bijapur Fort.[5] Rafi al-Din visited the town of Sagara in AH 980 (1572/1573), near the burial place of the sultanate's founder Yusuf Adil Shah,[2] and toured the Ellora Caves around 1597.[7]

From 1608 to 1611[8] or 1612,[3] Rafi al-Din wrote his foremost historical work in tribute to sultan Ibrahim II, variously transliterated as Tazkirat al-Muluk[1] or Tadhkirat al-Muluk (lit. 'History of Kings'). The chronicle provides an account of the sultanate's history and of other contemporary courts,[8] and is, along with Firishta's Tārīkh-i Firishta, one of the preeminent sources for the history of the Bijapur Sultanate,[8][9] although the latter is more widely known and used.[8] Each of the ten segments of the Tazkirat al-Muluk focuses on a contemporary dynasty or monarch, with the anomaly of the devotion of one entirely to Afzal Khan, making evident Rafi al-Din's preference for the family member.[6] The bulk of the sections pertain to the Bijapur Sultanate as well as the other Deccan sultanates, while the Bahmani Kingdom, Mughal Empire, and Safavid dynasty are also discussed.[5]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Overton 2020, p. 14.
  2. ^ a b c Overton 2020, p. 105.
  3. ^ a b Overton 2020, p. 54.
  4. ^ Overton 2020, p. 131.
  5. ^ a b c d e Ernst 1997.
  6. ^ a b c Fischel 2020, p. 120.
  7. ^ Eaton 2019, p. 391.
  8. ^ a b c d Overton 2016, p. 94.
  9. ^ Eaton 1978, p. 97.

Sources

  • Eaton, Richard M. (1978). The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400868155.
  • Eaton, Richard M. (2019). India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520325128.
  • Ernst, Carl W. (1997). "EBRĀHĪM ŠĪRĀZĪ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VIII/1: Ebn ʿAyyāš–Economy V. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-56859-050-9.
  • Fischel, Roy S. (2020). Local States in an Imperial World: Identity, Society and Politics in the Early Modern Deccan. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474436090.
  • Overton, Keelan (2016). "Book Culture, Royal Libraries, and Persianate Painting in Bijapur, circa 1580‒1630". Muqarnas. 33: 91–154. doi:10.1163/22118993_03301P006. JSTOR 26551683.
  • Overton, Keelan, ed. (2020). Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253048943.