The imperial chronicler

One of the Nine Jewels (Navratnas) of Mughal Emperor Akbar's royal court, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak was born in Agra, in the year 1551. His education began early and by the time he turned five, he could read and write in Arabic.

Abu'l Fazl presenting Akbarnama to Akbar

His tryst with branches of Islamic Science began when his father began imparting knowledge about manqulat. However, he had no affinities for conventional education and soon slipped into a state of mental destitution. He was helped out of this pit by his friend and soon, he resumed his studies. Early flashes of his brilliance were present in abundance. He once found a dictionary of Isfahani, which had been infested and damaged by ants. He got rid of the parts that were damaged and pasted blank paper over whatever he could salvage. He then went about writing a draft text from scratch with only the beginning and the conclusion of each fragment. On consequent examination of his work and comparison with the original, Fazl's draft only differed in three places to everyone's astonishment.

Fazl joined Akbar's court for the first time in 1575 and played a massive role in making Akbar a more benevolent ruler in matters of religion as the 1580s progressed. He got rewarded for his service when he was given his first office in the Deccan after he led the Mughal Imperial Army to victory against the Deccan Sultanates.

Unarguably, his most important work came in the form of Ain-i-Akbari, the third volume of Akbarnama, the history of Akbar's reign. It is similar to a gazetteer and paints a picture of what living under the Mughal Emperor was like. The Ain-i-Akbari itself is divided into five books, each of which deals with different spheres of Akbar's regime.

Fazl was assassinated on his journey back from the Deccan by Vir Singh Bundela on Prince Salim's (later known as Jahangir) orders. Quite simply put, he was a victim of the struggle for power between Salim and his father Akbar. In Fazl, Akbar found a confidante and a trustworthy adviser. This didn't sit right with Salim, whose succession to the throne was opposed by Abu'l Fazl. Fazl's severed head was sent as a memento of sorts to Salim and his body was buried at Antri. His death was a loss that Akbar wouldn't recover from for several years to come.