Riyaz-us-Salatin: A History of Bengal

Overview

The Riyazu-s-Salatin (Gardens of Kings) represents the first comprehensive history of Muslim rule in Bengal written during the British colonial period. Composed in Persian between 1786 and 1788 by Ghulam Husain Salim Zaidpuri, the work chronicles nearly six centuries of Islamic governance from Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji’s conquest of Nadia in 1204-05 to the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The title contains a chronogram indicating its completion date of 1788. This foundational text was translated into English by Maulavi Abdus Salam and published by the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1903, making it accessible to colonial administrators and European scholars.

The chronicle emerged from a specific colonial context: George Udny, the English Commercial Resident at Malda and an official of the East India Company, commissioned Salim to compile this history. Salim, who served as Dak Munshi (Postmaster) under Udny, undertook extensive research drawing from nearly all available Persian historical sources, examined inscriptions at the ruined cities of Gaur and Pandua, and synthesized these materials into a systematic narrative. The work follows the Indo-Persian historiographical tradition of the tawarikh genre—comprehensive court chronicles that trace dynastic succession, military campaigns, administrative developments, and political intrigues through chronological narrative focused on statecraft and personalities.

About the Author — Ghulam Husain Salim

Ghulam Husain Salim Zaidpuri (d. 1817-18) was born in Zaidpur, Uttar Pradesh, and later migrated to Bengal where he entered the service of the British East India Company. By the 1780s, he held the position of postmaster at Malda, a commercial town in northern Bengal that had become an important British administrative center. His employer, George Udny, recognized the need for a comprehensive indigenous history of Bengal as British territorial control expanded following the Battle of Plassey (1757) and the Battle of Buxar (1764). Udny’s request prompted Salim to undertake the considerable labor of compiling Riyaz-us-Salatin, which occupied him from 1786 to 1788. Salim wrote under the pen name “Salim” and demonstrated considerable historical acumen in his methodology, consulting primary sources, examining architectural evidence, and attempting to construct coherent chronologies despite often contradictory materials. He died in 1817 and was buried in the Chak Qurban Ali quarter of Malda, leaving behind a work that would shape Bengali historiography for over a century.

The Work

Scope and Methodology:

The Riyaz-us-Salatin is divided into an introductory chapter and four main sections. The introduction addresses Bengal’s geography, population characteristics, cities, and pre-Islamic Hindu rule, establishing the regional context. The four substantive chapters systematically cover: the Delhi Sultanate period and its appointed governors in Bengal; the independent Bengal Sultanate (1342-1576) including the Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1342-1487, with interruptions), the brief Habshi interregnum (1487-1494), and the Husain Shahi dynasty (1494-1538); Mughal rule from Akbar’s conquest through the autonomous Nawabs of Murshidabad; and European commercial and military presence (Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English), culminating in the East India Company’s political supremacy after Plassey.

Salim consulted an impressive range of Persian historical works. For the Sultanate period, he drew on Minhaj-i-Siraj’s Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, Ziauddin Barani’s Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi, Shams Siraj Afif’s continuation of the same work, and Yahya bin Ahmad’s Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi. For the Afghan and Mughal periods, he utilized Abbas Sarwani’s Tarikh-i-Shahi, Abul Fazl’s Akbarnamah and Ain-i-Akbari, Badauni’s Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Nizamuddin Bakhshi’s Tabaqat-i-Akbari, Firishta’s universal history, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, Padshanamah, and Alamgirnamah. For Bengal-specific materials, he consulted Salimullah’s Tarikh-i-Bangalah-i-Mahabat Jangi and, critically, Sayyid Ghulam Husain Tabatabai’s Siyar-ul-Mutakhkherin, which provided contemporary accounts of the Nawabs of Bengal and early British rule. Additionally, Salim personally examined inscriptions on mosques and monuments at Gaur and Pandua, demonstrating archaeological methodology unusual for his time. He acknowledged that two sources he consulted are no longer extant, making his work potentially the sole record of information they contained.

Historical Context:

Riyaz-us-Salatin belongs to the Indo-Persian historiographical tradition that flourished under Sultanate and Mughal patronage. By the late 18th century, this tradition faced decline as Muslim political power fragmented following the collapse of Timurid-Mughal authority. Bengal, wealthy and strategically positioned, had maintained robust Persianate cultural and literary traditions during both its independent Sultanate period and subsequent Mughal administration. The region’s autonomous Nawabs continued patronizing Persian-language scholarship even as British commercial and military power expanded. Salim composed his chronicle precisely at this transitional moment—1788 found Bengal firmly under East India Company control following decisive victories at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), the establishment of the Dewani (revenue collection rights) in 1765, and Warren Hastings’s administrative consolidation during the 1770s and 1780s. British officials like Udny sought indigenous historical knowledge to legitimate and inform colonial governance. Salim’s position as Company postmaster placed him at the intersection of traditional Persian learning and emergent colonial administration, producing a work that served both as continuation of tawarikh tradition and resource for British rule.

Significance

Contemporary Reception:

Upon completion, Riyaz-us-Salatin immediately established itself as the authoritative indigenous history of Muslim Bengal. Captain Charles Stewart, described as “the first modern historian of Bengal,” adopted Salim’s work as the primary model for his own History of Bengal (1813), demonstrating its rapid impact on colonial historiography. The Persian text circulated among both traditional scholars and Company officials with Persian training, filling a crucial gap in regional historical literature. Before Salim, no comprehensive chronicle traced Bengal’s entire Islamic period; earlier Persian works addressed limited periods, specific dynasties, or particular aspects of governance. Salim’s synthetic approach, organizing disparate sources into continuous narrative spanning 550 years, provided unprecedented chronological coverage and became the foundational reference for Bengal’s medieval period.

Later Assessment:

Abdus Salam’s 1903 English translation introduced Riyaz-us-Salatin to scholars lacking Persian, significantly expanding its influence. The translator characterized Salim as “pre-eminently the historian of Muslim Bengal,” acknowledging both the work’s comprehensive scope and its limitations. Twentieth-century historians recognized that Salim made chronological errors, particularly in dating reigns and events where his sources contradicted each other. His coverage of some Mughal Subahdars remains incomplete; notably, Shaista Khan’s conquest of Chittagong from Arakanese control receives inadequate attention. Despite these deficiencies, Riyaz-us-Salatin served as the principal source for scholarship on the Bengal Sultanate, the Ilyas Shahi and Husain Shahi dynasties, and the transition from Mughal provincial administration to autonomous Nawabi rule. Historians including Jadunath Sarkar, who revolutionized Bengal historiography in the early 20th century, relied heavily on Salim’s compilation, particularly for periods where other sources proved scarce.

Value for Researchers:

The work’s enduring significance derives from three factors. First, it preserves information from sources now lost, making it irreplaceable for certain historical episodes. Second, it represents indigenous Bengali Muslim historical consciousness at the moment of colonial transition, revealing how educated Muslims understood their own past as British rule consolidated. Third, it provides substantial detail on political events, dynastic succession, administrative structure, and military campaigns that European sources either ignored or misunderstood. Riyaz-us-Salatin complements British East India Company records, European travelers’ accounts, and Mughal administrative documents by offering a perspective rooted in Persian historical methodology and Bengali regional knowledge. For researchers examining the Bengal Sultanate’s political development, Mughal provincial administration in eastern India, the emergence of autonomous Nawabi authority, or the transition to Company rule, Salim’s chronicle remains an essential primary source despite its acknowledged imperfections.

Digital Access

The English translation is freely available through the Internet Archive (University of Toronto collection) at https://archive.org/details/riyazussalatinhi00saliuoft. The Persian text can be accessed through the Packard Humanities Institute Digital Text Archive. Multiple digital libraries including the Digital Library of India provide access to various editions. Wikimedia Commons hosts a DJVU file of the English translation. Contemporary readers should approach the text with awareness of both its 18th-century Persian historiographical conventions and its production within the early colonial context.

Note: This description was generated with assistance from Claude (Anthropic). Historical information synthesized from Wikipedia, Banglapedia, Internet Archive materials, and scholarly sources on Indo-Persian historiography.