Tipu Sultan (20 November 1750 – 4 May 1799), Sultan Tipu was the ruler of Mysore from 1782 to 1799. He was also a scholar, soldier and poet. Tipu was the eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore and his wife Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa. Tipu born in a Muslim family. His ancestors are said by different sources to be from Persia, Afghanistan, Arabia, and Ferghana in present day Uzbekistan.

The Register from which the following letters have been taken, and which has been cursorily noticed in the Advertisement, is the fragment, only, of a record, which, if it had reached us in a perfect state, would probably have exhibited copies of all the public or official correspondence
of Tippoo Sultan, from the commencement to the close of his reign. Unfortunately, however, the portion of these highly interesting documents which has been preserved, or, at least, hitherto discovered, is not so extensive as could have been wished; the correspondence, in question,
not beginning till February 1785, and ending with November 1793. But, even in this period, considerable chasms occur; while, from 1794 to 1799, is an absolute blank.