Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India

536 Pages·1999·56.131 MB·English

by  Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir, Wheeler M. Thackston (editor)

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THE
JAHANGIRNAMA
Jahangir Embracing Shah Abbas by Abu'l-Hasan. India, Mughal period, ca. 1618. Opaque
1,
watercolor and gold on paper. 23.8 X 15.4 cm. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Purchase. 45.9
THE
JAHANGIRNAMA
Memoirs Emperor
of Jahangir, of India
Translated, edited, and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston
FREER GALLERY OF ART ® ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY
S}nithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
in association witFi
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York ® Oxford
.
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OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 99
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Copyright©Smithsonian Institution, 1999
All rights reserved
Published in 1999by Oxford University Press, NewYork,
in association with the FreerGallery ofArtand theArthurM. SacklerGallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 19.C.
Editedby Lynne Shaner
I9esigned by Mary Neal Meador
Typeset m Weiss
WeissTitlingcapitalsby ArthurFdoener
Photographycredits, by folio
p. 45, photo by PierreAbboud, fol. 143, ©Michael Brand; foL 160, © BruceC.Jones,-
fol. 182a, © Philip Pocock, fol. 224b, © R. M. N.
Cover: detail, JahangirPreferringaShaykhtoKings, by Bichitir. India, Mughal period,
ca. 1615-18. Opaquewatercolorandgoldon paper. FreerGalleryofArt,
Smithsonian Institution. Purchase, FI942.I5
Oxford isa registered trademarkofOxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No partofthis publication maybereproduced,
storedin aretrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form orbyany means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, orotherwise,
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Jahangir, EmperorofFJindustan, 1569-1627.
[JahangTrnama. English]
TheJahangirnama ; memoirsofJahangir, EmperorofIndia/
translated, edited, andannotatedbyWheelerM.Thackston.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN0-19-512718-8
1.Jahangir, Emp—erorofFJindustan—, 1569-1627. 2. Mogul Empire.
3. Mogul Empire Kingsandrulers Biography. I. Thackston, W. M.
(WheelerMcIntosh), 1944- . II. Title.
DS461.5.J28813 1999
954.02'56'092—dc21
[b] 98-18798
CIP
£ 3 Smithsonian
FreerGalleryofArtand
ArthurM.SacklerGallery
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
The paperused in this publication meets theminimum requirementsfortheAmerican National Standard for
—
PermanenceofPaperforPrinted Library Materials, z39.48 984.1
Printed m FJong Kong
Contents
Foreword
Milo CleveLviJ Beach vi
Acknowledgments
viii
Translator's Preface ix
Preface to the Jahanginuvna
1
The Jahau^irnama 19
Jahangirnama Chronology 461
Glossary 463
Appendix A: Weights and Measures Used byJahangir 473
Appendix B: Soubas of the Empire and Their Constituent Sarkars,
from the Ain-i-Akhari 475
Appendix C: Translations 476
Selected References 480
Index of People and Places 483
V
Foreword
T
—
he Jahanginuvna the personal memoirs of Jahangir, fourth Mughal
—
emperor of India is a work of intensely alert observation and prob-
ing intelligence. Jahangirs great-grandfather, Babur, had written the
Bahunicvna, the first true autobiography in the Islamic world, which
described frankly and with immense insight the political turmoil,
actions, and personalities that had brought the Mughals from Central Asia into India.
This literary genre was still fresh and provocative when Jahangir chose to follow his
predecessors initiative, and the result was a vivid chronicle of a wealthy, artistically
sophisticated kingdom at the height of its powers.
While theBalnirnama portrays an era of empire building, however, the Jahangirnama
depicts a period when political control was relatively stable and time could be devoted
to life's pleasures. Of all the Mughal emperors,Jahangir was the most observant of the
world around him, and his memoirs leave no doubt about his delight in the unusual
landscapes, animals, flowers, and characters he encountered in India. Visual sensations
were especially powerful to him, and consequently the descriptions in his text are
minutely detailed It is not surprising, therefore, that this emperor was the greatest of
all Mughal connoisseurs of the arts. And while his father, Akbar, had consolidated
power through extensive public building projects, Jabangir eschewed the monumen-
—
tality of architecture for more intimate and personally expressive artistic forms man-
uscript illustrations, for example, and finely crafted everyday objects (which in his
world included jade cups shaped like lotus leaves, textiles woven of gold thread, and
rubies inscribed with decorative calligraphy). The illustrations in this volume provide
abundant evidence ofJahangir's brilliance as a patron of the arts.
There are several references in Jahangir's narrative to artists and to his interest in
—
their work part of the reason this new translation has been supported by the Freer
Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Early in the seventh regnal year
(1612), for example, he describes the return of the courtier Muqarrab Khan from an
embassy to Goa. "He had brought several very strange and unusual animals had not
1
seen before. ordered the artists to draw their likenesses in the Jahangiruama so
. . . I . . .
that the astonishment one has at hearing of them would increase by seeing them." No
illustrated copy of the chronicle was in preparation at this time, however,- Jahangir's
text was still a personal diary. Such paintings must therefore have been kept in the
inventory of the kitahkhana (book workshop) pending the eventual assembly of an
official volume, not until the thirteenth regnal year (1618) did Jahangir authorize a
court calligrapher to copy the text for presentation to his family and others.
The Bahunuvna and the Akbanuwm, the biography of Jahangir's father Akbar, had
been illustrated by paintings of past events made late in the rule of Akbar when those
texts were written out in official copies. Jahangir's own words, however, indicate that
VI