Name - Priya Sharma

Roll no. - 1132 (History)

Ques.- Describe and comment upon Abul Fazl’s complex theory of kingship for Akbar. What are
the various ways in which Mughal notions of kingship have been studied by modern historians?

Ans. Akbar was the third Mughal emperor and arguably, the greatest one. Over the course of
time, he came to be presented as a semi-divine ruler who, like a father to his people, was
directly concerned with his subjects’ welfare. It is worth reviewing how this Mughal notion of
kingship came about. When delving into the evolution of this dynastic ideology, one cannot deny
the pivotal role played by Abu’l Fazl, Akbar’s most eminent court historian. It was Abul Fazl who
gave a clear expression to an ideology which explicitly projected Akbar’s infallible authority and
religious tolerance. The metaphor of light dominates his conceptualization of divinity, and the
sun in turn dominates the metaphor of light.

As early as 1562 Akbar manifested an interest in Sufism, particularly in the Chishtiyya silsila. By
the 1570s Shaikh Mubarak and his sons, Faizi, a brilliant poet, and Abu’l Fazl, the future
mastermind of Mughal state ideology, all steeped in the Suhrawardi tradition of illumination
thought, had entered the court, and by the mid-1570s they were producing a potent effect with
their liberal influence over the young king. Concurrent with Abu’l Fazl’s influence, Akbar became
interested in a variety of religious traditions as a way of finding truth, including Hinduism,
Jainism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.

Abu’l Fazl and his impact on Imperial Ideology

The impact of Abu’l Fazl(1551-1602), a scholar and theologian, on Akbar and the evolving
ideology of Mughal statecraft cannot be overemphasized. A brilliant scholar, Abu’l Fazl was
trained in illumination philosophy by his father, Shaikh Mubarak, whose own reputation and
scholarly credentials were impeccable. Akbar had heard of Abu’l Fazl’s genius before they met
in 1575, about the same time when the emperor first felt he had time to systematically consider
religious matters in the court. In this same year Abu’l Fazl joined the Mughal service at the low
rank of 20; by the time he was killed in 1602 he had attained a rank of 5,000, one of the highest
possible. All the same, until 1579 Abu’l Fazl was under constant attack from the traditional court
ulama. Then Akbar, in a move masterminded by Abu’l Fazl, was able to assume unprecedented
power in matters of Islamic religious doctrine through the mahzarnama, a document which was
in the form of a petition and in which, the ulama gave Akbar the right to adopt any position in
case of a conflict among the orthodoxy, and that position would be held as superior. Badauni,
another source for the period, tells us that, except for Shaikh Mubarak, all the members of the
ulama had to be coerced into signed it.

Nur Parwarda-I Izdi (Divine Light) is Abul Fazl’s preferred phrase for Akbar. It is hard to excel
Abul Fazl’s mastery in creating ambiguous verbal images as the backdrop for the emergence of
one solid icon: that of Akbar’s universal divinity. Abul Fazl’s conception of Akbar as the complete
and mature manifestation of the light of sovereignty placed the emperor on a different level from
that of his predecessors. Akbar began a new dispensation, receiving afresh the divine mandate
to rule.

Further, Abu’l Fazl was also deeply influenced by Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi’s theory of ishraq
(illumination), which, as S. H. Nasr, A. Schimmel, and M. A. Razavi indicate, ingeniously
combined classical Greek and Roman thought with pre-Islamic Zoroastrian concepts as well as
Sufi mystical treatises, for example, those of al-Hallaj and al-Ghazzali, especially his Mishat
al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights). The importance of light imagery for Suhrawardi, who argues
that all existence is a reflection of God’s brilliant blinding light, is paramount. He claimed that the
ontological status of any being or object depends on the degree of its illumination, which is
transmitted by dazzling angels. However, only those beings fully imbued with divine light can be
true masters of the age, and those possessing this light will gain power and wisdom, including
the ability to rule justly and benevolently.

Abu’l Fazl applied Suhrawardi’s complex notion of an illumined being, the master of an age, to
Akbar himself, perceiving and presenting him as a divinely imbued monarch. Textually this is
revealed in the opening pages of Abu’l Fazl’s history of Akbar, the Akbar Nama, and the first
volume of which he commenced about 1590 and presented to the emperor in 1597-98. Written
in the language of Suhrawardi’s ishraqi thought, where divinely revealed light is handed down
from one divinely inspired philosopher to another, Abu’l Fazl’s work traces Akbar s lineage from
Adam, the first man, through the prophets common to the Quran and Old Testament, reaching a
Mughal princess, Alanquwa, who is, like Mary, miraculously impregnated. Specifically Alanquwa
was impregnated with a ray of divine light. Also like Mary, Alanquwa is pure and virtuous, giving
birth to not one, but three sons. The one whose name is Nairun, that is, Light Produced,
becomes the progenitor for the Mughal house.

In his remarkable Ain-i-Akbari, essentially a comprehensive manual of the Mughal state, Abu’l
Fazl opens the text: “ [Akbar] is a man of high understanding and noble aspirations who, without
the help of others, recognizes a ray of Divine power in the smallest things in the world .. . . True
greatness in spiritual and worldly matters, [he] does not shrink from the minutiae of business,
but regards their performance as an act of Divine worship ... No dignity is higher in the eyes of
God than royalty, [for] a king is the origin of stability.” Here we learn that Akbar, imbued with
divine light, is able to deal with all issues, large and small, and at the same time realizes God is
everywhere. He is, in essence, a Perfect Man. Akbar, in accordance with long-standing Islamic
tradition, is responsible for maintaining stability that is, executing justice.

Suhl-i-kul is related to the concept of Wahdat-ul-Wajud or oneness of truth. This implied that
various faiths were based on the same truth and the differences between are superficial.
Sulh-i-Kul attempted to bridge the gap between divine and temporal authority. It reflects Akbar’s
attempt to integrate the composite governing class to the Mughal throne. Iqtadar Alam Khan
believes that it was a move towards liberalism and secularism prompted by the rise of a
composite nobility and marked by an increased number of Indian Muslim and Rajput elements.
Therefore, we see that Akbar’s interest in light imagery, already apparent with his devotion to
the Chishtiyya, escalated under the influence of Abu’l Fazl and his promotion of illumination
philosophy.

The Mughal emperor was considerably more accessible when he showed himself to his public
from a projecting window, known as a jharoka-i darshan (public viewing window). This
presentation ceremony would assure his subjects the emperor was well, thus insuring stability;
at this venue subjects could approach the king with their grievances. But the implications of this
practice are more complex and combine Akbar’s three superior characteristics stressed by Abul
Fazl at the opening of his Mughal manual of state, the Ain-i Akbari: Akbar, imbued with divine
light, is a Perfect Man who, like a father to his people, is responsible for assuring justice for all,
that is, for upholding the policy of sulh-i kul, universal toleration.

Abu al-Fazl charged Akbar with the execution of justice, a concept based on well-established
Perso-Islamic traditions, and added to this the Indian concept of kingship identifying the ruler as
a father to all his subjects, not just his Muslim or even Sunni Muslim ones, thus encouraging
sulh-i kul. He has conflated the Islamic notion that kings should be accessible to their subjects
with the Hindu practice of darshan, that is, beholding the practice of darshan in the royal context
derives from a religious concept in which beholding a deity’s image bestows an auspicious
blessing on the beholder.

Conclusion

Thus, in a discussion on the development of an imperial ideology, we note those that played a
major role in this development. Of these, Abu’l Fazl stands out as the single most impactful
player who conceptualized and established the Mughal notion of divine kingship through
justification from akhlaqi texts and more importantly, ishraqi thought. However, it is important to
also give credit to Akbar himself who is said to have closely examined Fazl’s writings at various
stages. Having already been influenced by Sufi mystical thought and his own close association
with the Chishtiya sect, it is clear that the development of Mughal ideology came out of a
partnership wherein Akbar and Abu’l Fazl played equally important roles in cementing the
emperor’s image as the Perfect Man, the complete and mature manifestation of the light of
sovereignty. Further, we have also briefly noted the legacy of this imperial ideology as seen in
the reign of Akbar’s successors, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.

Bibliography:

● Khan, I.A. (1972). “The Turko-Mongol Theory of Kingship”, in K A Nizami (Ed.). Medieval
India-A Miscellany, Vol. II, London: Asia Publishing House
● Mukhia, Harbans (2004). The Mughals of India, Oxford, United Kingdom: Wiley India,
Blackwell Publishing
● Rizvi, S.A.A. (1975). Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims During the Reign
of Akbar (1556-1605). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
● Khan, Iqtidar Alam (1968). “The Nobility Under Akbar and the Development of his
Religious Policy ,1560-80” , Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, No 1-2, pp.29-36
● Richards, J F. (1998). “The Formulation of Imperial Authority under Akbar and Jahangir”
in Kingship and Authority in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 285-326