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AKBAR AND HIS INDIA AKBAR AND HIS INDIA Edited by IRFAN HABIB DELHI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS CALCUTTA CHENNAI MUMBAI 1997 Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associates in Berlin Ibadan © The volume editor and contributors 1997 ISBN 0 19 563791 7 Typeset byRastrixi, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110 0704 Printed in India at Pauls Press, New Delhi 110 020 and published by Manzar Khan, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001 Contents Editorial Note i x ARTICLES 1 Akbar's Initial Encounters with the Chiefs: Accident vs. Design in the Process of Subjugation Ahsan Raza Khan 1 2 Akbar and the Rajput Principalities: Integration into Empire S. Inayat A. Zaidi 15 3 Akbar's Annexation of Sind — An Interpretation Sunita Zaidi 25 4 The Mughal Annexation of Sind — A Diplomatic and Military History Fatima Zehra Bilgrami 3 3 5 Disappearance of Coin Minting in the 1580s? — A Note on the Alf Coins NajafHaider 5 5 6 Akbar's Farmans — A Study in Diplomatic Iqbal Husain 66 7 Akbar's Personality Traits and World Outlook — A Critical Appraisal Iqtidar Alam Khan 79 8 Akbar and the Jains Pushpa Prasad 97 vi Contents 9 Science and Superstition under Akbar and Jahangir: The Observation of Astronomical Phenomena Shireen Moosvi 109 10 Scientific Concepts in Abü’l Fazl’s À7n-i Akbarï Iqbal Ghani Khan 121 11 Akbar and Technology Irfan Habib 129 12 Painting under Akbar as Narrative Art Som Prakash Verma 149 13 Revisiting Fatehpur Sikri: An Interpretation of Certain Buildings 5. Ali Nadeem Rezavi 174 14 The Image of Akbar as a Patron of Music in Indo-Persian and Vernacular Sources Françoise 'Nalini’ Delvoye 188 15 The Perception of India in Akbar and Abü’l Fazl M.AtharAli 215 16 Middle Bengali Literature: A Source for the Study of Bengal in the Age of Akbar Aniruddha Ray 225 17 The Sikh Movement During the Reign of Akbar J.S. Grewal 243 18 Akbar and Portuguese Maritime Dominance K.S. Mathew 256 Contents vii DOCUMENTS 1 A Farmän of Akbar (1558) from the Period "of the Regency Saiyid Zaheer Jafri 266 2 Three Early Farmäns of Akbar, in Favour of Rämdäs, the Master Dyer Irfan Habib 271 3 An Estimate of Revenues of the Deccan Kingdoms, 1591 Shireen Moosvi 271 4 A Dutch Memoir of 1603 on Indian Textiles IshratAlam 294 REVIEWS 298 Muhammad GhausI Shattlrl, Gulzâr-i Abrâr Irfan Habib 298 ‘Arif Qandahiri, Tartkh-i Akbarï Shireen Moosvi 300 Shireen Moosvi, Episodes in the life of Akbar Iqtidar A. Khan 302 John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire Irfan Habib 303 Sanjay Subrahmanyam (cd.), Money and the Market in India Irfan Habib 305 Som Prakash Verma, Mughal Painters and their Work Irfan Habib 305 Iqtidar H. Siddiqui, Sher Shah Sür and his Dynasty Iqbal Husain 307 Sukumar Ray, Bairam Kkön Shireen Moosvi 309 Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters S.P. Verma 310 Margaret H. Case (ed.), Govindadeva: a Dialogue in Stone Iqbal Husain 313 Contributors 316 Editorial Note The 1992 national celebrations of the 450th birth anniversary of Akbar provided a much-needed impetus to research on Akbar and his times; and some of the results of such research are brought together in this volume. The original versions of many papers here published were presented at a seminar at the Centre of Advanced Study in History at Aligarh in October 1992, with the present editor as its Coordinator. Other material, comprising some papers, and most of the Documents and Reviews, has been especially contributed to this volume. The volume was to appear as a publication of the Centre of Advanced Study in History. My work on it as Editor was nearly complete, when I was abruptly removed from my honorary position at the Centre in May 1996, as a minor by-product of the turn of the political winds, thankfully fleeting, of that fateful month. My removal from the Centre necessitated a change in the publication status of the volume and a redoing of much of the technical work, including the fresh preparation of the ‘camera c*.opy The volume now appears independently, but hopefully as the first in a series of collective studies, each devoted to a medieval theme, and with a structure similar to this volume’s. It may be helpful to mention that the transliteration system preferred here is that used by the Epigraphia Indica for the Indian languages and by Steingass’s Persian-English Dictionary for Persian. But where some contributors have preferred other well-known systems, their transliteration has not normally been changed. Place- names usually carry modem spellings and do not bear diacritical marks. Messrs Shoaib Ahmad and Munir Khan are responsible for the processing of the text and the preparation of the camera copy. In bringing out Akbar and His India, especially at the last, difficult stage, I have been much helped by the advice and support of Professors M. Athar Ali, Iqtidar Alam Khan and Shireen Moosvi. I am greatly indebted to members of staff of the Centre’s splendid library, who have continued to treat me as one of themselves. To all the contributors and to the Oxford University Press go my special thanks for their understanding and co-operation. IRFAN HABIB Aligarh February 1997
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