Siraj al-Tawarikh

Siraj al-Tawarikh (Dari: سراج التواریخ) also spelled as Siraj al-Tavarikh, Sirāj al-Tawārīkh and Sirāj al-Tavārīkh, is a book on 18th and 19th century Afghan history by Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara.[1] The author was an Afghan court chronicler and secretary in the court of Amir Habibullah Khan from 1901 to 1919. [3]

Sirāj al-Tawārīkh
سراج التواریخ

The cover of Sirāj al-Tawārīkh first edition
Author	Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara
Original title	Kitāb-i Musṭatāb-i Sirāj al-Tawārīkh[1]
Country	Afghanistan
Language	Dari Persian
Subject	18th and 19th Century Afghan History
Publisher	Matba'e Hurufi'e Dar al-Saltanah, Kabul, Afghanistan[2]
Publication date	1912
Media type	Book
Followed by	Sirāj al-Tawārīkh Second Edition

The book was written on the idea of Amir's commission. The first was a history of Afghanistan entitled Toḥfat al-ḥabīb (Ḥabīb’s gift) in honor of the amir, but Ḥabīb-Allāh Khan deemed the finished work unacceptable and ordered Fayż Moḥammad to start over. The revised version is the three-volume history of Afghanistan entitled Serāj al-tawārī (Lamp of Histories), an allusion to the amir’s honorific “Lamp of the Nation and Religion” (Serāj al-mella wal-dīn). There were also problems in publishing it, the third volume never being completely printed.[3]