Commission and source materials
Akbar commissioned his courtier Abu’l-Fazl around 1590 to write a history of the dynasty and his reign. Imperial records, commissioned memoirs, regional traditions, oral testimony and Babur’s account supplied material for campaigns, appointments and court affairs.
Access to evidence was inseparable from the author’s political position. He represented the ruler as the centre of justice and order. Eaton identifies Iranian kingship and Sufi ideas in this construction of authority. Detailed documentation and praise operate together.
Chronicle and the Ain-i Akbari
The earlier books recount dynastic ancestry, Humayun and Akbar’s reign, arranging events by regnal year. The concluding Ain-i Akbari turns to classified descriptions of the household, treasury, military ranks, revenue, administration, geography, intellectual traditions and royal sayings.
Its discussion of Indian learning includes astronomy, philosophy, measures and customs. In his preface, Abu’l-Fazl acknowledges difficulties with Sanskrit terminology and interpreters, requiring repeated translation and consultation. His declared aim of reducing hostility through knowledge also reveals the intermediaries behind the account.
Illustrated copies and their transmission
Royal workshops turned the history into illustrated manuscripts. Inscriptions on V&A paintings identify divided work: one artist designed a composition, another applied colour, and sometimes a specialist painted faces. Scenes such as the entry into Surat and the siege of Ranthambhor also document workshop practice.
British Library Or 12988 is dated on stylistic grounds to around 1602–1603 and retains 39 of its original 50 paintings. Opening margins were decorated under Jahangir; related portions survive in Dublin’s Chester Beatty Library. Later remargining and a nineteenth-century Persian lacquer binding preserve further stages in the manuscript’s history.