BAHR UL-MAWWĀJ (lit. stormy or tempestuous sea), also known as Akhbār us-Salātīn, is a comprehensive work on Muslim history divided into nine parts and 49 sections fancifully called bahr (sea) and waves (mauj) respectively, and hence the title. Its last part divided into six sections deals with Indian Timurides (i. e. the Mughals), with an account of Nādir Shāh and the Durrānīs down to 1796. Sir Henry Miers Elliot (1808-53) found a copy of the manuscript in the Library of the Rājā of Banāras. Other copies condensed into three volumes are available in Oriental Public (Khudā Bakhsh) Library, Bāṅkīpur Paṭnā Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin; and British Library, London. The author, Muhammad 'Alī Ansārī (d. 1827), also wrote another book, Tarīkh-i-Muzaffarī which is at places a word-for-word copy of the last part of Bahr ul-Mawwāj, but with many details added to the earlier text. References relevant to the Punjab and to Sikh history include martyrdom of the sons of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh; practices of the Sikhs; Mughal campaign against Bandā Siṅgh Bahādur; struggle between the sons of Zakarīyā Khān; Vaḍḍā Ghallūghārā or the holocaust of 1762; Sikhs' relations with Zābitā Khān Ruhīlā and the unsuccessful expedition of 'Abdul Ahd Khān against the cis-Sutlej Sikh chiefs in 1779.

Syad Hasan Askarī