MUGHAL INDIA, DATED THE BEGINNING OF RABI' I AH [9]67/MID-DECEMBER 1559 AD

This firman is one of the earliest surviving examples from the reign of Akbar (r.1556-1605). It is dated to December 1559, just three years after his accession to the throne in 1556. The earliest recorded firman of Akbar is just a year earlier than the present example and dated Safar AH 966/November-December 1558 AD (National Archives, New Delhi, inv2719/1).

This firman is a revenue-free grant made to the prominent Islamic scholar Mulla Hafiz. His lineage traces to 'Abdullah Ansari of Herat, and before him to the Companion of the Prophet Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. Mullah Hafiz was the first of a long family tradition of Islamic scholars to attain prominence in India.

Another early firman of Akbar from 1561, two years after ours, is in the National Museum, New Delhi (Akbar, The Great Emperor of India, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2012, cat.I.5). The typology of the 1561 firman is identical to the present lot. The text starts with the invocation 'huwa al-ghani' referring to Allah. This invocation seems specific to the early firmans of Akbar's reign, just as it appears on Babur's firmans, but not on Humayun's. This invocation was later substituted by 'Allah Akbar' (God is great, apparently after 1575-76 AD (Irfan Habib, ed., Akbar and his India, New Delhi, 2000). The document's 'title' then follows and reads 'Farman-i Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar Padshah Ghazi' in tughra characters, which is in conformity with the style of Babur's firmans. Akbar's seal appears under the tughra and gives the name of the emperor with his title in its centre bordered with those of his ancestors beginning from Timur down to Humayun. The early firmans of Akbar all have this rounded seal. According to Abu'l Fazl, who wrote the Ayn-i Akbari and was a close companion to Akbar, this early seal was designed by Mawlana Maqsud.

In his discussion these Akbari firmans, Irfan Habib describes the script as a 'highly stylised pre-nasta'liq semi-cursive riqa' hand which has a large number of shikasteh forms'. The notice to the firman published in Akbar, The Great Emperor of India (op.cit) describes the script more simply as a ta'liq.

This firman is a rare survival of the reign of one of India's most emblematic rulers and belongs to a very small corpus of early Mughal documents.