The documents of Shah Jahan’s period are not abundant, and where they exist, they are not accessible to the public. It is for the first time that the documents of this period are being made available to scholars in this volume. A great deal of patient and prolonged effort has been made in deciphering the difficult and obscure passages in the original documents, which are written in Shikasta script, without any distinguishing Nuqta or diacritical mark in many places, as may be seen in the facsimile of the original documents, and also in the interpretation of the details of the text, according to the Siaq, the system of notation of the time.

For the true appreciation of any aspect of history nothing can be more reliable than the documentary evidence. Hence the present day historians have come to recognize the extreme importance of records and documents in dealing with historical problems, and in compiling impartial narrations of events without which no true history can be written. To serve this end, a representative selection of Shah Jehan documents is presented here for the benefit of scholars, not as a piece of great research work, but with a view to giving stimulus to the study of the original documents.
Another document mentions the remittance of one lakh hum as a part of the Peshkash from Qutbul-Mulk ('Abdulla Qutb Shah) to the Emperor Jahan Shah.
Shah) to the Emperor Shah Jahan '..page 101 ;. There is another important document, although undated yet belonging to this period, which deals with the maintenance of Bargirs under the Mansabaari system n the Deccan. This document obviously belongs to the administration of the Qutb Shahi or ‘Adil Shahi kingdoms, but was kept in the archives of the Mughal period, perhaps for the convenience of reference in matters of administration.