Firishta or Ferishta, c.1560-c.1620, Indian Muslim historian. His given name was Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah. Under the patronage of the shah of Bijapur, he wrote a history of the Muslims in India from the 10th cent. His work, translated as History of the Rise of the Mohamedan Power in India (tr. 1829), is a landmark in Indian historiography, for it gives detailed knowledge of the medieval period in India.