TWARIKH AND INSHA

INTRODUCTION
The evolution of Persian as a form of literary expression around third quarter of the 9 century
in Islamic East Ram parallel to India's developing contacts with the new Persian culture with
assimilation of Sindh sabha with Kingdom by Yakub bin Abi lais. Gradually the importance of
Persian grew with the Mahmud of ghazni coming to power and we see Persian takes
beginning to be written such as the shahnama written by firdausia Sultan Mehmud. We can
trace the expansion of Persian language from Punjab to Lahore and in later period person
flourished further east in Delhi and beyond the North India. The sultans of Delhi from 13 to
15 century promulgated version as the court language they patronised Persian scribes
writers and poets. We can trace the contribution of various institution in the development of
Persian as a language within Indian subcontinent. Sample the Sufi khanakas making of land
grants inspiring the more reason disciple to learn Persian. Sikandar Lodhi's contribution is
immense in this context as he initiated Persian learning amongst the Hindus. Text like
panchtantra tuti Nama were translated into Persian. There were many scholars and
historians who had hemantly contributed to person historography in India like Minaj us Siraj
juzjani, barni Hassan Nizami etc.

TARIKH/TAWARIKH
Tarikh or tawarikh were general histories or court chronicles that had the objective of
recording ‘dates’, but more effectively were a commemorative venture that had made
historiography focal to book- writing at the court. Tarikh were commissioned by rulers; and
they were written as a long narrative of human experience.

Driven by the objective of creating an imperial narrative and affirming the legitimacy of
Mughal dynastic rule, the chroniclers of the Mughal period not only used written records as
asnad/isnad, but also based their comprehensive historical documentation on memory and
hearsay. Babur, the first mughal emperor, depended on his memory for writing his
autobiography, Baburnama. The memoir is valuable for details on the bureaucracy or the
nobility, civil and military matters, climate, society, economy and the emperor’s personal
affairs, etc. Babur’s autobiography discreetly delineates the glory of his ancestral links, with
a subtle bend towards his Timurid descent without negating his Chingizid legacy. The
narration of his life in the Baburnama is supplemented in some instances by Tarikh-i Rashidi,
written in the court of Abdul Rashid Khan by Muhammad Haydar Dughlat. Babur’s memoir
had a two- fold purpose: to validate his right to rule and create an advice- literature or
nashihat namah for his sons and future Timurid kings; but most importantly, to develop a
‘canonical narrative’ of Mughal origins.

In 1587, Mehtar Jauhar Aftabchi, relied on the memory of Humayun put together the memoir
Tazkirat-ul-Vaqi’at, also known as Tarikh-i Humayun and Humayun Shahi. Composed in a
‘shaky and rustic’ Persian, the text is a contemporary and candid account of the life and
times of the second Mughal emperor, revised subsequently by Ilahbad Faizi Sirhindi, who
presented it in a more sophisticated style to Akbar in 1590.

Gulbadan Banu Begum wrote the biography of Humayun, Ahval-i Humayun Padishah.
Although she was barely 8years old when Babur died, she gave a vivid, dramatic account of
extraordinary, momentous events from the reign of Babur to that of Akbar. In contrast to
Babur’s memoir that narrated the emperor’s life, her account of his death and life of
Humayun expressed the tension between the bonds of family and kingship. Contrary to
official writings, she talked of the processes and mechanism in the making of monarchy and
the formalisation of the empire: the empire she wrote about was not institutionalised like one
presented in the Akbarnama. Gulbadan’s writing was significantly different from that of
Aftabchi or any other courtier of the time. She chose a different genre- ahval, meaning
conditions, state, circumstances, or situations.

Mughal historiography continued to flourish, with many, more biographies and

Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timurriya, an unfinished and anonymous chronicle, was initiated in the
1580s to emphasise the Timurid aspects of Akbar’s legacy. Another chronicle valuable for
understanding the evolution of Akbar’s ideology is Tarikh-i Alfi, commissioned by him in
1581-82, to be written severally by authors under state patronage. It was eventually written
by Mulla Ahmad Thattawi and Asaf Khan Ja’far Beg Qazvini. Unlike Tarikh-i Khandan-i
Timurriya, the chronicle began not with Timur but with the rihlat, that is the death of Prophet
Muhammad, until the reign of Akbar, although it was abandoned subsequently and
Akbarnama pursued as the official chronicle. Tarikh-i Alfi is a dialogical text with a new view
of territoriality that pioneered the concept of Hindustan as a political and cultural unit under
the Mughals, thus setting the pace for the later historicisation of Hindustan as an
independent political and cultural unit different from the rest of the Islamic world. It is in this
context that Athar Ali observed that the historical unity of India first appeared not in British
colonial historiography, but in late 16th century Indo-Islamic chronicles.

Ahval-i Asad Beg was written as a memoir by Asad Beg Qazwini. The text was written during
Jahangir’s reign and provides information on the transition period that is 1601 to roughly
1606. It is valuable for its diplomatic description of Abu’l Fazl’s murder by Bir Singh Deo
Bundela in connivance with Prince Salim in the 47th regnal year of Akbar, and the
chastisement of the Bundela chief by the Mughal army.

Haji Muhammad ‘Arif Qandahari’s Tarikh-i Akbari, also known as Tarikh-i Arif Qandahari, can
be considered a transitional text written in a rhetorical style in admiration of Akbar before
Abu’l Fazl wrote a profuse eulogy of the emperor. The text is valuable for its narrative on
Akbar’s conquest of Gujarat and the construction of Fatehpur Sikri as the capital city in
1563-64, the diversity of Akbar’s empire, the incorporation of the Indian Muslims and
non-Muslims in imperial service and occasional mention of some Rajput nobles.

In this intense period of chronicling and history-writing, in 1589, Akbar commissioned Abu’l
Fazl to write the official history of his reign. Abu’l Fazl denounced blind fanaticism and
rejected the formalities of religion, emphasised the spiritual content in religion and appealed
to the tradition of the philosophers and the scientists. He rejected the orthodox view that
history enlightened only the ‘believers’. He was the critique of the irrational behaviour of the
ulama and even described them the unholy people.
Abu’l Fazl formulated a powerful dynastic ideology in the Akbarnama, glorifying Akbar as the
‘king of manifestation and reality’, ‘the living embodiment of the empire’. Akbarnama traces
Mughal history from Babur to 1602 Akbar’s reign, in which the persistent focus was on Akbar
as the centre of all things. The Akbarnama should be read, as Kumkum Sangari argued, as
‘an intersection between hagiography, biography and autobiography, providing a continuum
between Akbar, the court, some contemporary perception and hagiographic inscription’.
Analysing Abu’l Fazl’s writings and trying to ascertain why he wrote the way he did for Akbar,
S.A.A. Rizvi argued that this was a period when hopes and fears were aroused in the
popular Muslim mind by the approaching Islamic millennium, and Fazl probably felt that
disputes amongst the religious leaders could be effectively handled if prophetic, supernatural
powers were claimed for the emperor- a status above the ordinary rulers. Nevertheless, it
was his obsession with Akbar that attracted several critics, many of whom accused Fazl of
sycophany, of concealing the truth about the emperor, promoting apostasy and heresy in the
empire.

Abu’l Fazl’s major critic was his contemporary Badauni. Badauni refusing to subscribe to the
imperial ideology constructed by Abu’l Fazl, he launched a scathing attack on the latter’s
claim to divinity or near-divinity for Akbar. In his Muntakhab ut-Tawarikh he wrote against
what he believed was the travesty of truth in the Akbarnama. The latter part of the
Muntakhab, on which scholarly opinions are largely based, is particularly critical of and
negative about Akbar’s reign, which has led a few scholars to censure Badauni.
According to some historians, Badauni was a narrow minded Sunni, who rigidly upheld
religious orthodoxy and produced a ‘notoriously vituperative history’. The other view holds
that the Muntakhab is a valuable counterpoint and counterbalance to the hyperbole of Fazl’s
Akbarnama, and elucidated social details that had found no place in Fazl’s exalted history.
Ali Anooshahr commented on his contributions to intellectual and cultural history during the
Mughal period.

Insha writing
The Arabic word ‘insha’ means creation or construction and was used in the time to denote a
prose, composition, letter, document or state paper. Gradually it came to denote a distinct
genre in Arabic and Persian literature. The term ilm-i Insha is used to denote refined prose
writing. According to Jurzi Zaidan22 , insha denotes the expression of inner feelings.

In Persian literature, there are two forms of insha (rasa’il)- tauqiat (consists of ahkam or
orders and misal or directive of rulers) and muhawarat (consists of maktubats or letters and
mufawazat or letters of correspondence). It can also be classified according to relations
between addresser and addresseemuraffaa (when addressee is superior in status), ruqa
(when addressee is inferior in status) and mursala (when they are both equal in status).
Letters can also be manshurs, farmans and fathnamas. There are different letters for
different kinds of communications- ahd-nama (covenant), taziat-nama (letter of condolence),
tahiat-nama (congratulatory letters). The form of letter of a superior person writing to an
inferior person and vice-versa is also different. For example, a fathnama can only be sent by
a ruler proclaiming his victory.

There are elaborate rules of writing a letter- for example a manshur which I. A. Zilli describes
needs to have the following: a praise of God, encomium of the Prophet, cause for issue of
manshur, praise of person addressed to, gist of the order, exhorting that it be executed
commendably and instructing the diwan for following the same. The compiler keeps the
original text of different royal documents, and his own works, and hence a student of history
has to use these sources judiciously to distinguish between the two. There is also a need to
understand the political context and background behind a document like this. For example,
the fathnama issued by Akbar in Chittor can easily be interpreted to be communal in nature,
whereas it is simply following a set prescribed pattern and could have also been fabricated.
Interestingly, the Mughals used different seals for different people and ranks- the uzuk
(round seal) was the most popular which was only given to the leading Queen, and it goes to
show the power exercised by the harem in power and politics.

Under the Mughals there was a new strain of Insha writing especially because local officials
were encouraged to learn Persian, thus creating a considerable mass of Persian literati. The
Mughals brought with them the tradition of Persian prose and insha popular in Timurid
regions. According to Zilli, this tradition was also the contribution of the Mongol legacy.
During this period different styles of Insha writing flourished. A new strain was found in the
Munsha’al-i Namakin called nasr-i mujana. It was a midway styled reproduced by Satujan in
his collection of Safavid documents. Also, Persian prose acquired under the Timurids an
increase in the use of Turkish words, seen in the Baburnama. However, there were also
authors who used an “unaffected style” like the author of Badao ul-Insha. Even Humayun’s
letters were direct in language.

However, the most significant contribution was made by Abul Fazl who was the Mir-Munshi
during the rule of Akbar. The features of Insha on interacting with the composite elements in
Akbar’s court acquired a distinct character. When Abul Fazl wrote his letters or official
documents he conveyed the message and also included his philosophical musings using the
text at an abstract level for reference.24 He avoided oft-quoted passages and phrases and
would often coin new terms and phrases. He often used Sufi terminology, especially in
Ain-i-Rahnamuni.

We find his letters in two compilations. The Ruqat-i-Abul Fazl is a collection of private letters
from Abul Fazl to Murad, Daniyal, Akbar, Salim etc and was compiled by his nephew Nur
al-Din Muhammad. The Insha-i-Abul Fazl or the Maqtubat-i-Allami contains the official
dispatches of written by Abul Fazl. It has two parts- the first part conatins letters of Akbar to
Abdullah Khan Uzbeg of Turan, Shah Abas of Persia, among others along with his nobles
like Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, and the second part consists of Abul Fazl’s letters to
Akbar, Daniyal, etc. this was compiled by Abdus-Samad, his son-in law. Abul Fazl rejected
many stylistic features of insha in the Akbarama and he condemned authors who used
ambiguous and ornate language. He excluded Arabic words and expressions and replaced
them with Turkish words and focussed on expression. For example, in writing letters in
Akbar’s defence, especially to Abdullah Khan Uzbeg, Abul Fazl does not offer any
explanation for Akbar’s acts and dismisses all objections alluding to God’s glorious
design25. This also shows how the letters were used to reinforce Abul Fazl’s idea of
sovereignty. He was widely appreciated for his correctness of language while many others
criticised him for deviating.

The older brother of Abul Fazl, Faizi, who was also Akbar’s poet Laureate, also enriched the
insha style and often Faizi would advise Abul Fazl on the correctness of language. His
collection was compiled in 1625 and called Lataif-i-Faiyazi. 26 There were others also like
Hakim Abul Fath and Abul Qasim, who also reinvented insha writing.

Munsha’at-i-Nammakin by Saiyid Abul Qasim Husaini is the largest surviving work of insha
collection and holds letters on various subjects including the religious, political and cultural
aspects of Akbar’s reign. It was compiled in the 44th regnal year of Akbar and was dedicated
him. It highlights the art of writing, provides guidelines for writing imperial farmans, letters,
petitions, etc. several of these writings did not belong to Hindustan are from the Timurid
chancelleries of Central Asia.

Munsha’at-i-Nammakin by Saiyid Abul Qasim Husaini is the largest surviving work of insha
collection and holds letters on various subjects including the religious, political and cultural
aspects of Akbar’s reign. It was compiled in the 44th regnal year of Akbar and was dedicated
him. It highlights the art of writing, provides guidelines for writing imperial farmans, letters,
petitions, etc. several of these writings did not belong to Hindustan are from the Timurid
chancelleries of Central Asia.

CONCLUSION

If we look at the development of Persian as the language of court and people we can clearly
see the development of Persian literature from 13th cen through 16-17th cen. The literature
varied in terms of context, content and it's importance as a valuable sources for the
reconstruction of Mediaeval India.