INTRODUCTION

• Extremely scanty details are available for the reconstruction of

the life of Nizam-ud-din Ahmad.
• His birth is placed to be in 1549 although there is no direct
evidence for the date or year of his birth.
• According to Dowson, he was the pupil of Mulla Ali Sher who was
the father of Faizi Sirhindi, the author of Akbar Nama. From his
work, Nizam doesn’t seem to be trained into adopting any rigid
orthodox attitude in religion. He might have been deeply religious
in his personal life, but he did not let that color either his career
or his historical work.
• He belonged to a family with a long record of service under
Mughals as his father Khwaja Muqim Harawi served under Babur
as the diwani-i-buyutat and under Humayun as the governor’s
vazir. Khwaja is also stated by Nizam to be present at Akbar’s
court in Agra in his twelfth regnal year. Moreover, Nizam-ud-din's
maternal uncle Sultan Ibrahim Ubhi was also in Akbar’s service.
• Nizam-ud-din's first formal appointment came in the twenty ninth
regnal year as the bakhshi of the province of the Gujrat although
even before that he was associated with Akbar’s court.
• In Gujrat, Nizam-ud-din proved his worth as a soldier. He along
with his colleagues was able to make an immediate impact on the
affairs of the province, ravaged as it was by one of the most
serious rebellions during Akbar’s time. In 1592, Nizam reached the
pinnacle of his career when he was nominated for the post of the
bakhshi of the empire.
• He was largely a non-controversial figure and according to
Badauni neither he took part in the great discussions nor used
controversies in Akbar’s court for his own aggrandizement.
 • After his death he was lamented over by both Badauni and Abul
Fazl. Badauni remarked “He took nothing with him except a good
name...... There was hardly anyone in the city who did not weep
over his bier and recall his gracious qualities....”
NIZAM-UD-DIN AHMAD’S TABAQAT-I-AKBARI
Basic form and content
• Written by Khwaja Nizam-ud-din Ahmad
• Gives an account of history of dynasties/dynasty ruling in 9
regions to the time of its conquest by Akbar. These 9 regions are
Delhi, the Deccan, Gujarat, Bengal, Malwa, Jaunpur, Sind, Kashmir
and Multan and he designates each of them as “Tabqa”.
• The account of each Tabqa begins when the particular region
could be assumed to have attained the status of an independent
kingdom. In regions where this status was acquired by breaking
away from the imperial government, the author opens his
account with the reign of a particular ruler who had established
the independent identity and in regions like Kashmir which had
never been subjugated to the imperial authority until the reign of
Akbar, Nizam-ud-din begins with the establishment of an
independent Muslim dynasty.
• The Introduction of the book is an account of Ghaznavids from
977 to 1186 and the conclusion describes the length and breadth
of the empire along with stating that there were 3200 towns in
the empire of which 120 were great cities.
• Chronological sequence has been adhered to with one exception.
• The account of each reign opens with the enthronement of the
ruler concerned and closes with the end of the reign. However,
for Iltutmish and Sher Shah, the author has also given an account
of their life prior to accession. Usually, Nizam merely mentions
 the length of the reign he dealt with without any evaluation of the
personal qualities of the Sultan or adding a list of important
nobles.
• Akbar’s reign is dealt with in the form of an annual chronicle in
the second volume of Tabaqat. However, an exception has been
made in the case of Gujarat province as the events here, during
the seven years that our author was on duty there, have been
described at one place.
• At the end of the book Nizam-ud-din gives some information
about the land, number of towns in Akbar’s empire, the revenue
of the empire etc.
Limitations of the work
• Within the dynastic framework, each reign forms a separate unit
which naturally precludes any explicit suggestion of a causal
relationship between the events of the reign of one sultan and
another, even if one is consecutive to the other.
• Even within the limited field of confining the information on
accession of rulers to the throne, their wars, rebellions of nobles
etc, Nizam-ud-din does not go into the details of administration,
political beliefs or other aspects.
• He briefly narrates a large number of events of a similar type
making his work monotonous both in content and style.
• Rare mentions of extra-political phenomenon such as occurrence
of disastrous earthquake or plan of a city.