Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak

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Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak (Persian:ابو الفضل) also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami (January 14, 1551 - August 12, 1602) was the vizier of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, the third volume is known as the Ain-i-Akbari. He was son of Shaikh Mubarak and the younger brother of poet Faizi. He came to Akbar's court in 1575 and was influential in Akbar's religious views becoming more liberal into the 1580s and 1590s. He also led the Mughal imperial army in its wars in the Deccan. He was assassinated in a plot contrived by the Mughal Prince Salim, who became the Emperor Jahangir in 1602 because Abu'l Fazl was known to oppose the accession of Prince Salim to the throne.

The Akbarnama

For Western readers, the Akbarnama offers an unusual experience. It is a major source for the history of Akbar's reign--in itself, that confers value. It is enormously long. It is written for the most part in a grandiloquent style that typically goes 'over the top' and stays there--and yet a style that has its own fascination. And it contains sidelong glances at customs, proverbs, types of community organization, the play of power, and the dynamics of realpolitik which any reader interested in Muslim culture will find compelling. For example, an adversary of Akbar's is described as "stepping past the border of his carpet," as if a carpet defined his legitimate sphere of influence. The Akbarnama also contains what is surely the longest set of compliments ever paid by one individual to another--pages and pages of grandiose epithets. In the end they are all but unreadable, and yet they reflect a court culture, immersed in wars of conquest, lyrical poetry, and sensitivity to the larger design of things--to metaphysics and religion--which is probably unique.

Further Reading

• Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbar. Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar's Reign: With Special Reference to Abu'l Fazl. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1975.

External links

• Akbarnama available online at: http://persian.packhum.org/persian/

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