Time in Abu’l Faz.l’s Historiography

Abstract

History writing in medieval India was predominantly set within the framework of Islam without becoming a branch of theology. The temporal parameters were almost invariably drawn from the hijrī era, which sharply divided time into the age of jahaliyat, ignorance, and one lit up by Islam. It was also primarily centred on the history of the ruling Muslim dynasties whose political lineage was delineated through, and was confined to, the world of Islam. Abu’l Faẓl, courtier, historian and friend of the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), deploys an alternative conception of historical time which flows uninterrupted from Adam down to Akbar, disengaging history writing from its Islamic axis. Indeed, he is rather contemptuous of the hijrī era. His Akbar Nama projects a worldview premised upon a universal religiosity in lieu of a sectarian religion. This constitutes his ‘rationality’ which connects it to the ethos evolving at the base of Indian society