Akbar and the Contemporary Historians

Akbar, the real founder of the

Mughal empire and
the greatest monarch of medieval Indian history, enjoycd a
long reign of about half a century (1556-l605; and, by virtue of
invaluable contributions nade by him towards the
all-round development of a secular nation-state, carved out a unio:.
place for himself in the annals of Indian history and culture
He was an institution by himself. No wonder, during his Very
life-time, he had become a subject of serious study with his
contemporary historians and men of letters-Indians and
foreigners alike. The contemporary writers have presented the
character and achievements of that great monarch in widely
different colours; three schools of thought can clearly be
discerned in this respect. Abul Fazl, the court historian of
Akbar, belonged to that category of scholars who wrote about
that monarch 'in a spirit of eulogising everything about him.
Badaoni who bore personal grudge and prejudices against
Akbar and his two primary counsellors, Abul Fazl and Faizi,
went to the other extreme in
denouncing the emperor as à
hvpocrite and enemy of Islam, unworthy of holding the
Cxalted ofice of the amir ul momnin, Nizamuddin Ahmad, the
celebrated author of the
Tabakat-i-Akbari, connoted the middie
path; he represented a galaxy of sober and serious historians

who
attempted to give an objective and dispassionate account
of the
character and
achievements of Akbar and the grandees
of his
empire. Nevertheless, all the three schools of thought
have, in
their
own characteristic ways, helped us in making a
well·balanced assessment of the multi-dimensional achieve.
ments f Akbar and his times.
Abul Fazl, Akba1 anama
Abul Fazl occupies a place of distinction among the
cantemporary historians and chroniclers of the Mughal period
he has ieft an
indelible mark on the tiadition of historio-
orachy during the medieval age. Born at Agra in 1551, Abul
Eazl was the second of the eight sons of Sheikh Mubarak.
a liberal-minded theologian of syfi dispositions. Dubbed as a
Mahdavi and shia, Sheikh Mubarak and his family had
sufer persecution and humiliation at the hands of the fanatic
ulana for over two decades. He was introduced to Akbar and
1574.
received patronage from him
Abul Fazl was brought up in the school of adversity. As a
young boy he had seen his father moving from pillar to pust
along with his unusually large family for their bare existence,
which inculcated in bim the virtues of forbearance, hunility,
patience and tolerance. It was this virtuous character, coupleu
with the brilliant intellect of Abul Fazl, which drew Akbur
towards him as his guide and personal friend at a later stage.
Abul Fazl became a sober and serious student of lslamic

religion and theology; his 'unusual exertions' in studies ensk1. .

him subsequently to score an edge over the fanatic mull
at the court of Akbar in their religious discourses. He ot
up to be a God-fearing and broad-minded youth of an ideal
character who was extremely tolerant in his attitude towarde
the others. He had learnt the noble lesson of suleh kul-b
universel brotherhood' from his father who acted as hie
teacher and guide in his days of infancy. Like his father
Abul Fazl also started his career as teacher when he wae
hardly twenty. He had a spiritual bent of mind and displayed repulsion for all the
worldly temptations; but for his timely contact with the imperial court he might
actually have turned a recluse. He was introduced to Akbar by Sheikh Mubarak and
Faizi towards the end of 1574, and was
'favourably received' by the emperor. It proved a
turning point in his career and outlook towards life which finds mention in his
Akbarnama thus:

mutifarious as it is, may yet harmonise with the spiritual

unity of truth, 101
Abul Fazl accepted "ihe bondage of a courtie-' as a
mansabdar of 20 and his progress in the imperial rank was
rather slow. He became a mansabdar of i,000 in 1505 ai-c
yas promoted to the rank of 5,000 in 1602, a shortwhile
before his assassination at the hands of Bir Singh Bundhela,
on agent of prince Salim, later the emperor Jahangir. Abu)
Fazl wielded, however, great inAuence over Akbar who
regarded him as his friend, philosopher and guide in the
management of his personal as well as state affairs.
Abul Fazl received the mandate from his imperial patron
in 1589 to 'write with the pen of sincerity, the account of the
glorious events and of our dominion-increasing victories', be
worked hard at his official assignment as the court histori
ographer for seven years to complete the narrat1ve till the
forty-first year of Akbar's reign. As a result of subsequent
fve revisions ard addition,0 the story was brought upto the
beginning of 1602, a few months befcre the author fell a
victim to the assassins. The Akbarnama constitutes the main
source of our knowledge about the history of Akbar and his
times; its contents have been culled by the author from a
huge mass of material, official as well as non-official, not to
be found in any vther single source. The author correctly
asserts:

not fully responded to nor my wish fully

accomplished.
.I obtained the chronicle
Second command shone forth.
of events beginning at the ninetecnth year of thc Divine
Era (1574 AD) when the Record Office was established
the enlighterned intellect of His Majesty, and from its rint
pages I gathered the accounts of many events. Girens
pains too werc taken to procurc originals or copies of
most of the orders which had been issued to the provines.
fron1 the Accession upto the present day (fortieth
forty-first year of Akbar's reign) which is the dawn of
fortune's morning (viz; the completion of the book)..
also took much trouble to incorporate many of the reports
which ministers and high officials had submitted, about
the affairs of the empire and the events of foreign coun
tries. And my labcur-loving soul was satiated by the
apparatus of inquiry and research. I also exerted myself
energetically to collect the rough notes and memoranda
of sagacious and well informned men. By these means, I
constructed a reservoir for irrigating and moistening the
rose garden of fortune, 103
by
The outcome of Abul Fazl's strenuous labours was the
comprehensive work, entitled, the Akbarnama three volumes,104 The first volume
contains an account of Akbar's ancestors, including that of Babar and Humayun,
while the second one is devoted exclusively to the exhaustive treatment of Akbar's
reign in
chronological order.. The third volume of the Akbarnama has been given a
sub-title, the Ain i Akbari it was prepared
simultancously with the first two volumes, and is practically a
separate work, complete in itself.105 By
bringing

.his monumental work within the purview of history. Abul

Fazl widened the range and scope of the discipline much
bevond the comprehension of the other medieval historio
graphers. He interpreted history in the terms of national
advancement which took a note of the pclitical, administra
rive, economic and cultural realities of the period. The in
i.Akbari is not merely a descriptive and statistical survey of
the Mughal empire, it throws a flood of light on the adminis
trative system and the state policy of the imperial Mughals.
Through its pages is revealed the inner working of the Mughal
bure:ucracy, the steel-frame of the empire, which helped
Akbar in transforming his territorial possessions into a mighty
nation-state of medieval India. After Kautilya's Arthashastra,
the Ain i Akbari is the second greatest work of historical
significance produced by an Indian, the like of which is hard
to fnd even in the annals of European historical literature.
Abul Fazl introduced an intellectual element in the field cf
historiography; he adopted a rational and secular approach
the subject, and, while reconstructing the contem porary
historv of Akbar's time, made an appeal to reason as against
religious bigotry, cultural traditionalism or orthodoxy and
prejudice. To him the history of India did not consist in the
conflict between Hinduism and Islam but rather between the
forces of nationalism and regionalism, secularism and reli
gious fanaticism, stability and
disintegration. Considered from
these points of view, Abul Fazl stands unsurpassed amongst
all the historiographers of his age. In the words of a modern
historian.

Besides the above mentioned standard Works of Abul

Fazl, the collection of his letters, entitled the Ruqat i Abul
Fazl,1" also constitutes one of the most authentic ard usefu
sources of information regarding the history of Akbar's tinme
These letters were written by Abul Fazl off and on to th
emperor Akbar, the members of the royal family, includine
the princes, queens and other notables of the harem and the
bureaucracy. Similarly, the Insha i Abul Fazl or the Maktubot
i Allami108 comprises a collection of official despatches.
prepared by the learned prime minister in his oficial capacitt.
The compilation is divided into three parts; part one
incorporates the letters and firmans prepared by Abul Fazl
and sent on behalf of the emperor to the nobles and the
forei#n dignitaries, including Shah Abbas of Persia, Abdullah Khan Uzbeg of Turan,
the monarch of Kashghar and the sheikhs of Mecca, etc. The second part contains a
collection of Abul Fazl's petitions and
representations made to the cmperor very often on matters of state policy and
issues of national importance as well as the letters written by him to his
colleagues. The third part of the
Muktubat i Allami consists of Abul Fazl's write-ups on general and
miscellaneous
subjects as well as the
comments on his own literary and historical
composition. Being a man of
literary taste, he possessed an inborn urge to write and
through these
writings,
Abul Fazl actually seems to have set the
models in
Persian
prose style.