Digital Book :
Ferishta's History of Dekkan from the first Mahummedan conquests - With a continuation from other native writers, of the events in that part of India, to the reduction of its last monarchs by the emperor Aulumgeer Aurungzebe: also, the reigns of his successors in the empire of Hindoostan to the present day: and the history of Bengal, from the accession of Aliverdee Khan to the year 1780.
By Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi Firishta
In Two Volumes
Translated by Jonathan Scott
Captain in The East India Company's Service and Persian Secretary to the Late Governor General Warren Hastings.
Published by John Stocksdale, London - 1794

Firishta (Persian: فرشته) or Ferishta, full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (Persian: محمد قاسم ہندو شاه), was born in 1560 and died in 1620 and he was a Persian historian.[1] The name Firishta means angel or one who is sent in Persian.

Firishta was born at Astrabad to Gholam Ali Hindu Shah, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. While he was still a child his father was summoned away from his native country into Ahmadnagar, Hindustan, to teach Persian to the young prince Miran Husain Nizam Shah with whom Firishta studied.In 1587 Firishta was serving as the captain of guards of King Murtuza Nizam Shah when Prince Miran overthrew his father and claimed the throne of Ahmadnagar. Having been a former friend, Prince Miran spared Firishta's life who then left for Bijapur to enter the service of King Ibrahim Adil II in 1589.Having been in military positions until then, Firishta was not immediately successful in Bijapur. Further exacerbating matters was the fact that Firishta was of a Shia origin and therefore did not have much chance of attaining high positions in the dominantly Sunni courts of Deccan kings.[2] In 1593 Ibrahim Shah II ultimately implored Firishta to write a history of India with equal emphasis on the history of Deccan dynasties as no work thus far had given equal treatment to all regions of the subcontinent.

The work was variously known as the Tarikh-i Firishta and the Gulshan-i Ibrahim. In the introduction, a resume of the history of Hindustan prior to the times of the Muslim conquest is given, and also the victorious progress of Arabs through the East. The first ten books are each occupied with a history of the kings of one of the provinces; the eleventh book gives an account of the Muslims of Malabar; the twelfth a history of the Muslim saints of India; and the conclusion treats of the geography and climate of India. It also includes graphic descriptions of the persecution of Hindus during the reign of Sikandar Butshikan in Kashmir.

More at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firishta