~~~~~~~~~~~
Introduction
by FWP
I first seriously explored the Akbar-namah
and the A'in-i Akbari when I wanted to use them in teaching. I found
that they were simultaneously very available, and very inaccessible.
On the one hand they were very easily
available in printed form. For the Akbar-namah, there is a classic
translation:
The Akbar Nama of Abu'l-Fazl:
history of the reign of Akbar including an account of his predecessors,
translated from the Persian by Henry Beveridge (1837-1929). Published 1902-39,
3 vols. Asiatic Society of Bengal: Bibliotheca Indica, work no. 138.
Nowadays this work is available in various
extremely inexpensive Indian reprint editions: There is one by Ess Ess
Publications (Delhi), 1977; there is another by Low Price Publications
(Delhi), 1989 (and later reprints); there may well be more.
The final part of the Akbar-namah
is the A'in-e Akbari, the "Institutes of Akbar." This work is itself
three volumes long. Here is the original translation of volume 1,
which was sponsored by the Asiatic Society of Bengal:
The A'in-i Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl
'Allami, translated from the Persian by H(enry) Blochmann (1838-78).
Calcutta: Rouse, 1873. Vol. 1.
Later this first volume was edited by
D. C. Phillott (1860-1930), at the request of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
and published in 1927, in a form that Phillott described as only slightly
revised and modernized from Blochmann's original work.
Because Blochmann died so young (he
was only forty), the Asiatic Society of Bengal had to find another translator
for the remaining two volumes:
The A'in-i Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl
'Allami, translated from the Persian by H(enry) S(ullivan) Jarrett
(1839-1919). Vols. 2 (1891) and 3 (1894). Published in Calcutta; Bibliotheca
Indica, work no. 61.
Later, extensively revised editions of
both volumes 2 and 3 were issued:
The A'in-i Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl
'Allami, translated from the Persian by H. S. Jarrett, revised and
edited by Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958). Calcutta, 1949.
All three volumes of the A'in-i Akbari,
in their revised forms, are available in inexpensive reprint editions:
there is Classical Publishing Company (New Delhi) 1996; and Low Price Publications
(Delhi) 1989 (and later reprints); and possibly others as well.
These reprint editions are available
widely and cheaply, but they remain somewhat inaccessible to students;
they're bought and read mostly by scholars. They're often poorly printed
and cheaply bound, and the thick volumes full of small smeary print look
erudite and intimidating. This present website does NOT aim to put these
six substantial volumes, with all their wonderfully esoteric footnotes
and careful diacritics, online.
Rather, this website aims to offer
some interesting little tidbits, some samples of the fascinating, complex,
and sophisticated contents of the original. These small excerpts are meant
to be useful for classroom purposes, and of course for study by anybody
interested (since at present apparently nothing by Abu'l-Fazl is online).
The material from the Akbar-namah
has all been selected from the Beveridge translation and slightly edited
for classroom use by FWP. (This means a few modernized spellings, or inconsistent
spellings rendered more intelligible; a little correction of punctuation;
a very few replacements of archaic or technical words by more current ones,
and the like.) Diacritical marks, and almost all footnotes, have been omitted.
Page numbers in double brackets are those of the original translation.
All material in square brackets has been added by FWP; the original translators
and editors used only parentheses, and all parenthesized material is theirs.
The original translations inevitably contain many small internal inconsistencies
(Maryam in one place, Miriam in another; words with and without italics,
etc.), and mostly these have not been smoothed out.
While very much has been omitted from
the original translations, nothing additional has been incorporated (except
in square brackets), so you can use these versions with confidence in their
accuracy. Please remember that I'm not seeking to provide any special degree
of representativeness, or any kind of globally coherent overview. I'm just
choosing particular passages here and there that I think are especially
enticing, thought-provoking, vexatious, and/or revelatory. If you get hooked,
obviously you'll want to get hold of the books themselves, and check out
all the things I've omitted.
The material from the *A'in-i
Akbari* has been selected and edited mostly by *Zachary
David Jones*, whose careful and thoughtful work is greatly appreciated.
Fran Pritchett
April 2005
AUGUST 2005: I've just learned of the
*Packard Humanities
Institute* complete versions, a wonderful resource for serious researchers.
Links to this version will be included as appropriate within the website.
~~~~~~~~~~~