Three Iranian voices in the Renaissance under Akbar

Abstract

If by its distinctive features in thought, art and literature, the reign of Akbar (1556–1605) deserves to be called a period of Renaissance, and one then begins to look for its major figures. Even a short list of such Renaissance men must include three Iranian immigrants, the scholar Abū’l Fatḥ Gīlānī, the scientist and administrator Fatḥullāh Shīrāzī and the radical poet ‘Urfī Shīrāzī. This article reconstructs their biographies and assesses their contributions to the ideological and cultural flowering of Akbar’s time.