Workshop on ‘Indo-Persian Historiography’

Aligarh : Resource persons delivered 25 lectures in eleven academic sessions to explain how Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of that age in a one-week workshop on ‘Indo-Persian Historiography’ of the Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Conducting the workshop, Prof Gulfishan Khan (Chairperson and Coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History) said, “Persian historical writings produced in India represent one of the richest literary traditions of the Indian sub-continent and it necessary for research students to get acquainted with the origin and growth of Indo-Persian historiography to evaluate and understand the important changes that the writing of history underwent as it developed within the Indian environment”.

She also spoke about the archival source material, manuscripts and published texts of history, poetry, biographies, geography, encyclopedias, exegesis, and important translations of Sanskrit works.

In the workshop, resource persons introduced students to diverse themes ranging from ways to decipher manuscripts to the necessity of comparing varied versions and related issues of textual practices and intertextuality.

The participants were also made aware of wide-ranging nature of Indo-Persian historiography; possibility of multilayered interpretations through a detailed exposure of representational texts; finest specimens of the Tarikh-i Firuzshahi of Sultanate historian Ziauddin Barani and Padshahnama, the official history of Emperor Shah Jahan’s reign; Mughal miniature paintings and calligraphy; literary and historical significance of inscriptions; various forms of historical administrative documents and coins of Sultans and emperors.