Ghulam Husain Salim

Who was Ghulam Husain Salim?

Ğulām Husayn “Salīm” Zaydpūrī was a historian who migrated to Bengal and was employed there as a post-master to the East India Company serving under George Udny. At Udny’s request, the author composed a history of Bengal entitled Riyāż al-salātīn, completed in 1787-8. He died in 1817-18. Riyaz-us-Salatin the first complete history of the Muslim rule in Bengal. Written in Persian language by Ghulam Husain Salim Zaidpuri, it covers the whole Muslim rule from bakhtiyar's conquest of Nadia in 1204-05 AD to the battle of palashi in 1757, though there are lacunae in various places. 'Salim' was his pseudonym and 'Zaidpur' in Uttar Pradesh his place of birth. He migrated to Malda and became a munshi. He held the office of Dak Munshi under George Udney, the English Commercial Resident of Malda, at whose request he started writing the book in 1786 AD. The book is entitled Riyaz-us-Salstin, which is a chronogram giving the date 1788 suggesting that in this year the composition of the book was completed.

Ghulam Husain Salim was a keen student of history, he was conversant with the methodology as known in his time. He divided the introductory chapter into four sections: boundaries, geographical and topographical features and population; characteristics of the country, origin of the people of Bengal and some features of the living condition; description of some cities; a brief sketch of the Hindu rule in Bengal. The rest he divided into four chapters; the first three are: the sultans of Delhi and their governors, independent sultans of Bengal, and Mughal rule in Bengal. He divided the fourth chapter into two parts - the first part deals with the Christians, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French etc. and the second part deals with the coming of the English and the establishment of their rule in Bengal.