Fatḥ Allāh Shīrāzī

Iranian polymath who came to Akbar’s court in 1583 and is credited with bringing the rational sciences, logic among them, into the madrasa course of Mughal India.

Life

Fatḥ Allāh was born and educated in Shiraz. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi he read philosophy and logic with Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Shīrāzī, a pupil of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī, and medicine, mathematics and other sciences with Ghiyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr al-Dashtakī, so that he was trained on both sides of the great Shiraz rivalry between al-Dawānī and the Dashtakīs. He taught in Shiraz and became known for his mechanical inventions and his students. One of them, Afḍal Khān Shīrāzī, became chief minister of the ʿĀdil Shāhī ruler ʿAlī ʿĀdil Shāh I of Bijapur in the Deccan and invited his teacher there; Fatḥ Allāh lived at Bijapur in honour until his patron’s death in 1579.

When the situation of Shīʿī notables at Bijapur grew difficult under Ibrāhīm ʿĀdil Shāh II, the Mughal emperor Akbar, who had heard of his inventions, ordered that he be sent to Agra. He arrived in 991/1583 (in May 1583, according to Francis Robinson) and quickly became one of the leading scholars at court. The TDV records the titles Amīn al-Mulk, ʿAḍud al-Dawla and ʿAḍud al-Mulk, his appointment in 1585 to advise on finance with Rāja Todar Mal, his reform of the coinage, and the devices attributed to him, among them a mechanical mill and a solar calendar. He fell ill on Akbar’s campaign to Kashmir and died there in August 1589; he was first buried at the khānqāh of Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī and later moved by Akbar’s order to the Kūh-i Sulaymān.

For the history of logic his importance lies in teaching rather than writing. The TDV says that his mastery of Avicennan philosophy raised his standing and helped spread the philosophical sciences in India. Francis Robinson, citing the eighteenth-century historian Ghulām ʿAlī Āzād Bilgrāmī, writes that he ‘inspired interest in the works of the great Iranian scholars of the rational subjects’ and ‘encouraged the widespread study of the rational subjects and their incorporation into the curriculum’; Robinson traces a direct line of teachers from his pupil Mullā ʿAbd al-Salām Lāhūrī through ʿAbd al-Salām of Dewa and Shaykh Dāniyāl of Chaurāsa to Mullā Quṭb al-Dīn of Sihālī, whose son Mullā Niẓām al-Dīn gave his name to the Dars-i Niẓāmī. Zubair Zafar Khan likewise credits him with redesigning the madrasa course in Akbar’s reign by adding books on logic, philosophy and theology. The historian Badāʾūnī, quoted by Robinson, called him ‘the most learned man of the learned men of his time’, while portraying him as a poor teacher.

Few of his writings survive. The TDV lists a share in the Tārīkh-i Alfī, an account of the marvels of Kashmir appended to the Akbarnāma, a Persian Qurʾān commentary, and a completion (takmila) of the gloss on al-Dawānī’s commentary on al-Taftāzānī’s Tahdhīb al-manṭiq; a gloss on the commentary on the Tajrīd is attributed to him in the India Office Library.

Works

• Takmila-yi Ḥāshiya (on al-Dawānī’s commentary on the Tahdhīb) — atas Tahdhīb al-manṭiqListed by the TDV as a gloss, with a completion, on al-Dawānī’s commentary on al-Taftāzānī’s Tahdhīb al-manṭiq wa-l-kalām; al-Turkmānī also names a gloss on al-Dawānī’s commentary by Fatḥ Allāh al-Shīrāzī (see the catalogue).hasyiyah
• Ḥāshiya ʿalā Sharḥ al-TajrīdAttributed to him in a manuscript of the India Office Library (TDV).hasyiyah
• Khulāṣat al-manhajPersian Qurʾān commentary (TDV); a longer commentary, Minhāj al-ṣādiqīn, is attributed to him doubtfully.karya
• Risāla-yi ʿAjabāt-i KashmīrOn the marvels of Kashmir, appended to Abū al-Faḍl’s Akbarnāma (TDV). He also wrote the part of Akbar’s Tārīkh-i Alfī on the second year of the reign.karya

Reception

Modern accounts of the Dars-i Niẓāmī, such as those of Robinson and Zubair Zafar Khan, treat his arrival at Akbar’s court as the point at which the Iranian tradition of the rational sciences took root in North Indian teaching.