Abu'l-Fazl 's Akbarnama

The ancestors of Abu'l-Fazl had settled in Nagaur, later, fed up with the persecution of the Ulemas, they moved to Ahmedabad. Abu’l-Fazl's father Sheikh Mubarak was born in 1506. Abu’l-Fazl was the second of the eight children of his father. He was born on 14 January 1551 in Agra. He completed his education in 15 years and became a teacher himself in 20 years. He met Akbar in 1574. It made its debut in Akbar's court  From the mansabdar of 20. It was murdered by Veer Singh Bundela on the co-operation of Salim. In 1589-90 AD, He was ordered to write Akbar Nama. Which it prepared after seven years of hard work in 1597-98 and handed it over to Akbar .

                           Akbar Nama

First Part - Description of all his ancestors including Akbar's father Humayun

Second Part - A chronological description of the 46 years of Akbar's Life

Third Part - Ain-i-Akbari                                              

                   Ain-i-Akbari

Part - 1 – 10 Ain – Parents, contemporary state system, the birth of Akbar

Part - 2 – 30 Ain - Description of state employees, military and civilian officers and courtiers

Part - 3 – 16 Ain - Department of Justice and Revenue

Part - 4 – Hindu Literature, Astrology, Philosophy, Biographies of Saints

Part - 5 - Emperor's moral rules, code of conduct, administrative ideals, proverbs and autobiography of Abu’l-Fazal.

Merits of Abul Fazal's Akbarnama

Historigraphy : New Approach to Indian History : Need for a Positive Intellectual Propaganda

1.    Nationalist Historian with Rationalist-Liberal Approach : Abu’l-Fazl  tended to adopt an innovative and more comprehensive view of Indian history, inspired as much by his rationalist-liberal approach as by his patron emperor's new view of the Mughal Empire. The empire that Akbar was trying hard to build a different nature from that of the Sultanate, it was outlined as a true Indian empire, an empire based on a composite national authority and friendship with the Hindus, which now millions of local people. Governance imposed on communities by a foreign ethnic and spiritual group was no longer synonymous with it as seen in the Sultanate period. 

2.   Theorist of Sulh-i-Kul in Religious Society : Abu’l-Fazl, who represented the stream of wisdom and religious tolerance against the extreme fanaticism of the Ulema, provided the moral and intellectual basis for the unconventional policies of the emperor. He refused to accept the view of his predecessors that the essence of Indian history was the struggle between the forces of Islam and Hinduism. No one could have done this job better than Abu’l-Fazl, who had a liberal outlook on religion and politics.

3.   Identification of the real area of conflict : In the view of Abu’l-Fazl, the conflict was between the Mughal Empire and the Indian kings, both Hindus and Muslims. Basically it was a struggle between the forces of stability, strength and good governance under an ideal emperor capable of leading the masses in both worldly and spiritual perspective and the forces of fragmentation and misrule under the leadership of the zamindars. It has called those fighting for the emperor, instead of Mujahidane Islam or Ghaziane Islam, Mujahidane Iqbal and Ghaziane Daulat.

 

History Craft: Instrument, Theme and Style

 

1.   Instrument : Abul Fazl writes that I collected the evidence and documents of His Majesty Akbar's activities with great research and diligence and for a long time communicated with the officials of the state and the members of the royal family, I learned the truth, wise elders and smart mind Vale, Satya Karmi Jawan, both of them were examined and their statements were written down... Original copies of orders and information from the provinces were included.

2. Theme: In Akbarnama, extensive information is available on many subjects. Broadly speaking, there is a plethora of information related to wars. Apart from this, there is also information about other countries and territories. Apart from this, information about place description, falit astrology, animals and economic data is also available.

3.        Style: It has been the belief of Abul Fazl that in the field of historiography, he laid the foundation stone of a new style by eliminating the old erotic style and the word trap. But on a cursory look at the Akbar Nama, it is known that his belief is not correct. The Akbarnama is full of rhetoric. Which at some places make it monotonous and unattractive.

Demerits of Abu’l-Fazl's Akbarnama

1.     Faulty historical causality : In the context of the concept of causality in history, Abu’l-Fazl  believes that the behavior of humans stems from their nature and this behavior is the cause of different events. Akbar is an exception to this rule because he is a quasi-divine being whose actions are outside the realm of reason. Since Abu’l-Fazl also saw history as a collection of individual events or cases involving individuals or institutions, there was little room for interpretation and generalisation.

2.     Worshiper of the Person : The most serious error of Abu’l-Fazl as a historian was his subjectivity which was as sharp as the subjectivity of Barani or Badayuni. This expressed in the form of his blatant prejudice towards his patron. He lost all his intelligence, prudence, decency and self-control in justifying and appreciating every move of Akbar, who was always right in his view as he could never make a mistake. The objectives of Akbar's military campaigns against the enemy, whether a Rajput ruler or a Muslim ruler, were always considered just and laudable. The author's unwavering faith gave Akbarnama the form of a commendation.

3.     Lack of historical objectivity: His process of justifying his explanations is always does not satisfy the conditions of historical objectivity. He Shows a partisan and even hostile attitude against Sher Shah as he considered this great Afghan the enemy of Akbar's father. Blind faith and flattering  should be considered as the biggest fault of Akbarnama.

4.     Resentment towards Ulema: He is not completely free from psychosomatics and personal convictions, since The Ulemas had troubled his family at one time, so Its old Outrage erupted against Ulema in the form of vengeance through this powerful pen. Abu’l-Fazl 's description of Akbar's hatred for the Ulema and his alienation from them cannot be considered fair.

5.     Concealment of facts : Another serious allegation against the author of Akbarnama is that he concealed many facts and in this order ignored those incidents and facts which was against the mythological notion and against the popularly known about Akbar's ability and intelligence. Therefore, Abu’l-Fazl  is completely silent on the huge amount of agricultural land wasted due to the Crore. System of land revenue settlement and the terrible problems that the ryots had to face. These issues have been discussed by Badauni and Nizamuddin Ahmed has confirmed them.

6.     Plagiarism: Abu’l-Fazl  is alleged to have committed plagiarism and obtained information from sources which have not been accepted with certainty. Sometimes they take many paragraphs literally from the works of other authors. In doing so, they do not have any kind of fear and are also unaware of the allegation of plagiarism. Details related to Hindus in Ain Which are largely taken from Alberuni, there is no confession regarding the original source .

Conclusion

In spite of all these faults we have no hesitation to say that the effort he put into writing the Akbar Nama and the exhausting research method was followed certainly a developed attempt to write authentic history. Although his assumptions seem simple or his predictions are invalid, but even after this his compositions it is historical or epoch -making event in medieval historiography.