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Home / IAS Preparation / Abul Fazl

Abul Fazl: Personal Life, About Akbarnama, Religious View, Political Thought, Significance And More!

Last Updated on Apr 09, 2025
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Abul Fazl was a smart historian who had a big impact on the Mughal Empire. He worked closely with the prime minister and helped shape Emperor Akbar's ideas and plans. People admired him for his knowledge and intelligence. Abul Fazl wrote important books, like the Akbarnama, which told the story of Akbar's rule. 

Abul Fazl is an important topic for aspirants attempting the UPSC IAS exam, particularly the UPSC History Optional subject, and the UGC NET History exam. Questions related to Abul Fazl and his contributions, which form a significant part of India's political history, are regularly asked in these examinations.

Personal Life

Abul Fazl Allami is the most significant historian of the time of the Great Mughals. He was killed in 1602 at Jahangir's order. He was born around 1550. In shaping Akbar's religious beliefs and policies, his father, Shaikh Mubarak, a revered scholar and sufi, was crucial. In Akbar's court, his brother Faizi was a poet laureate. 

  • He was a superb scholar and author who firmly believed in eclecticism, was a capable and devoted worker of the state, a man of amazing grit, and Akbar's close friend.Abu'l Fazl was raised at Agra, the Mughal capital. He read a lot of Arabic, Persian, Greek philosophy, and Sufi literature.
  • He was also a persuasive debater and free-thinker who regularly disagreed with the hardline ulama. Akbar was impressed by Abu'l Fazl and thought that he would make an excellent advisor and representative for his views. 
  • The state's liberation from the grip of religious orthodoxy was one of the emperor's main goals. Abu'l Fazl moulded and defined the ideals associated with Akbar's reign in his capacity as court historian.
  • The Emperor hired him to write a history of his reign, and he turned out two excellent books. His chronology and account of the events are both generally accurate. Although clever, his style is too rhetorical and complex to directly engage the reader. 
  • It is distinguished by his patron's fawning as well, who he saw as a superhuman. Overall, Abul Fazl cannot be viewed as a completely neutral and objective historian.

About Akbarnama

Abul Fazl, the author of Akbarnama spent thirteen years amending the manuscript numerous times.

  • The chronicle is based on numerous sources, such as firsthand accounts of occurrences (waqai), government records, and direct accounts of experienced people.
  • Three books make up the Akbar Nama, the first two of which are histories. The Ain-i Akbari is the third book. The first volume covers human history from Adam until one celestial cycle (30 years) of Akbar's life. 
  • The second volume comes to a close in Akbar's 46th year in power (1601). The very next year, Bir Singh Bundela, Prince Salim's accomplice, killed Abu'l Fazl as a result of a plot the prince had planned. 
  • The Akbar Nama was written to give a comprehensive account of Akbar's reign in both the traditional diachronic sense of recording politically significant events over time and the more novel sense of giving a synchronic picture of all aspects of Akbar's empire - geographic, social, administrative, and cultural - without reference to chronology. 
  • The Mughal Empire is depicted in the Ain-i Akbari as having a mixed population of Muslims, Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists, and others.
  • Abu'l Fazl wrote in an elegant style that valued vocabulary and rhythm since works were frequently read aloud. The palace encouraged this Indo-Persian writing style, and many writers aspired to write in the same manner as Abu'l Fazl.

Important Works By Abul Fazl

Akbar Namah by Abul Fazl is a lengthy piece. The first section of the book covers the history of the Mughal royal family from Timur to Humayun, and the second portion covers the history of Akbar's rule from 1602 to the present. It covers every facet of the history of the time and discusses the motivations for the Emperor's actions.

  • The primary source for Akbar's administrative institutions is Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari, which is occasionally regarded as the third and most crucial component of Akbar Namah. 
    • Apart from some important information, it focuses on Akbar's rules in all areas and contains a useful and detailed statistical analysis of his empire along with historical and other annotations.
  • Ruqqat-i-Abul Fazl, a collection of Abul Fazl's letters to Akbar and other members of the imperial family, is available. A number of historical events have benefited from the insight provided by this collection.

Religious View

In his recently constructed town of Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar commanded the building of the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) close to the Jami Masjid. At first, only Sunnis were permitted to take part in religious debates.

  • The main disputants were Abul Fazl and Abdul Qadir Badauni. Both had received instruction from Shaikh Mubarak, the father of Abul Fazl. Following the Haldighati battle, Akbar began his doctrinal discussions with leaders of all major religions, including Shias, Hindus, Christians, and Zoroastrians. He came to believe that other religions held some truth and that Islam did not have exclusive claim to this.
  • Abul Fazl discusses a variety of legislation Akbar passed to secularise the government in the Ain-i-Akbari, which the orthodox Badauni referred to as "illegal." 
  • Akbar was portrayed by Abul Fazl as a mujaddid, or religious reformer.
  • A mujaddid was predicted to arrive at the end of the first millennium following the hijra, in accordance with an Apostolic tradition. The compilation of Tarikh-i-Alfi, a significant historical work of Akbar's reign, was inspired by this tradition but was left unfinished. 
  • The Naqshbandi saint Khwaja Baqi Billah's disciple Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was referred to as the mujaddid alf sani (reformer of the second millennium). Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi passed away in Delhi near the end of Akbar's reign.

Political Thought

Abul Fazl gave the Mughal ideology of kingship a fresh perspective. He believed that the institution of royalty was endowed with farri-izadi (divine effulgence), not the king himself. His padshah, or "king of kings," had a distinctive personality and served as God's viceregent on earth. 

Significance 

He laboured hard to get the information, questioning a number of officials, lords, and other dignitaries to gather first-hand knowledge about administration, social situations, and economic life. His home turned into a sizable record office. 

  • He was careful to obtain nearly all official documentation, reports from the ministries, and personal consultations with the emperor on a variety of issues. He was so committed that he made five revisions to the first draught. 
  • In 1593, the section on administration (Ain-i-Akbari) was finished. It is in a league of its own in terms of the accuracy of the information, the range of subjects covered, the critical and analytical approach used, the sincerity of purpose shown, and the analysis and interpretation. 
  • It is a gold mine of knowledge and covers topics like resources, environmental conditions, population, business and trade, administrative divisions of the empire into different subahs, etc. Abul Fazal aimed to reflect the manners of the people and the times.

Criticism

Although he had many good qualities, his Akbar Namah was highly personal. Only serious academics would be able to employ his method effectively because it is not simple. 

  • It is well known that he did not envision a sizable audience. He was solely serving Akbar, which makes it extremely individualised. As a result, unlike Shah Namah of Firdausi, Akbar Namah is not commonly quoted, although it is nevertheless used as a reference work.
  • Abdul Qadir Baudauni was Abul Fazl's antidote. On Akbar, he was particularly scathing. He developed hatred towards Abul Fazl's meteoric ascension, which is expressly stated in his work Muntakhab-ul-Tawarikh. He had a particular hate for Abul Fazl, which led him to misinterpret the idealism of the time, turning the book into a polemic rather than a history. 

Conclusion

Abul Fazl was a very important scholar. He did a lot of great things for the Mughal Empire. His books and writings helped us learn about the time of Akbar. Abul Fazl was really smart and worked hard to gather knowledge. His work still inspires students and researchers today. He showed us how important it is to record history for the future. Abul Fazl made a big impact on Mughal history, and we can still learn a lot from him.

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Abul Fazl FAQs

Abul Fazl's writings provide valuable insights into the Mughal Empire and its history, contributing to our understanding of the time period.

Abul Fazl played a crucial role as an advisor to Akbar, shaping policies and contributing to the intellectual and cultural development of the empire.

Abul Fazl was a famous scholar and writer who lived during the Mughal Empire in India.

Abul Fazl made significant contributions as a historian, chronicling the reign of Akbar the Great, and as an advisor and administrator in the Mughal court.

An important work, Akbarnama was written by Abul Fazl.
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