Hasan Nizami (fl. 1206-1217)

by Prajakti Kalra (See Chinese translation)

Hasan Nizami was a 12th-13th century Persian language poet and author. He was also called Sadru-din Muhammad bin Hasan Nizami or Sadrud Din Muuhammad Hasan Nizami. Ziauddin Barani (Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Baranī [1285-1357]) calls him Sadr-i-Nizami and Khwaja-i Sadr Nizami (see alternative names). His father’s name was Abul-Hasan, also known as Nizami Uruzi-Samarqandi, author of the Chahar Maqala. He migrated from Nishapur (Khorasan, Iran) to Delhi in the late 12th century. He came to India with Qutb ud-din Aibak who became the first monarch of the Delhi Sultanate. He was the son of a famous Persian poet, Niẓāmī ʿArūḍī Samarḳandī. He also appears in Abu Fazl’s (Mughal historian, under Akbar, author of Ain-i-Akbari) work in the 17th century. He refers to himself simply as Hasan Nizami. He is reported to have fled from Ghazni in the wake of the Mongol invasion.

The Tāj al-maʼās̲ir is considered the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate. With a title meaning roughly ‘the crown of exploits’, it has been translated as the ‘Crown of glorious deeds’. Nizami wrote in Persian but the ornate style suggests he would have known Arabic as well. He was a poet more than a historian. He most likely wrote the work between 1206 and 1210. The 14th century author Barni considered him a reliable authority as a historian and has used the Tāj al-maʼās̲ir as a source for this period. The book was probably compiled between 1206-1229. It gives an account of the conquest of Delhi by the Ghurids. Tajul-Ma'asir roughly translates as 'The Crown of Exploits' and ostensibly deals with the history of Sultans Muizz al-din Muhammad (Muhammad Ghazni) and Qutb ud-din Aibak. Nizami continued to write under Iltutmish (son of Aibak) and the work goes up to the year 1217, the conquest of Lahore.

While the work is considered the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate, it omits large sections of the initial years. The author did not leave any detailed descriptions of the nobles and elites who would have helped to bring the Sultan to power. The work is in prose and poetry, and also contains Quranic verses, which make the work ornate, verbose and difficult to follow. It consists of 12,000 lines of which 7,000 are verses in Arabic and Persian. There are also illustrations and descriptions, especially close to the end.

Scholars have referred to his work as imaginative and lacking in actual historical fact. It begins in 1191 with Muhammad Ghori’s expedition to India and ends in 1217. It provides very little detail of Aibak’s reign, which indicates how little the author was involved in the campaigns of Aibak. Unusually, the preface was compiled at the beginning of the work instead of at the end, which was the more regular practice. Nizami spent much of the work describing and complementing his heroes, especially Aibak, but there is a dearth of actual details. According to Saroop, the text can be used by Persian and Arabic scholars to trace specimens of early works by other authors which appear in the text. Additionally, the author uses Kalila and Dimna without inserting rhyming verses of his own. Nizami uses prose juxtaposed against his verses.

The work has been described differently by various historians. Elliot and Hammer characterise it as verbose and uninformative, while Qureshi sees it as an important primary source for the history of the period, despite its flowery language. Askari confirms that while Minhaj Siraj [Juzjani] (author of Tabaqat-i Nasiri) may be more accurate in recounting events, Nizami sheds light on facts which are not in Siraj’s works. Thus the Tāj al-maʼās̲ir remains an important source for the establishment of Turkic rule in Hindustan. Among the important aspects included in Nizami’s work are his explanation of the code of conduct laid down by Aibak and Iltutmish for administrators and governors, as well as various musical terms and references to weapons of war, precious stones, clothes, and the like.