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The Institutes of Akbar 2: BIOGRAPHY OF SHAIKH ABUL FAZL I ’ALLAMI.

The Áín i Akbari (Blochmann, Jarrett) 2

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English

Contents

BIOGRAPHY OF SHAIKH ABUL FAZL I ’ALLAMI.

2.1.1

Shaikh Abul Fazl, Akbar’s minister and friend, was born at Agrah on the 6th Muharram, 958, during the reign of Islam Shah. The family to which he belonged traced its descent from Shaikh Músa, Abul Fazl’s fifth ancestor, who lived in the 9th century of the Hijrah in Siwistán (Sindh), at a place called Rel (ریل). In “this pleasant village,” Shaikh Músa’s children and grandchildren remained till the beginning of the 10th century, when Shaikh Khizr, the then head of the family, following the yearnings of a heart imbued with mystic lore, emigrated to Hindústán. There he travelled about visiting those who, attracted by God, are known to the world for not knowing it; and after passing a short time in Hijáz with the Arabian tribe, to which the family had originally belonged, he returned to India, and settled at Nagor, N. W. of Ajmír, where he lived in the company of the pious, enjoying the friendship of Mir Sayyid Yahyá of Bukhara. The title of Shaikh, which all the members of the family bore, was to keep up among them the remembrance of the home of the ancestors.

2.1.2

Not long afterwards, in 911, Shaikh Mubárak, Abul Fazl’s father, was born. Mubárak was not Shaikh Khizr’s eldest child: several children had been born before and had died, and Khizr rejoicing at the birth of another son, called him Mubárak, i.e., the blessed, in allusion, no doubt, to the hope which Islám holds out to the believers, that children gone before bless those born after them, and pray to God for the continuance of their earthly life. Shaikh Mubárak, at the early age of four, gave abundant proofs of intellectual strength, and fashioned his character and leanings in the company of one Shaikh ’Atan (عطان), who was of Turkish extraction and had come during the reign of Sikandar Lodi to Nagor, where he lived in the service of Shaikh Sélár, and died, it is said, at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years. Shaikh Khizr had now resolved permanently to settle at Nágor, and with the view of bringing a few relations to his adopted home, he returned once more to Siwistán. His sudden death during the journey left the family at Nagor in great distress; and a famine which broke out at the same time, stretched numbers of the inhabitants on the barren sands of the surrounding desert, and of all the members of the family at Nagor only Mubarak and his mother survived. Mubárak grew up progressing in knowledge and laying the foundation of those encyclopedial attainments, for which he afterwards became so famous.

2.1.3

He soon felt the wish and the necessity to complete his education and visit the great teachers of other parts; but love to his mother kept him in his native town, where he continued his studies, guided by the teachings of the great saint Khwájah Ahrár, to which his attention had been directed. However, when his mother died, and when about the same time the Maldeo disturbances broke out, Mubárak carried out his wish, and went to Ahmadabad in Gujarat, either attracted by the fame of the town itself, or by that of the shrine of his countryman Ahmad of Khattú. In Ahmadabad, he found a second father in the learned Shaikh Abul Fazl, a khatib, or preacher, from Kázarún in Persia, and made the acquaintance of several men of reputation, as Shaikh ’Umar of Tattah and Shaikh Yusuf. After a stay of several years, he returned to Hindustan, and settled, on the 6th Muharram, 950, on the left bank of the Jamuná, opposite Agrah, near the Chárbágh Villa, which Babar had built, and in the neighbourhood of the saintly Mir Rafi’uddin Safawi of Inju (Shíráz), among whose disciples Mubarak took a distinguished place. It was here that Mubarak’s two eldest sons, Shaikh Abul Faiz, and four years later, Shaikh Abul-Fazl, were born. Mubárak had now reached the age of fifty, and resolved to remain at Agrah, the capital of the empire;

2.1.4

nor did the years of extraordinary drought which preceded the first year of Akbar’s reign, and the dreadful plague, which in 963 broke out in Agrah and caused a great dispersion among the population, incline him to settle elsewhere. The universality of learning which distinguished Mubárak attracted a large number of disciples, and displayed itself in the education he gave his sons; and the filial piety with which Abul Fazl in numerous passages of his works speaks of his father, and the testimony of hostile writers as Badáoní, leave no doubt that it was Mubárak’s comprehensiveness that laid in Abul Faiz and Abul Fazl the foundation of those cosmopolitan and, to a certain extent, anti-Islamitic views, for which both brothers have been branded by Muhammadan writers as atheists, or as Hindus, or as sunworshippers, and as the chief causes of Akbar’s apostacy from Islám.

2.1.5

A few years before 963 A. H., during the Afghán rule, Shaikh Mubárak had, to his worldly disadvantage, attached himself to a religious movement, which had first commenced about the year 900, and which continued under various phases during the whole of the tenth century. The movement was suggested by the approach of the first millennium of Islám. According to an often quoted prophecy, the latter days of Islám are to be marked by a general decadence in political power and in morals, which on reaching its climax is to be followed by the appearance of Imám Mahdi, ‘the Lord of the period’, who will restore the sinking faith to its pristine freshness. Christ also is to appear; and after all men, through his instrumentality, have been led to Islám, the day of judgment will commence. Regarding this promised personage, the Rauzat ul-Aimmah, a Persian work on the lives of the twelve Imáms, has the following passage—

2.1.6

Muslim, Abú Dáúd, Nisái, Baihaqí, and other collectors of the traditional sayings of the Prophet, state that the Prophet once said, “Muhammad Mahdi shall be of my family and of the descendants of Fátimah [the Prophet’s daughter and wife of ’Alí].” And Ahmad, Abú Dáúd, Tirmizí, and Ibn Májah state that the Prophet at some other time said, “When of time one day shall be left, God shall raise up a man from among my descendants, who shall fill the world with justice, just as before him the world was full of oppression;” and again, ‘The world shall not come to an end till the King of the earth shall appear, who is a man of my family, and whose name is the same as mine.’” Further, Ahmad and other collectors assert that the Prophet once said, “Muhammad Mahdi belongs to my family, eight and nine years.” Accordingly, people believe in the coming of Mahdi. But there is also a party in Islam who say that Imam Mahdi has already come into the world and exists at present: his patronymic is Abul Qasim, and his epithets are “the elect, the stablisher, Mahdi, the expected, the Lord of the age.” In the opinion of this party, he was born at Surra-man-raa [near Baghdad] on the 23rd Ramazan, 258, and in 265 he came to his Sardabah [prop. ‘a cool place,’ ‘a summer villa’], and disappeared whilst in his residence.

2.1.7

In the book entitled ‘Shawahid’ it is said that when he was born, he had on his right arm the words written, ‘Say, the truth has come and error has vanished, surely error is vanishing’ [Qoran, xvii, 83]. It is also related that when he was born into the world, he came on his knees, pointed with his fingers to heaven, sneezed, and said, “Praise be to God, the Lord of the world.” Some one also has left an account of a visit to Imam Hasan ’Askari [the eleventh Imam], whom he asked, “O son of the Prophet, who will be Khalifah and Imam after thee?” ’Askari thereupon went into his room, and after some time came back with a child on his shoulders, that had a face like the full moon and might have been three years old, and said to the man, “If thou hadst not found favour in the eyes of God, He would not have shewn you this child: his name is that of the Prophet, and so is his patronymic.” The sect who believe Mahdi to be alive at present, say that he rules over cities in the far west, and he is even said to have children. God alone knows the truth! The alleged prophecies of the Founder regarding the advent of the Restorer of the Faith, assumed a peculiar importance when Islam entered on the century preceding the first millennium, and the learned everywhere agitated the question till at last the Mahdi movement assumed in India a definite form through the teaching of Mir Sayyid Muhammad, son of Mir Sayyid Khan, of Jaunpur. This man was a descendant of the Prophet, and bore his name;

2.1.8

the fall of Jaunpúr was to him a sign that the latter days had come; extraordinary events which looked like miracles, marked his career; and a voice from heaven had whispered to him the words, “Anta Mahdi,” ‘thou art Mahdi.’ Some people indeed say that Mír Sayyid Muhammad did not mean to declare that he was the promised Mahdi; but there is no doubt that he insisted on his mission as the Lord of the Age. He gained many adherents, chiefly through his great oratorical powers, but pressed by enemies he went to Gujarát, where he found an adherent in Sultán Mahmúd I. From Gujarát he proceeded; at the request of the king and to the joy of numerous enemies, on a pilgrimage to Makkah. From there also he seems to have been driven away. On his return, it was revealed to him that his teaching was vexatious, and he said to the disciples that accompanied him, “God has removed from my heart the burden of Mahdi. If I safely return, I shall recant all.” But when he reached the town of Farah in Balochistán, where his arrival had created a great sensation, he died (911, A. H.; 1505, A. D.). His tomb became a place of general pilgrimage, although Sháh Isma‘íl and Sháh Tahmásp tried to destroy it. The movement, however, continued. Some of his followers adhered to their belief that he was Mahdi; and even the historian Badáoní, who was strongly attached to the cause, speaks of him as of a great saint.

2.2.1

Other Mahdis appeared in various parts of India. In 956 (A. D., 1549), a Mahdi of great pretensions arose in Biánah, S.W. of Agrah, in the person of Shaikh ’Aláí. This man was a Bangálí Musalmán. His father had been looked upon in his country as a learned saint, and after visiting Makkah, he had settled, in 935, with his younger brother Naçrullah, likewise a learned man, at Biánah, where they soon became respected and influential men. Shaikh ’Aláí had shewn from his youth the learning of the lawyer and the rigour of the saint; and on the death of his father, he gathered numerous pupils around himself. ‘But the love of power issues at last from the heads of the just,’ and on the day of the ’Íd, he kicked an influential Shaikh from his haudáh, and, supported by his brothers and elder relatives, he proclaimed that he alone was worthy of being the Shaikh of the town. About the same time, one Miyán ’Abdullah, a Niyází Afghán and disciple of Mír Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpúr, arrived from Makkah, and settled at a retired spot near Biánah. Like his master, he was a man of oratorical powers and was given to street preaching; and in short time he gained numerous followers among the woodcutters and water-carriers. Shaikh ‘Alái also was overawed by the impressive addresses of Miyán ’Abdullah;

2.2.2

he gave up teaching and struggling for local influence, turned faqír, told his wife either to follow him to the wilderness or to go, distributed his whole property, even his books, among the poor adherents of the Niyází, and joined the fraternity which they had formed. The brethren had established among themselves community of property, divided the earnings obtained by begging, and gave up all work, because it was said in the Qorán, ‘Let not men be allured by trade or selling to give up meditating on God.’ Religious meetings, the object of which was to prepare people for the advent of the promised Mahdi, were daily held after the five prayers, which the brethren said together, and wherever they went they appeared armed to the teeth. They soon felt strong enough to interfere with municipal matters, and inspected the bázárs and removed by force all articles forbidden in the law, defying the magistrates, if opposed to them, or assisting them, if of their opinion. Their ranks increased daily, and matters in Biánah had come to such a pass, that fathers separated themselves from their children and husbands from their wives. Shaikh ’Alái’s former position and the thoroughness of his conversion had given him the rank of second leader; in fact, he soon outdid Miyán ’Abdullah in earnestness and successful conversions, and the latter at last tried to rid himself of his rival by sending him with six or seven hundred armed men towards Makkah.

2.2.3

’Alái marched with his band over Basáwar to Khawáçpúr, converting and preaching on the way, but on account of some obstacles they all returned to Biánah. Shaikh ’Alái’s fame at last reached the ear of Islám Sháh, who summoned him to Ágrah; and although the king was resolved to put him to death as a dangerous demagogue, and was even offended at the rude way in which ’Alái behaved in his presence, he was so charmed by an impromptu address which ’Alái delivered on the vanities of the world and the pharisaism of the learned, that he sent cooked provisions to ’Alái’s men. To the amusement of the Afghan nobles and generals at court, ’Alái on another occasion defeated the learned on questions connected with the advent of Mahdi, and Islám Sháh was day after day informed that another of his nobles had gone to ’Alái’s meetings and had joined the new sect. It was at this time that Shaikh Mubárak also became a ‘disciple,’ and professed Mahdawi ideas. It is not clear whether he joined the sect from religious or from political motives, inasmuch as one of the objects of the brethren was to break up the party of the learned at Court, at whose head Makhdúm ul Mulk stood; but whatever may have been his reason, the result was, that Makhdúm became his inveterate enemy, deprived him of grants of land, made him flee for his life, and persecuted him for more than twenty years, till Mubárak’s sons turned the tables on him and procured his banishment.

2.2.4

The learned at Court, however, were not to be baffled by ’Aláí’s success, and Makhdúm’s influence was so great, that he at last prevailed on the king to banish the Shaikh. ’Aláí and his followers readily obeyed the command, and set out for the Dak’hin. Whilst at Handiah on the Narbadá, the frontier of Islám Sháh’s empire, they succeeded in converting Bahár Khán A’zam Humáyún and half his army, and the king on hearing of this last success cancelled his orders and recalled Shaikh ’Aláí.

2.2.5

About the same time (955), Islám Sháh left Agrah, in order to put down disturbances in the Panjáb caused by certain Niyází Afgháns, and when he arrived in the neighbourhood of Biánah, Makhdúm ul-Mulk drew the king’s attention to Miyán ’Abdullah Niyází, who after Shaikh ’Aláí’s departure for the Dak’hin roamed about in the hills of the Biánah district with three or four hundred armed men, and was known to possess great influence over men of his own clan, and consequently over the Niyází rebels in the Panjáb. Islám Sháh ordered the governor of Biánah, who had become a Mahdawí, to bring Miyán ’Abdullah to him. The governor advised his religious leader to conceal himself; but Miyán ’Abdullah boldly appeared before the king, and so displeased him by his neglect of etiquette, that Islám Sháh gave orders to beat him to death. The king watched on horseback for an hour the execution of the punishment, and only left when Miyán ’Abdullah lay apparently lifeless on the ground. But he was with much care brought back to life. He concealed himself for a long time, renounced all Mahdawí principles, and got as late as 993 [A. D., 1585] from Akbar a freehold, because he, too, had been one of Makhdúm ul-Mulk’s victims. He died more than ninety years old, in 1000, at Sarhind.

2.2.6

Islám Sháh after quelling the Niyází disturbances, returned to Agrah, but almost immediately afterwards his presence was again required in the Panjáb, and it was there that Shaikh ’Aláí joined the royal camp. When Islám Sháh saw the Shaikh, he said to him in a low voice, “Whisper into my ear that you recant, and I will not trouble you.” But Shaikh ’Aláí would not do so, and Islám Sháh, to keep up the appearance of authority, ordered a menial to give him by way of punishment a few cuts with the whip in his presence. Shaikh ’Aláí had then scarcely recovered from an attack of the plague, which for several years had been raging in India, and had a few badly healed wounds on his neck. Whilst he got the cuts, one of the wounds broke open, and ’Aláí fainted and died. His body was now thrown under the feet of an elephant, and orders were given that no one should bury him, when all at once, to the terror of the whole camp and the king who believed that the last day had dawned, a most destructive cyclone broke forth. When the storm abated, ’Alái’s body was found literally buried among roses and other flowers, and an order was now forthcoming to have the corpse interred. This happened in 957 [A. D., 1550]. People prophesied the quick end of Islám Sháh and the downfal of his house. Makhdúm ul-Mulk was never popular after that.

2.2.7

The features common to all Mahdawi movements, are (1) that the preachers of the latter days were men of education and of great oratorical powers, which gave them full sway over the multitudes; and (2) that the Mahdawis assumed a hostile position to the learned men who held office at Court. Islám has no state clergy; but we find a counterpart to our hierarchical bodies in the ’Ulamas about Court, from whom the Sadrs of the provinces, the Mir ’Adls, Muftis, and Qázis were appointed. At Dihli and Agrah, the body of the learned had always consisted of stanch Sunnis, who believed it their duty to keep the kings straight. How great their influence was, may be seen from the fact that of all Muhammadan emperors only Akbar, and perhaps ’Aláuddin Khilji, succeeded in putting down this haughty set. The death of Shaikh ’Alái was a great triumph for the Court ’Ulamas, and a vigorous persecution of all Mahdawi disciples was the immediate result. The persecutions lasted far into Akbar’s reign. They abated only for a short time when the return of Humáyún and the downfal of the Afghán power brought about a violent political crisis, during which the learned first thought of their own safety, well knowing that Humáyún was strongly in favour of Shi’ism; but when Akbar was firmly established, and the court at Agrah, after the fall of Bairám Khan, who was a Shi’ah, again teemed with Hindústáni Sunnis, the persecutions commenced.

2.2.8

The hatred of the court party against Shaikh Mubárak especially rose to such a height, that Shaikh ’Abdunnabi and Makhdúm ul-Mulk represented to the emperor that inasmuch as Mubarak also belonged to the Mahdawis and was, therefore, not only himself damned, but led also others into damnation, he deserved to be killed. They even obtained an order to bring him before the emperor. Mubarak wisely fled from Agrah, only leaving behind him some furniture for his enemies to reek their revenge on. Concealing himself for a time, he applied to Shaikh Salim Chishtt of Fathpur Sikri for intercession; but being advised by him to withdraw to Gujarat, he implored the good offices of Akbar’s foster-brother, the generous Khan i A’zam Mirza Kokah, who succeeded in allaying all doubts in the mind of the emperor by dwelling on the poverty of the Shaikh and on the fact that, different from his covetous accusers, he had not cost the state anything by way of freeholds, and thus obtained at least security for him and his family. Mubarak some time afterwards applied indeed for a grant of land for his son Abul Faiz, who had already acquired literary fame, though he was only twenty years old, and waited personally with his son on Shaikh ’Abdunnabi. But the latter, in his theological pride, turned them out his office as men suspected of Mahdawi leanings and Shi’ah tendencies.

2.2.9

Even in the 12th year of Akbar’s reign, when Faizi’s poems had been noticed at court,—Akbar then lay before Chitor—and a summons had been sent to the young poet to present himself before his sovereign, the enemies at Agrah saw in the invitation a sign of approaching doom, and prevailed on the governor to secure the victim this time. The governor thereupon sent a detachment of Mughul soldiers to surround Mubarak’s house. Faizi was accidentally away from home, and the soldiers suspecting a conspiracy, subjected Mubarak to various sorts of ill-treatment; and when Faizi at last came, he was carried off by force to Chitor. Nor did his fears for his father and his own life vanish, till his favourable reception at court convinced him both of Akbar’s good will and the blindness of his personal enemies.

2.3.1

Abul Fazl had in the meantime grown up zealously studying under the care of his father. The persecutions which Shaikh Mubarak had to suffer for his Mahdawi leanings at the hands of the learned at Court, did not fail to make a lasting impression on his young mind. There is no doubt that it was in this school of misfortune that Abul Fazl learned the lesson of toleration, the practice of which in later years formed the basis of Akbar’s friendship for him; while, on the other hand, the same pressure of circumstances stimulated him to unusual exertions in studying, which subsequently enabled him during the religious discussions at Court to lead the opposition and overthrow by superior learning and broader sentiments the clique of the 'Ulamás, whom Akbar hated so much.

2.3.2

At the age of fifteen, he showed the mental precocity so often observed in Indian boys; he had read works on all branches of those sciences which go by the name of hikmí and naqlí, or ma’qúl and manqúl. Following the footsteps of his father, he commenced to teach long before he had reached the age of twenty. An incident is related to shew how extensive even at that time his reading was. A manuscript of the rare work of Içfahání happened to fall into his hands. Unfortunately, however, one half of each page, vertically downwards from top to bottom, was rendered illegible, or was altogether destroyed, by fire. Abul Fazl, determined to restore so rare a book, cut away the burnt portions, pasted new paper to each page, and then commenced to restore the missing halves of each line, in which attempt after repeated thoughtful perusals he succeeded. Some time afterwards, a complete copy of the same work turned up, and on comparison it was found that in many places there were indeed different words, and in a few passages new proofs even had been adduced; but on the whole the restored portion presented so many points of extraordinary coincidence, that his friends were not a little astonished at the thoroughness with which Abul Fazl had worked himself into the style and mode of thinking of a difficult author.

2.3.3

Abul Fazl was so completely taken up with study that he preferred the life of a recluse to the unstable patronage of the great and to the bondage which attendance at court in those days rendered inevitable. But from the time Faizí had been asked by Akbar to attend the court, hopes of a brighter future dawned, and Abul Fazl, who had then completed his seventeenth year, saw in the encouragement held out by the emperor, in spite of Mubarak’s numerous enemies at court, a guarantee that patient toil, on his part, too, would not remain without fruit. The skill with which Faizí in the meantime acquired and retained Akbar’s friendship, prepared the way for Abul Fazl; and when the latter, in the very end of 981 (beginning of 1574, A. D.), was presented to Akbar as Faizí’s brother, the reception was so favorable that he gave up all thoughts of leading a life among manuscripts. “As fortune did not at first assist me,” says Abul Fazl in the Akbarnámah, “I almost became selfish and conceited, and resolved to tread the path of proud retirement. The number of pupils that I had gathered around me, served but to increase my pedantry. In fact, the pride of learning had made my brain drunk with the idea of seclusion. Happily for myself, when I passed the nights in lonely spots with true seekers after truth, and enjoyed the society of such as are empty-handed, but rich in mind and heart, my eyes were opened and I saw the selfishness and covetousness of the so-called learned.

2.3.4

The advice of my father with difficulty kept me back from outbreaks of folly; my mind had no rest, and my heart felt itself drawn to the sages of Mongolia or to the hermits on Lebanon; I longed for interviews with the lamas of Tibet or with the pádris of Portugal, and I would gladly sit with the priests of the Parsis and the learned of the Zendavesta. I was sick of the learned of my own land. My brother and other relatives then advised me to attend the Court, hoping that I would find in the emperor a leader to the sublime world of thought. In vain did I at first resist their admonitions. Happy, indeed, am I now that I have found in my sovereign a guide to the world of action and a comforter in lonely retirement; in him meet my longing after faith and my desire to do my appointed work in the world; he is the orient where the light of form and ideal dawns; and it is he who has taught me that the work of the world, multifarious as it is, may yet harmonize with the spiritual unity of truth. I was thus presented at Court. As I had no worldly treasures to lay at the feet of his Majesty, I wrote a commentary to the Ayat ul-Kursi, and presented it when the emperor was at Agrah. I was favourably received, and his Majesty graciously accepted my offering.”

2.3.5

Akbar was at that time busily engaged with his preparations for the conquest of Bihár and Bengal. Faizi accompanied the expedition; but Abul Fazl naturally stayed in Agrah. But as Faizi wrote to his brother that Akbar had enquired after him, Abul Fazl attended Court immediately on the emperor’s return to Fathpúr Síkrí, where Akbar happened to notice him first in the Jâmi’ Mosque. Abul Fazl, as before, presented a commentary written by him on the opening of a chapter in the Qorán, entitled ‘Súrat ul Fath,’ ‘the Chapter of Victory.’ The party of the learned and bigoted Sunnis at Court, headed by Makhdúm ul-Mulk and Shaikh ’Abdunnabí, had every cause to feel sorry at Faizi’s and Abul Fazl’s successes; for it was now, after Akbar’s return from Bihar, that the memorable Thursday evening discussions commenced, of which the historian Badáoní has left us so vivid an account. Akbar at first was merely annoyed at the “Pharaoh-like pride” of the learned at court; stories of the endless squabbles of these pious casuists had reached his ear; religious persecutions and a few sentences of death passed by his Chief-Justice on Shí'ahs and “others heretics” affected him most deeply; and he now for the first time realized the idea that the scribes and the pharisees formed a power of their own in his kingdom, at the construction of which he had for twenty years been working.

2.3.6

Impressed with a favourable idea of the value of his Hindú subjects, he had resolved when pensively sitting in the mornings on the solitary stone at Fathpúr Síkrí, to rule with even hand men of all creeds in his dominions; but as the extreme views of the learned and the lawyers continually urged him to persecute instead of to heal, he instituted the discussions, because, believing himself to be in error, he thought it his duty as ruler to ‘enquire.’ It is not necessary to repeat here the course which these discussions took. The unity that had existed among the learned disappeared in the very beginning; abuse took the place of argument, and the plainest rules of etiquette were, even in the presence of the emperor, forgotten. Akbar’s doubts instead of being cleared up only increased; certain points of the Hanafí law, to which most Sunnís cling, were found to be better established by the dicta of lawyers belonging to the other three sects; and the moral character of the Prophet was next scrutinized and was found wanting. Makhdúm ul-Mulk wrote a spiteful pamphlet against Shaikh ’Abdunnabí, the Sadr of the empire, and the latter retorted by calling Makhdúm a fool and cursing him. Abul Fazl, upon whom Akbar from the beginning had fixed as the leader of his party, fanned the quarrels by skilfully shifting the disputes from one point to another, and at last persuaded the emperor that a subject ought to look upon the king not only as the temporal, but also as the only spiritual guide.

2.3.7

The promulgation of this new doctrine was the making of Abul Fazl’s fortune. Both he and Akbar held to it to the end of their lives. But the new idea was in opposition to Islám, the law of which stands above every king, rendering what we call a constitution impossible; and though headstrong kings as ’Aláuddín Khiljí had before tried to raise the law of expediency (مصلحت وقت, maṣlaḥat i waqt) above the law of the Qorán, they never fairly succeeded in separating religion from law or in rendering the administration of the empire independent of the Mullá. Hence when Abul Fazl four years later, in 986, brought up the question at the Thursday evening meetings, he raised a perfect storm; and while the disputations, bitter as they were, had hitherto dwelt on single points connected with the life of the Prophet, or with sectarian differences, they henceforth turned on the very principles of Islám. It was only now that the Sunnís at Court saw how wide during the last four years the breach had become; that “the strong embankment of the clearest law and the most excellent faith had been broken through;” and that Akbar believed that there were sensible men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers and men endowed with miraculous power among all nations, Islám, therefore, possessed in his opinion no superiority over other forms of worship.” The learned party seeing their official position endangered, now shewed signs of readiness to yield, but it was too late.

2.3.8

They even signed the remarkable document which Shaikh Mubárak in conjunction with his sons had drafted, a document which I believe stands unique in the whole Church History of Islám. Badáoní has happily preserved a complete copy of it. The emperor was certified to be a just ruler, and was as such assigned the rank of a ‘Mujtahid’, i. e. an infallible authority in all matters relating to Islám. The ‘intellect of the just king’ thus became the only source of legislation, and the whole body of the learned and the lawyers bound themselves to abide by Akbar’s decrees in religious matters. Shaikh ’Abdunnabí and Makhdúm ul-Mulk signed indeed the document against their will, but sign they did; whilst Shaikh Mubárak added to his signature the words that he had most willingly subscribed his name, and that for several years he had been anxiously looking forward to the realization of the progressive movement. “The document,” says Abul Fazl in the Akbarnámah, “brought about excellent results—(1) The Court became a gathering place of the sages and learned of all creeds; the good doctrines of all religious systems were recognized, and their defects were not allowed to obscure their good features; (2) perfect toleration (ṣulḥ-i-kul, or ‘peace with all’) was established;

2.3.9

and (3) the perverse and evil-minded were covered with shame on seeing the disinterested motives of his Majesty, and thus stood in the pillory of disgrace.’ The copy of the draft which was handed to the emperor, was in Shaikh Mubárak’s own handwriting, and was dated Rajab, 987 (September, 1579).

2.4.1

A few weeks afterwards, Shaikh ’Abdunnabi and Makhdúm ul-Mulk were sent to Makkah, and Shaikh Mubárak and his two sons triumphed over their enemies. How magnanimous Abul Fazl was, may be seen from the manner in which he chronicles in the Akbarnámah the banishment of these men. Not a sentence, not a word, is added indicative of his personal grievances against either of them, though they had persecuted and all but killed his father and ruined his family; the narrative proceeds as calm and statesmanlike as in every other part of his great work, and justifies the high praise which historians have bestowed upon his character that “neither abuse nor harsh words were ever found in his household.” The disputations had now come to an end (A. D. 1579), and Faizi and Abul Fazl had gained the lasting friendship of the emperor. Of the confidence which Akbar placed in Faizi, no better proof can be cited than his appointment, in the same year, as tutor to Prince Murad; and as both brothers had entered the military, then the only, service and had received mansabs, or commissions, their employment in various departments gave them repeated opportunities to gain fresh distinctions. Enjoying Akbar’s personal friendship, both remained at court in Fathpur Sikri, or accompanied the emperor on his expeditions.

2.4.2

Two years later, Faizi was appointed Sadr of Agrah, Kalpi, and Kalinjar, in which capacity he had to enquire into the possibility of resuming free tenures (sayúrghál), which in consequence of fraudulent practices on the part of government officers and the rapaciousness of the holders themselves had so much increased as seriously to lessen the land revenue; and Abul Fazl, in the very beginning of 1585, was promoted to the mansab of Hazari, or the post of a commander of one thousand horse, and was in the following year appointed Diwan of the Province of Dihli. Faizi’s rank was much lower; he was only a commander of Four Hundred. But he did not care for further promotion. Devoted to the muse, he found in the appointment as Poet Laureate, with which Akbar honored him in the end of 1588, that satisfaction which no political office, however high, would have given him. Though the emperor did not pay much attention to poetry, his appreciation of Faizi’s genius was but just; for after Amír Khusrau of Dihlí, Muhammadan India has seen no greater poet than Faizí.

2.4.3

In the end of 1589, Abul Fazl lost his mother, to whose memory he has devoted a page in the Akbarnámah. The emperor, in order to console him, paid him a visit, and said to him, “If the people of this world lived for ever and did not only once die, kind friends would not be required to direct their hearts to trust in God and resignation to His will; but no one lives long in the caravanserai of the world, and hence the afflicted do well to accept consolation.” Religious matters had in the meantime rapidly advanced. Akbar had founded a new religion, the Dín i Iláhí, or ‘the Divine Faith,’ the chief feature of which, in accordance with Shaikh Mubárak’s document mentioned above, consisted in belief in one God and in Akbar as His viceregent (khalífah) on earth. The Islamitic prayers were abolished at court, and the worship of the ‘elect’ was based on that of the Pársís and partly on the ceremonial of the Hindús. The new era (táríkh i Iláhí), which was introduced in all government records, as also the feasts observed by the emperor, were entirely Parsi. The Muhammadan grandees at court shewed but little resistance: they looked with more anxiety on the elevation of Hindú courtiers than on Akbar’s religious innovations, which after all affected but a few. But their feeling against Abul Fazl was very marked, and they often advised the emperor to send him to the Dak’hin, hoping that some mismanagement in war or in administration would lessen his influence at court.

2.4.4

Prince Salím [Jahángír] also belonged to the dissatisfied, and his dislike to Abul Fazl, as we shall see below, became gradually so deep-rooted, that he looked upon him as the chief obstacle to the execution of his wild plans. An unexpected visit to Abul Fazl gave him an excellent opportunity to charge him with duplicity. On entering the house, he found forty writers busy in copying commentaries to the Qorán. Ordering them to follow him at once, he took them to the emperor, and shewing him the copies, he said, “What Abul Fazl teaches me is very different from what he practises in his house.” The incident is said to have produced a temporary estrangement between Akbar and Abul Fazl. A similar, but less credible, story is told by the author of the Zakhírat-ul Khawánín. He says that Abul Fazl repented of his apostacy from Islam, and used at night to visit incognito the houses of dervishes, and, giving them gold muhurs, requested them “to pray for the stability of Abul Fazl’s faith,” sighing at the same time and striking his knees and exclaiming, “What shall I do!” And just as writers on the history of literature have tried to save Faizi from apostacy and consequent damnation, by representing that before his death he had praised the Prophet, so have other authors succeeded in finding for Abul Fazl a place in Paradise; for it is related in several books that Shah Abul Ma’áli Qádiri of Lahor, a man of saintly renown, once expressed his disapproval of Abul Fazl’s words and deeds.

2.4.5

But at night, so runs the story, he saw in his dream that Abul Fazl came to a meeting held by the Prophet in Paradise; and when the Prophet saw him enter, he asked him to sit down, and said, “This man did for some time during his life evil deeds, but one of his books commences with the words, ‘O God, reward the good for the sake of their righteousness, and help the wicked for the sake of Thy love,’ and these words have saved him.” The last two stories flatter, in all probability, the consciences of pious Sunnis; but the first, if true, detracts in no way from that consistency of opinion and uniform philosophic conviction which pervades Abul Fazl’s works; and though his heart found in pure deism and religious philosophy more comfort and more elements of harmony than in the casuistry of the Mullas, his mind from early youth had been so accustomed to hard literary work, that it was perfectly natural for him, even after his rejection of Islam, to continue his studies of the Qoran, because the highest dialectical lore and the deepest philological research of Muhammadan literature have for centuries been concentrated on the explanation of the holy book. To this period also belong the literary undertakings which were commenced under the auspices of the Emperor himself.

2.4.6

Abul Fazl, Faizi, and scholars as Badáoni, Naqib Khan, Shaikh Sultán, Haji Ibrahim, Shaikh Munawwar and others, were engaged in historical and scientific compilations and in translations from the Sanskrit or Hindi into Persian. Faizi took the Lilawati, a well-known book on mathematics, and Abul Fazl translated the Kalilah Damnah under the title of ‘Ayár Dánish from Arabic into Persian. He also took a part in the translation of the Mahabharat and in the composition of the Táríkh i Alfi, the ‘History of the Millennium.’ The last mentioned work, curious to say, has an intimate connection with the Mahdawi movement, of which particulars have been given above. Although from the time of Shaikh ’Alái’s death the disciples of the millennium had to suffer persecution, and the movement to all appearances had died out, the idea of a restorer of the millennium was revived during the discussions in Fathpúr Síkrí and by the teachings of men of Sharíf i Ámulí’s stamp, with this important modification that Akbar himself was pointed to as the ‘Lord of the Age,’ through whom faded Islám was to come to an end. This new feature had Akbar’s full approval, and exercised the greatest influence on the progress of his religious opinions. The Táríkh i Alfi, therefore, was to represent Islám as a thing of the past; it had existed thousand (alf) years and had done its work.

2.4.7

The early history, to the vexation of the Sunnís, was related from a Shí’ah point of view, and worse still, the chronology had been changed, inasmuch as the death of the Prophet had been made the starting point, not the hijrah, or flight, of the Prophet from Makkah to Madínah. Towards the middle of A.H. 1000 (beginning of 1592, A.D.), Akbar promoted Abul Fazl to the post of Duhazárí, or commander of two thousand horse. Abul Fazl now belonged to the great Amírs (umarái kibár) at court. As before, he remained in immediate attendance on the emperor. In the same year, Faizí was sent to the Dak’hin as Akbar’s ambassador to Burhán ul-Mulk and to Rájáh ’Alí Khán of Khándesh, who had sent his daughter to Prince Salím. Faizí returned after an absence of more than sixteen months.

2.5.1

Shaikh Mubárak, who after the publication of his famous document had all but retired from the world, died in the following year at Láhor, (Sunday, 17th Zí Qa’dah, 1001, or 4th September, 1593). He had reached the age of ninety, and had occupied himself in the last years of his life with the compilation in four volumes of a gigantic commentary to the Qorán, to which he had given the title of Manba’u Nafáis ul ’Uyún. He completed it, in spite of failing eyesight, a short time before his death. The historian Badáoní speaks of him as follows :—

2.5.2

Shaikh Mubárak belonged to the most distinguished men of learning of the present age. In practical wisdom, piety, and trust in God, he stood high among the people of his time. In early life he practised rigorous asceticism; in fact, he was so strict in his views regarding what is lawful and unlawful, that if any one, for example, came to a prayermeeting with a gold ring on his finger, or dressed in silk, or with red stockings on his feet, or red or yellow coloured clothes on him, he would order the offending articles to be removed. In legal decisions he was so severe as to maintain that for every hurt exceeding a simple kick, death was the proper punishment. If he accidentally heard music while walking on the street, he ran away, but in course of time he became, from divine zeal, so enamoured of music, that he could not exist without listening to some voice or melody. In short, he passed through rather opposite modes of thought and ways of life. At the time of the Afghán rule, he frequented Shaikh ’Aláí’s fraternity; in the beginning of his Majesty’s reign, when the Naqshbandís had the upper hand, he settled matters with that sect; afterwards he was attached to the Hamadání school; and lastly, when the Shí’ahs monopolized the court, he talked according to their fashion. ‘Men speak according to the measure of their understanding’—to change was his way, and the rest you know. But withal he was constantly engaged in teaching the religious sciences.

2.5.3

Prosody also, the art of composing riddles, and other branches, he understood well; and in mystic philosophy he was, unlike the learned of Hindústán, a perfect master. He knew Shátibí by heart, explained him properly, and also knew how to read the Qorán in the ten different modes. He did not go to the palaces of the kings, but he was a most agreeable companion and full of anecdote. Towards the end of his life, when his eyesight was impaired, he gave up reading and lived in seclusion. The commentary to the Qorán which he composed, resembles the Tafsír i Kabír [the “Great Commentary”], and consists of four thick volumes, and is entitled Manba’u Nafáis ul’Uyún. It is rather extraordinary that there is a passage in the preface in which he seems to point to himself as the renovator of the new century. We know what this ‘renovating’ means. About the time he finished his work, he wisely committed the Fírúzí Ode (in l) which consists of seven hundred verses, and the Ode Bardah, the Ode by Ka’b ibn Zubair, and other Odes to memory, and recited them as daily homilies, till on the 17th Zí Qa’dah, 1001, he left this world at Láhor for the judgment-seat of God.

2.5.4

I have known no man of more comprehensive learning; but alas! under the mantle of the dervish there was such a wicked love of worldly preferment, that he left no tittle of our religion in peace. When I was young, I studied at Agrah for several years in his company. He is indeed a man of merit; but he committed worldly and irreligious deeds, plunged into lust of possession and rank, was timeserving, practised deceit and falsehood, and went so far in twisting religious truth, that nothing of his former merit remains. “Say, either I am in the correct path or in clear error, or you” [Qoran, xxxiv, 23]. Further, it is a common saying that the son brings the curse on the head of his father; hence people have gone beyond Yazid and say, ‘Curse on Yazid, and on his father, too.’ Two years after Shaikh Mubárak’s death, Abul Fazl also lost his brother Faizi, who died at the age of fifty after an illness of six months on the 10th Safar, 1004 (5th October, 1595). When in his last moments, Akbar visited him at midnight, and seeing that he could no longer speak, he gently raised his head and said to him, “Shaikh Jio, I have brought Hakim ’Ali with me, will you not speak to me?” But getting no reply, the emperor in his grief threw his turban to the ground, and wept loud; and after trying to console Abul Fazl, he went away.

2.5.5

How deeply Abul Fazl loved his elder brother, is evident from the numerous passages in the Akbarnámah and the Ain in which he speaks of him, and nothing is more touching than the lines with which he prefaces the selections in the Ain made by him from his brother’s poems. “The gems of thought in his poems will never be forgotten. Should leisure permit and my heart turn to worldly occupations, I would collect some of the excellent writings of this unrivalled author of the age, and gather, with the eye of a jealous critic, yet with the hand of a friend, some of his poems. But now it is brotherly love alone, which does not travel along the road of critical nicety, that commands me to write down some of his verses.” Abul Fazl, notwithstanding his onerous duties, kept his promise, and two years after the death of his brother, he collected the stray leaves of Faizi’s Markaz ul-Adwár, not to mention the numerous extracts which he has preserved in the Akbarnámah. It was about the same time that Abul Fazl was promoted to the post of a Commander of two thousand and five hundred horse. Under this rank he has entered his own name in the list of grandees in the Áín-i Akbarí, which work he completed in the same year when he collected his brother’s literary remains (1596-97). In the following year, the forty-third of Akbar’s reign, Abul Fazl went for the first time on active service.

2.5.6

Sultan Murád had not managed matters well in the Dak’hin, and Akbar now despatched Abul Fazl with orders to return with the Prince, whose excessive drinking caused the emperor much anxiety, provided the officers of the imperial camp made themselves responsible to guard the conquered territory. If the officers were disinclined to guarantee a faithful conduct of the war, he was to see the Prince off, and take command with Sháhrukh Mírzá. The wars in the Dak’hin, from their first commencement under Prince Murád and the Khán Khánán, are marked by a most astounding duplicity on the part of the imperial officers, and thousands of men and immense stores were sacrificed, especially during the reign of Jahángír, by treacherous and intriguing generals. In fact, the Khán Khánán himself was the most untrustworthy imperial officer. Abul Fazl’s successes, therefore, were chiefly due to the honesty and loyalty with which he conducted operations. When he arrived at Burhánpúr, he received an invitation from Bahádur Khán, king of Khándesh, whose brother had married Abul Fazl’s sister. He consented to come on one condition, namely, that Bahádur Khán should vigorously assist him and thus aid the cause of the emperor. Bahádur was not inclined to aid the imperialists in their wars with the Dak’hin, but he sent Abul Fazl rich presents, hoping that by this means he would escape the penalty of his refusal. Abul Fazl, however, was not the man to be bribed.

2.5.7

“I have made a vow,” said he in returning the presents, “not to accept presents till four conditions are fulfilled—(1) friendship; (2) that I should not value the gift too high; (3) that I should not have been anxious to get a present; and (4) necessity to accept it. Now supposing that the first three are applicable to the present case, the favour of the emperor has extinguished every desire in me of accepting gifts from others.”

2.5.8

Prince Murád had in the meantime retreated from Ahmadnagar to Elichpúr, and as the death of his infant son Mírzá Rustam made him melancholy, he continued to drink, though dangerously ill with delirium tremens. When informed of Abul Fazl’s mission, he returned at once towards Ahmadnagar, in order to have a pretext for not going back to his father, and he had come to the banks of the Púrn4, twenty kos from Daulatábád, when death overtook him. Abul Fazl arrived the same day, and found the camp in the utmost confusion. Each commander recommended immediate return; but Abul Fazl said that he was determined to march on: the enemy was near, the country was foreign ground, and this was no time for returning, but for fighting. Several of the commanders refused to march on, and returned; but Abul Fazl, nothing daunted, after a delay of a few days, moved forward, humoured the officers, and supplied in a short time all wants. Carefully garrisoning the country, he managed to occupy and guard the conquered districts with the exception of Nasik, which lay too far to the west. But he sent detachments against several forts, and conquered Baitálah, Taltum, and Satonda. His headquarters were on the Godawari. He next entered into an agreement with Chand Bibi, that, after punishing Abhang Khan Habshi, who was at war with her, she should accept Janir as fief and give up the fort of Ahmadnagar.

2.6.1

Akbar had in the meantime gone to Ujjain. The Dak’hin operations had also become more complicated by the refusal of Bahadur Khan to pay his respects to Prince Dányál, and war with Khandesh had been determined on. Akbar resolved to march on Asir, Bahadur Khan’s stronghold, and appointed Prince Dányál to take command at Ahmadnagar. Dányál sent immediate instructions to Abul Fazl to cease all operations, as he wished to take Ahmadnagar personally. When the Prince therefore left Burhánpúr, Abul Fazl, at Akbar’s request, left Mirzá Shahrukh, Mir Murtazá, and Khwajah Abul Hasan in charge of his corps, and hastened to meet the emperor. On the 14th Ramazán, 1008 (beginning of the 44th year of Akbar’s reign), he met Akbar at K’hargon, near Bijágarh. The emperor received him with the following verse— ای شب خوش و ای ماهتاب دلکشا با تو سخنها دارم بسیار Serene is the night and pleasant is the moonlight, I wish to talk to thee on many a subject. and promoted him for his excellent management to a command of four thousand. The imperial army now marched on Asir and commenced the siege. One day, Abul Fazl inspected some of his trenches, when one of the besieged, who had deserted to Akbar’s camp, offered, to shew him a way by which the Imperialists might get over the wall of the Malai Fort, an important fortification below Asirgarh itself.

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