Abu'l-Fazl

Abu'l-Fazl can lay it on thick. The man is a master sycophant, a professional kowtower, a veritable Homer of the homage. In this work, he exalts his patron, the third emperor of the Mughal dynasty, Akbar, telling us of Akbar's extra-ordinariness in every way, from the portents of his birth to the extraordinary accomplishments of his childhood to the glory of his reign (though, this being volume 1, most of that glory will have to wait).

But this encomium is not just floriferous and entertaining; it is also fascinating. For many, the Indian subcontinent in the Elizabethan age is an exotic thought, a distant and unfamiliar world to try to imagine. Yet the empire of Akbar, told to us by Abu'l-Fazl, is in many ways a not unfamiliar world. The characters are lively, interesting, and understandable; they live in a sophisticated, urban and literary culture. The empire building zeal and craft of the Emperor may well exceed the skill and enthusiasm of the British imperialists who would dismantle the empire over two hundred years later. And Abu'l-Fazl is as comfortable talking about Socrates and Plato as he is talking about Muhammad; his world is really not so exotic. While he may lay the flattery on a bit heavily to justify his courtly sinecure, Abu'l-Fazl can also be very revealing about the world he and Akbar inhabit, and very disarming in his accessibility.

The Murty Classical Library is a new venture, and this is among their first volumes. It is an extraordinary offering in many ways. The book is beautiful, with an elegant design and a pleasing heft to it. The presence of the printing in the original is not just scholarly, it is lovely and helps to set the feeling that we are reading something from that classical Persianate world. The introductory material is helpful and well-written. I'm not in a position to judge the quality of the translation, but the English version is readable but still literary, reminiscent in many ways of the always engaging Dick Davis. This is a book to cherish.… (mer)