Esmatullah Sahebdil
“The Emperor’s Writings” is a must-to-read book; for, it depicts a part of the Indian’s greatest Historical figure: Akbar the Great, an eminent part of the Great Moguls’ reign, their greatness, openness, wisdom, statecraft, governance, tolerance and genius. This book is a window to look upon the vast, wealthy and prosperous empire of its age with the sovereign on the ocean to ocean, mountains to mountains and stretching from Himalayas to Hindu Kush, from Hindu Kush to Kithar Mountains of Bluchistan, from Sind to Gujrat Shores, from Deccan to Orissa and Bengal. It narrates the numerous breathtaking campaigns of Akbar with many arrogant neighboring amirs who, oftentimes disturb him and he the son of The Tiger, The Iron and his Great Ancestor Changiz Khan the Great, kneels down them and force them to rub the dust by their foreheads and then opposite to the conventional customs of the time, make them his best allies and loyal soldiers instead of cutting their heads; for, he believes that finishing a victim means giving him honor and forgiving them means to show your greatness and superiority to them.
“The Emperor’s Writings” is a historical novel by Dirk Collier who patiently has spent seven years researching and going through several then documents and shaping it as a novel written in the frame of Letters from Akbar to his heir Salim Jahangir. The writer had been fascinated to Akbar while he was to write a book on Goa, he came across Akbar’s rule age and found it very absorbing due to his religious tolerance and Sulh-i- Kul; peace for all. Akbar’s approach toward religious pluralism and acceptance was quite overwhelming at that time which Europe was immersed in fanaticism and inquisition of beliefs. It articulates that how Akbar’s Imperial Court was the hall of religious diversity, debate and practices of all religions’ practitioners; Sunnis and Shias, Hindus and Parsis, Christians and Jews. He believed that all religions are the way leading to god, may be some straight and some crooked. He believed that all religions have divine origin and he was listening to the priests of all religions without any bias and bigotry. He was interested in Parsis’ rituals for leaving a perpetual fire and worshiping the sun which can symbolize the awe, majesty and magnificence of god better than any other manifestations which Hindus symbolize in the idols, Christians in the cross and Islam never accepts any materialized incarnation for God.
“The Emperor’s Writings” illustrates campaigns of Akbar some of them very unequal to the rival army, however, Akbar is the winner and it is due to his art of fighting inherited from his ancestors Chagiz Khan the Great, Temor the Iron, Babur the Tiger. When Babur (Akbar’s grandfather) crossed the Indian border to establish his empire in India, he barely had 22ooo army, on contrast to his; Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi the then king of Hindustan had over one hundred thousand men in Panipat. Babur won the fight and killed 16000 soldiers and amid the fallen corpses, Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi was found. When Akbar was the governor of Punjab, only 13 year old, his father (Humayon) died and he was enthroned promptly. Hemue, a Hindu rival swiftly captured his capitl and marched toward Punjab where he was enthroned as the heir of the throne. He and his army managed to stop the Hindus heavy army over-equipped with the spoils of his father capital. Without any delay the fight started and finally his small army won the battle (Hemue was fallen on the battlefield from the top of a huge fighting elephant) and ran to Delhi and Agra.
“The Emperor’s Writings” is full of erudite quotes and sayings conveying the message(s) of the novel. The main theme of the book revolves around religious tolerance and harmony among all the creeds. In tolerance we can find wisdom and the truth as he says truth is like a beautifully shaped diamond. It is one, yet it has thousands upon thousands of facets, colors, aspects and reflections. A wise man opens his mind to others, but never surrenders it. In a part of the novel there is a profound dialogue between Akbar in disguise (changed cloths) and a Hindu Sage in an early morning prayer in front of a Hindu temple:
Hindu Sage:
You see, we are all part of god, young sahib. You and I , every person, animal and plant, and everything that exists, is part of god, just like a spark is part of the fire, just like a tiny drop is part of the ocean. Eventually, we will all be reunited with Him… in fact any path you follow, crooked or straight, will ultimately lead you to him… indeed, each and every soul is created by god, is part of god and is identical with god! In spite of the multitude of gods and goddesses, most Hindus believe there is only one god, of whom we are all part, and with whom we will be reunited.
He continues:
There is a deity residing within you, find it out and obey its commands!
When the time of offering food to god and prayers comes, the Hindu sage says to Akbar:
Namaste, I bow to thee, young sahib or rather, I bow to god, who lives inside you!
“The Emperor’s Writings” shows how hard he expanded his empire and removed the sanctions imposed on Hindus by previous Muslim rulers. He abolished the following traditions:
1. Pilgrims taxes on Hindus
2. Jizya on Hindus
3. Hindus were treated as the people of the book, as he himself married to a Hindu princess and let her built her own shrine into imperial court and asked her to sustain her own religion.
Akbar resisted against Muslims mullahs who were against his flexibility in regard to other religions.
This book really worth studying in the time which fanaticism is the plague amongst Muslims and the other people believe that fundamentalism is the core of Islam. We are versed in the depth of our dark centuries and need to oppose any extreme belief to live with peace and harmony not only with our own fellow believers but with the other creeds too. “The Emperor’s Writings” shows that Islam can be the religion of peace and tolerance if it is parted from politics as was limited to its divine sphere during Akbar.
well written bro!
ReplyDeleteAli Poyesh