Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh a general history of the Muslim world written by Abdul Qadir Badayuni. It is a very well known history of the Muslim rule in India from the Ghaznavids to the 40th year (1595-96) of akbar's reign. Abdul Qadir, son of Muluk Shah, was born at Badayun in modern Uttar Pradesh, India in 948 AH/ 1541-42 AD. Given proper education he was well versed in various branches of Islamic learning and grew up into a bigoted Sunni Muslim. Almost of Akbar's age, he was introduced to the emperor in 1573 and was enrolled among the learned men of the court. Abdul Qadir Badayuni was a friend of Nizamuddin Ahmad Bakhshi (author of the tabaqat-i-akbari). Shortly after the death of his friend he began to write the Muntakhab and completed it on 23rd Jamadi II, 1004 (February, 1596). Probably Badayuni died soon after that.

Badayuni's Muntakhab contained so much hostile criticism of Akbar, particularly of his religious vagaries, that it was kept concealed during the emperors' life-time. It was made public during the reign of jahangir; the latter showed his displeasure and did not believe the statement of Badaoni's children that they themselves had been unaware of the existence of the book. The Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh gives information about the development of Akbar's opinions on religions, which is not to be found in other Persian histories.

The Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh is not of particular help for the reconstruction of the history of Bengal, because it does not devote a separate chapter for discussing the history of Bengal. The author refers to Bengal in its general treatment of the history of India. [Abdul Karim]