Mulla Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Mughal Court historian

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Born in 1540, Mulla Abdul Qadir Badauni, also spelt Badayuni, was a contemporary historian of Akbar in the Mughal empire. He had entered his court in 1574. 

Badauni had studied together with Abdul Fazi and both had been trained by Abul Fazal’s father, Shaykh Mubarak. He had joined Man Singh’s army against Maharana Pratap in the Battle of Haldighati in 1576.

A Sunni Muslim, he was an inveterate enemy of Akbar.  He had charged Akbar of working against Islam.

His most important work was Tarikh-e Badauni (“Badauni’s History”), also called the Muntakhab al-Tawarikh (“Selection from History”). It is a general history of India from the time of the the Ghaznavids to the 40th year of Akbar’s reign (1595-96). He also wrote Kitāb al-Ḥadīth (“Book of Ḥadīth”), the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad. . 

Tarikh-i-Alfi (“History of Thousand Years”) is another famous work by Badauni who is also credited with the translation of Singhasan Battisi, Ramayana and Mahabharata into Persian.


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