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Firdausi positively knew no Pahlavi and as for Arabic he knew next to nothing. He did employ written sources preponderatingly if not exclusively and these were in modern Persian. So far our information is surely trustworthy. For, Biruni testifies to a Shahname by Abu Mansur bin Abdar Razzak of Tus.
May be, he was actuated by a political design, but Abu Mansur bin Abdar Razzak did not live under Yakub but flourished two or three generations later. For he is either a brother of Muhammad bin Abdar Razzak of Tus or Muhammad himself.
"If report speaks truly, the number of the princesses and concubines amounts to seven hundred." Abdur Razzak gives a glowing account of the brilliancy of a great festival of which he was a spectator while in the capital.
According to him, Deva Raya II. had a son, Pina Raya, who died six months after his attempted assassination; but we have shown that Abdur Razzak conclusively establishes that this unfortunate monarch was Deva Raya II. himself, and that the crime was committed before the month of April 1443.
It seems most probable that the former was the case, because he apparently makes the festival one of only three days' duration, whereas the MAHANAVAMI, as its name implies, was a nine days' feast. But there is also another difficulty. The MAHANAVAMI celebrations began with the new moon, whereas Razzak says that the festival he saw began with the "full moon."
They have a vast number of slaves, and, the debtor who is insolvent is everywhere adjudged to be the property of his creditor. The numbers of these people and nations exceeds belief. Their armies consist of a million men and upwards." Abdur Razzak also visited, the city during the reign of Deva Raya II., but about twenty years later than Conti.
Abdur Razzak, more reliable because he was not only a contemporary but was at Vijayanagar at the time, relates the same anecdote of Deva Raya II. himself, making the would-be assassin the king's brother, and definitely fixing the date beyond a shadow of a doubt.
It is an interesting circumstance that the potentate who had this work prepared by Abu Mansur bin Abdar Razzak, had inserted so Biruni tell us a fictitious genealogical tree in it which led up his ancestors to Minochihr. Such things were in those times very common among new men of Persian origin who attained power.
From the terms of the agreement we gather that, though Firishtah does not expressly mention it, tribute had been demanded by the Sultan, and this confirms the account given by Abdur Razzak. It also shows why the "Danaik" in Abdur Razzak's narrative had not returned covered with glory, but merely, having "taken several unfortunate prisoners, had retraced his steps."
In obedience to this request, Abdur Razzak left Calicut by sea and went to Mangalore, "which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar." He stayed there two or three days and then journeyed inland, passing many towns, and amongst them a place where he saw a small but wonderful temple made of bronze. "At length I came to a mountain whose summit reached the skies.
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