Rafi al-Din Shirazi (c. Template:AH – 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 Template:AH,[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 Template:AH and governor of Bijapur Fort.[5] Rafi al-Din visited the town of Sagara in Template:AH, 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 (Template:Literal). 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[edit | edit source]
Citations[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Overton 2020, p. 14.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Overton 2020, p. 105.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Overton 2020, p. 54.
- ↑ Overton 2020, p. 131.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Ernst 1997.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fischel 2020, p. 120.
- ↑ Eaton 2019, p. 391.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Overton 2016, p. 94.
- ↑ Eaton 1978, p. 97.
Sources[edit | edit source]
- 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.
- Template:Encyclopædia Iranica
- 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.