Abul Fazl

Also called: Abu'l Fazl, Abul Fazl Allami · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

Abul Fazl (1551–1602) was the court historian and close friend of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He was the son of the scholar Shaikh Mubarak. He wrote the Akbar Nama in Persian, and its third volume, the Ain-i Akbari. He was killed in 1602 on the orders of Prince Salim, the future Jahangir.

He matters because most of what we know about Akbar's reign, his court, his revenue system and his idea of sulh-i-kul comes through Abul Fazl's writing. He also wrote down Akbar's own words about his change of heart on religion.

Explanation

Background: a scholar at Akbar's court

• Abul Fazl was born in 1551. His father, Shaikh Mubarak, was a learned scholar with liberal religious views.
• His elder brother Faizi was a famous poet at Akbar's court.
• Abul Fazl joined the court in Akbar's early reign. He soon became one of the emperor's closest friends and advisers.
• He was not only a writer. He was also a noble and a military commander, and he served on campaigns in the Deccan.

His main work: the Akbar Nama and the Ain-i Akbari

• The Akbar Nama ("Book of Akbar") is the official history of Akbar's reign. It is written in Persian, the language of the Mughal court.
• It has three volumes:
• Volumes 1 and 2: the story of Akbar's ancestors and the events of his reign, year by year.

• Volume 3, the Ain-i Akbari ("Regulations of Akbar"): a detailed account of how the empire was run.

• The Ain-i Akbari describes:

• the imperial household and the army
• land revenue (the tax on farm land), crops, prices and wages
• the provinces (subas) of the empire, with figures for each

• the religions, literature and customs of the people of India

• According to NCERT, the Ain was completed in 1598, after being revised several times.

• Why it matters: the Ain is the main source historians use to study peasants, zamindars and the Mughal revenue system in the 16th century.

Voice of Akbar's ideas

• Abul Fazl explained and praised Akbar's policy of sulh-i-kul ("peace with all"). It meant tolerance of all faiths.
• He took part in Akbar's interfaith debates, where scholars of different religions argued with each other.
• He presented Akbar as a ruler blessed by God and placed above all religious groups.
• The "change of heart" quote: Abul Fazl recorded Akbar's own words:

  "Formerly I persecuted men into conformity with my faith and deemed it Islam. As I grew in knowledge, I was overwhelmed with shame… What constancy is to be expected from proselytes on compulsion?"

• Simple meaning: faith forced on a person is not real faith, so forcing it is useless.
• This matches the later policies of the reign: abolishing the jizya (the tax non-Muslims had to pay), giving Hindu officials high posts, and making marriage alliances with Rajputs.

His death (1602)

• Abul Fazl's closeness to Akbar made Prince Salim (the future Jahangir) see him as an enemy. Salim was then in revolt against his father.
• In 1602, while Abul Fazl was returning from the Deccan, he was ambushed and killed by Bir Singh Bundela, a Bundela chief, at Salim's instigation.
• Akbar was deeply grieved. Akbar himself died three years later, in 1605.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the reign of Akbar (1556–1605), Mughal Empire. Abul Fazl lived 1551–1602.
• Places: Akbar's court at Agra and at Fatehpur Sikri, which was the capital from 1572–1585 [3]. He also served on campaigns in the Deccan.
• Key people:
• Akbar: his patron.
• Shaikh Mubarak: his father.
• Faizi: his brother, a poet.
• Prince Salim / Jahangir: had him killed.

• Bir Singh Bundela: carried out the killing.

• How we know about it:

• His own texts, the Akbar Nama and Ain-i Akbari. Illustrated (painted) copies of the Akbar Nama were also made at the court.
• A note of caution: Akbar's confession of shame survives only through Abul Fazl. He was a court insider whose job was to praise the emperor.
• So historians read him alongside other evidence. One example is Akbar's own victory letter after Chittorgarh (1568), which boasts of destroying temples "all over Hindustan".

Don't confuse with

• Faizi: Abul Fazl's elder brother, a poet at Akbar's court. Abul Fazl was the historian who wrote the Akbar Nama.
• Badauni (Abdul Qadir Badauni): also a historian at Akbar's court, but a critic of Akbar's religious policies. Abul Fazl was Akbar's admirer and official biographer.
• Akbar Nama vs Ain-i Akbari: the Ain-i Akbari is not a separate book. It is the third volume of the Akbar Nama, and it covers administration and revenue rather than events.
• Baburnama / Jahangirnama: these are autobiographies written by the emperors themselves. The Akbar Nama was written about Akbar, by Abul Fazl. Akbar did not write his own memoir.

Prelims Hooks

• Akbar Nama and Ain-i Akbari → author Abul Fazl. Language: Persian.
• The Ain-i Akbari is the third volume of the Akbar Nama. NCERT says it was completed in 1598.
• Abul Fazl's father was Shaikh Mubarak, and his brother was the poet Faizi.
• Abul Fazl was killed in 1602 by Bir Singh Bundela, at the instigation of Prince Salim (Jahangir).
• Sulh-i-kul = "peace with all". Abul Fazl was its chief writer and supporter at court.
• Trap: the Tuzuk-i Jahangiri was written by Jahangir himself, not by Abul Fazl.

Mains Points

• Main source for the Mughal state: the Ain-i Akbari gives province-wise figures on revenue, crops, prices and the army.
• This makes it the base for studying the Mughal agrarian system and the relations between peasants, zamindars and the state.

• Its limit: it shows the empire as the court wanted it to be seen, so its data may be idealised or incomplete.

• Court history as royal image-building: Abul Fazl presented Akbar as a just, divinely guided king above all sects.

• Akbar's confession of shame survives only through him.

• A good answer reads him beside harder evidence, such as the Chitor victory letter and its boast of temple destruction, and the massacre of about 30,000 civilians at Chittorgarh in 1568 [2].

• Ideas into policy: Abul Fazl's writings helped turn sulh-i-kul into a state ideology. It held together a mixed empire through Rajput alliances, Hindu officials and the abolition of jizya.

• Contrast this with Aurangzeb's reimposition of jizya, a standard GS-I comparison.
• His murder by Salim's agent also shows how court rivalry and succession politics could threaten even the emperor's closest men.

Related concepts

• Akbar
• Sulh-i-kul
• Mahzar
• Akbarnama

Read more

• Akbar: conquest to conciliation (1556–1605)