The Institutes of Akbar 2.1.1

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.