8. Persian dictionaries composed in India: The earliest extant Persian dictionary,
Farhang-I Qawwas, was composed in India by Fakhuruddin Qawwas, who was a
contemporary of Alauddin Khilji (1296- 1316) , which gives equivalent ‘Hindwi’
words for the Persian. This practice was continued in Miftahul Fuzala, compiled by
Muhammad Shadiabadi in Malwa in 1468-69, concentrating on words indicating
things of everyday life,etc.
Writing about the historians of fourteenth century, Dowson has commented on the
style of Zia - uddin Barani’s writing as well as of those other historians who wrote
Persian, but whose native language was, as he perceives, ‘Hindui’ (Hindawi).
Barani, who belonged to an aristocratic Turkish family several members of which had
served the Sultans of Del