The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians - Volume 1 : The Muhammadan Period

Published between 1867 and 1877, this is an extensive eight-volume translation and study of the histories of Muslim India. The work is not only valuable for its translation of important extracts, but also serves as a fascinating example of the use of historiography as a colonial tool.

This extensive eight-volume work was first published between 1867 and 1877 by the linguist John Dowson (1820–81) from the manuscripts of the colonial administrator and scholar Sir Henry Miers Elliot (1808–53). Before his death, hoping to bolster British colonial ideology, Elliot had intended to evaluate scores of Arabic and Persian historians of India, believing that his translations would demonstrate the violence of the Muslim rulers and 'make our native subjects more sensible of the immense advantages accruing to them under the mildness and the equity of our rule'. Volume 1 contains introductory material and Elliot's original preface; early Arab geographers' chronicles, including Ibn Khordadbeh's ninth-century Book of Roads and Kingdoms and tenth-century works by Estakhri and Ibn Hawqal; histories of Sindh, including the Chach Nama; and extensive appendices giving further contextual information and ethnographic notes on India.