Leiden University Student Repository

Huseini, Said Reza (2017)

The First Islamic Millennium and the Making of the Tarikhi Alfi in the Sixteenth Century Mughal India

Master thesis | History (MA)

The Tarikh-i Alfi or “History of One Thousand Years- a Millennium” was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the year 990/1582. The task was to compile a history of the world from the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 C.E down to Akbar’s reign and it was undertaken by a group of well-known scholars of his court. The book was to commemorate the completion of the first Islamic millennium, which occurred in 1592. It was designed to be superior in scope and contents over all other historical works that had been ever compiled. It was planned to include the history of all Muslim rulers from the day the Prophet passed away, to analyzing reasons of their rise and fall. Nonetheless, it was not limited to Muslim rulers, but also encompassed all other people, who came in contact with them. Hence, this makes the book more than simply a history of Mughals, Muslim rulers, or a certain region, but rather the history of the world for the one thousand years from 632 till 1592.

Tarikhi Alfi

Millennialism

Millennial Programme

Mughal Empire

Akbar

Author

Huseini, Said Reza

Note

The Tarikh-i Alfi is the result of an Indo-Iranian collaboration on the eve of the first Islamic millennium to provide a historical narrative to justify the Mughal political ideology of sulh-i kul (absolute peace). In this policy, the king is the “Sacred Being”, superior to all traditions, who treats his subjects as friends without any discrimination based on their ethnic, language or religious backgrounds. On the one hand, the policy of sulh-i kul was to stop the interference of orthodox Sunni Ulema in state affairs supported through the mahzar that established Akbar as the “Just Imam” and the Mujtahid at the Ibadat-khana, and on the other hand, it was also an inclusive political ideology to incorporate all people from different regions that came under the expanding Mughal rule.

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

History

Supervisors

Gommans, Jos

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en