  The cosmic infrared background (IRB) at wavelengths between 1 micron and 3
microns provides a useful probe of early star-formation prior to and during
reionization. To explain the high optical depth to electron scattering, as
measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), one requires
significant star-formation activity at redshifts 10 and higher. In addition to
massive stars, the IRB flux may be contributed by a population of early
miniquasars. We study the relative contributions from first stars, supernovae
and quasars to the IRB for reasonable star formation rates at high redshift. If
miniquasars radiate efficiently at the Eddington-limit, current background
measurements limit the fraction of mass in first stars that is converted to
seed black holes to be roughly less than 10%. In the case of supernovae, though
an individual supernova is much brighter than the progenitor star, due to the
shorter lifetime of order few months, the fractional contribution to the IRB
remains at a level of 10% and below when compared to the same contribution from
stars. The bright supernovae may, however, be directly detectable by future
large ground-based and space telescopes.
