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BARANI: Life, Family and Historiography -Maryam Tanveer

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28062.46404

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 BARANI: Life, Family and Historiography

-Maryam Tanveer

Ziauddin Barani (1285–1357) was a Muslim political scholar of the Delhi

Sultanate discovered in present-day North India during Muhammad bin
Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best remembered for assembling the
Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, a task on medieval India, which encloses the span from
the superiority of Ghiyas ud din Balban to the introductory six years of the
supremacy of Firuz Shah Tughluq and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari which
fragments the caste system among Muslims in South Asia.

Barani was born to a Muslim household in 1285 in which his father, uncle,
and grandfather all working in outstanding administration posts under the
Sultan of Delhi. His origin was residents of Meerut and Bulandshahr. His
maternal grandfather Husam-ud-Din, was a powerful officer of Ghiyas ud din
Balban and his father Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk carried the post of naib of Arkali
Khan, the son of Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji. His uncle Qazi Ala-ul-Mulk was the
Kotwal (police chief) of Delhi during the hegemony of Ala-ud-Din Khalji.
Barani never held a post but was a nadim (companion) of Muhammad bin
Tughlaq for seventeen years. During this epoch, he was very personal to
Amir Khusro. After Tughlaq was expelled, he felt out of favour. In "Exile" he
wrote two pieces dealing with government, religion, and history, which he
aspired would endear him to the contemporary sultan, Firuz Shah Tughluq.

Barani was amassing a distinct notion and purpose of history writing. He

takes history as a religious task so he was undergoing some perception of
humiliation because he is mourned the fact that he could not obstruct
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq when Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq took an
anti-religious step. This is the motive he seems to be a little of commentary of
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq. Unlike Minhas-u-Siraj, he distinguished the history
of India from that of Central Asia. Periodically, we disclose the writing of
Barani is very orthodox with a dominant anti-Hindu complexion but when we
investigate minutely, we find that certainly, the disappointment of Barani just
expressed the conflict between Hindu and Muslim aristocracy.

There are numerous tasks with this approach; meanwhile,

The community is allotted a position in some authorized historiography. On
this path, he has commenced a different type of historiography in which the
emphasis is shifting from the administration to the people. His work
Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi features the role of people in the administration's
stability and drawbacks in Indian medieval history. He had considerable
memorandum to social dilemmas to navigate the directors to straighten up in
society and his purpose and consequence inquiry in social and economic
circumstances could be an indication of his research from significant
components in social modifications. Though there are a wide amount of
literary references to Indian medieval history, the contribution of Ziauddin
Barni’s Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi is a juncture in Indian historical knowledge.

After his education, Barani also appeared to maintain a significant role under
the Khiljis. Later he came to be a courtier of Muhammad bin Tughlaq where
he remained for more than seventeen years. Mohammad Bin Tughlaq carried
him in great affection for his broad proficiency of history and scholarship and
showered liberal royal favours on him. The Sultan often strives for
recommendations on several critical issues. Regardless, under Mohammad
bin Tughlaq’s successor Feroz Shah, he was wholly forgotten. He was not
only deprived of the numerous honours but also thrown in prison. During the
last days of his life, he was reduced to extreme poverty.
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Barani is curious about law and philosophy. He carried enthusiastic attention

in history. He abides on the practices of History. He glimpses upon history as
a panorama of human activity unravelled before man to navigate his
sputtering phases in life’s adventure. Research of history offers a unique
knowledge of human relationships and encourages him to determine between
good and bad and to comprehend from the incident of others.

Barani also suggests the personalities of a good historian in the preliminary

chapter of Tarikh-i-Firozshahi. According to him, truthfulness, impartiality,
honesty and fearlessness are some of these characteristics. He also argues that
a historian should be accurate in his testimonies and should resist
embellishments or hyperboles, which is a remarkable personality of the poets.
Barani is usually associated with eight chronological works, most of which
cannot be outlined at present. The two most prominent works of Barani are
Tarikh-i-Firozshahi and Fatawa-i-Jahandari, which deliver precious
knowledge about the history of that time. He finalized his work
“Tarikh-i-Firozshahi” in 1357 and devoted the same to the ruling Emperor. It
may be pointed out that the book does not exclusively negotiate with the
reign of Firoz Shah. It starts up with Balban and ends with the sixth regnal
year of Firoz Shah. His account of Balban is based on what was memorized
about him. Barani expresses himself as an immodest flatterer when he
portrays Firozshah. He reveals religious aspects in the person of Feroz Shah
and evaluates his court as the court of Allah. He extravagantly applauds the
Sultan for his numerous works of social welfare. If we suspect Barani by the
principles laid down by him in the preface to Tarikh-I-Firozshahi, he stands
condemned as a historian. He was not rewarded for his works and died poor
in 1357. His gravestone lies in the courtyard of Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah
in Delhi.

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