AHWĀL-I-FIRQAH-I-SIKKHĀṄ, variously titled as Twārīkh-i-Sikkhāṅ, Kitāb-i-Tarīkh-i-Sikkhāṅ and Guzārisṅ-i-Ahwāl-i-Sikhāṅ, by Munshī Khushwaqt Rāi, is a history in Persian of the Sikhs from their origin to AD 1811. Khushwaqt Rāi was an official news writer of the East India Company accredited to the Sikh city of Amritsar. It was written at the request of Col (afterwards General Sir) David Ochterlony, British political agent at Ludhiāṇā on the Anglo-Sikh frontier. Opinion also exists that it was written at the suggestion of Charles Theophilus Metcalfe. Henry Prinsep and Capt Murray based their accounts of the Sikhs on this manuscript. The British Library preserves a manuscript (No. Or. 187) under the title kitāb -i-Tarīkh-i-Sikkhāṅ ( in the Preface it is designated Guzārish-i-Ahwāl-i-Sikkhāṅ). The name of the author is not mentioned. Copies of the manuscript are also preserved at Punjab State Archives, Paṭiālā, and at Khālsā College, Amritsar. The manuscript (No. M/ 800) entitled Twārīkh-i-Ahwāl-i-Sikkhāṅ at the Punjab State Archives has 194 folios. The account begins with the birth of Gurū Nānak in 1469, followed by lives of the succeeding Gurūs, of the career and exploits of Bandā Siṅgh, the chiefs of the Āhlūvālīā, Phūlkīāṅ and Kanhāiya misl, the hill chiefs of Kāṅgṛā or the Kaṭoch dynasty, and of the Sukkarchakīā misl. Events of the reign of Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh up to 1811 such as Holkar's arrival in the Punjab in 1805 and the conquests of Paṭhānkoṭ and Ḍaskā are described in some precise detail. The account closes with the arrival in 1811 of the Afghān embassy for a meeting with Raṇjīt Siṅgh. Khushwaqt Rāi's work furnishes considerable information on the early history of the Sikhs though it is not exempt from inaccuracies or personal prejudices. The account of Sikhs' rise to power is however factual and straight forward.

        The manuscript remains unpublished. An Urdu translation, the only one known to exist, was discovered by Dr Gaṇḍā Siṅgh in the armoury from under the debris after an accidental gunpowder explosion in Qilā Mubārak at Paṭiālā on 1 May 1950. The first 16 pages of the manuscript were missing. A Punjabi translation of the manuscript made by Milkhī Rām Kishan is preserved at the Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, Paṭiālā. The manuscript awaits publication.

Gurbax Siṅgh