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Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak

Grand vizier of Mughal emperor Akbar from 1579 to 1602

Shaikh Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarakk also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami (14 January 1551 – 12 August 1602) was the Grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, (the third volume is known as the Ain-i-Akbari) and a Persian translation of the Bible. He was also one of the Nine Jewels (Hindi: Navaratnas) of Akbar's royal court and the brother of Faizi, the poet laureate of emperor Akbar.

Quotes

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  • “Awadh is one of the largest cities of India. It is situated in longitude 118°, 6’, and latitude 27°, 22’. In ancient times its populous site covered an extent of 148 kos in length and 36 in breadth, and it is esteemed one of the holiest places of antiquity. Around the environs of the city, they sift the earth and gold is obtained. It was the residence of Rãmachandra who in the Treta age combined in his own person both the spiritual supremacy and the kingly office.
  • At the distance of one kos from the city, the Gogra, after its junction with the Sai, flows below the fort. Near the city stand two considerable tombs of six and seven yards in length respectively. The vulgar believe them to be the resting-places of Seth and the prophet Job, and extraordinary tales are related of them. Some say that at Rattanpur is the tomb of Kabir the assertor of the unity of God. The portals of spiritual discernment were partly opened to him and he discarded the effete doctrines of his own time. Numerous verses in the Hindi language are still extant of him containing important theological truths.” (Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. II. pp. 171-172)
  • “He was accordingly born during the Tretã Yuga on the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra (March-April) in the city of Ayodhya, of Kausalya, wife of Rãjã Daśaratha. At the first dawn of intelligence, he acquired much learning and withdrawing from all worldly pursuits, set out journeying through wilds and gave a fresh beauty to his life by visiting holy shrines. He became lord of the earth and slew Rãvana. He ruled for eleven thousand years and introduced just laws of administration.” (Rãma-Incarnation, Vol- III, p. 291)
  • “Ayodhyã, commonly called Awadh. The distance of forty kos to the east, and twenty to the north is regarded as sacred ground. On the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra a great religious festival is held.” (Sacred Places of Pilgrimage.)
    • Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari, quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 4
  • A man should marry four wives: A Persian to have someone to talk to; a Khurasani woman for his housework; a Hindu for nursing his children; a woman from Mawaraun nahr, or Transoxiana, to have someone to whip as a warning to the other three.
    • Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, trans. by H. Blochmann. I, 327. Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1994). Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 7. Also cited in Herklot, Islam in India, 85-86.
  • Ajodhya is one of the largest cities of India... In ancient times its populous site covered an extent of 148 kos in length and 36 in breadth, and it is esteemed one of the holiest places of antiquity. ... It was the residence of Ramachandra who in the Treta age combined in his own person both the spiritual supremacy and the kingly office. ... Ayodhya... is regarded as sacred ground. On the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra a great religious festival is held. ... Rama was accordingly born during the Treta Yuga on the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra in the city of Ayodhya.
    • Ain - I - Akbari Of Abul Fazl -i-allami Vol.ii. (ca. 1590) [1] Quoted from Narain, Harsh (1993). The Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute: Focus on Muslim sources. Delhi: Penman Publishers. [2]
  • If royalty did not exist, the storm of strife would never subside, nor selfish ambition disappear. Mankind (is) under the burden of lawlessness and lust…
    • Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. trans. by H. Blochmann, quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
  • No dignity is higher in the eyes of God than royalty… Royalty is a light emanating from God, and a ray from the sun, the illuminator of the universe.
    • Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. trans. by H. Blochmann, quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
  • If a horse lost condition, the fines came down to the water carriers and sweepers employed in the stable. When an elephant died through neglect, the attendants (some of whom drew less than three rupees a month) had to pay the price of the animal.
    • Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 7
  • The inhabitants of this land are religious, affectionate, hospitable, genial and frank. They are fond of scientific pursuits, inclined to austerity of life, seekers after justice, contented, industrious, capable in affairs, loyal, truthful and constant… They one and all believe in the unity of God, and as to the reverence they pay to the images of stone and wood and the like, which simpletons regard as idolatry, it is not so.
    • Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. quoted from Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 2
  • The compassionate heart of his majesty finds no pleasure in cruelties or in causing sorrow to others; he is ever sparing of the lives of his subjects, wishing to bestow happiness upon all.
    • About Akbar. Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. quoted from Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 2
  • The king, in his wisdom, understood the spirit of the age, and shaped his plans accordingly.
    • About Akbar. Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 3
  • For a long time past scarce any trace of them (Buddhists) has existed in Hindustan.
  • The third time that the writer accompanied His Majesty to the delightful valley of Kashmir, he met with a few old men of this persuasion, but saw none among the learned.
  • Akbar had prohibited enslavement and sale of women and children of peasants who had defaulted in payment of revenue. He knew, as Abul Fazl says, that many evil hearted and vicious men either because of ill-founded suspicion or sheer greed, used to proceed to villages and mahals and sack them.
    • Abu Fazl quoted by Lal, K. S. (2012). Indian muslims: Who are they.
  • For towards the close of my father’s reign,... availing himself of the influence which by some means or other he had acquired, he [Abul Fazzel] so wrought upon the mind of his master [that is, Akbar], as to instil into him the belief that the seal and asylum of prophecy, to whom the devotion of a thousand lives such as mine would be a sacrifice too inadequate to speak of, was no more to be thought of than as an Arab of singular eloquence, and that the sacred inspirations recorded in the Koran were nothing else but fabrications invented by the ever-blessed Mahommed.... Actuated by these reasons it was that I employed the man who killed Abul Fazzel and brought his head to me, and for this it was that I incurred my father’s deep displeasure.
    • Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself; and translated from a Persian manuscript, by Major David Price (Oriental Translation Committee, 1829), Quoted from Spencer, Robert (2018). The history of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS.
  • The religion of thousands consists in clinging to an idea; they are happy in their sloth.... many would observe silence from fear of fanatics.
    • Ain-i-Akbari. Quoted in Lal, K. S. (2001). Historical essays. New Delhi: Radha.(II.203)
  • [Hindus are] “religious, affable, cheerful, lovers of justice, given to retirement, able in business, admirers of truth, grateful, and of unbounded fidelity.”
    • Quoted from Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage
  • The number of Hindu painters was large. Their artistic skill made Abul Fazl exclaim that “their pictures surpass our conception of things.”
    • as quoted in K.S. Lal, The Mughal Harem (1988), 16
  • The Hindus worship only one God. At any religious function, the Hindus utter the dominion of one God and to Him they direct the offerings of every religious ritual or observance whatever be its form. It is only fools who call the Hindus as idolators on the ground that they offer their devotion through some image built of stone or wood.
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