Fazl Allami

Fazl Allami The Ain-i Akbari was the culmination of a large historical, administrative project of classification undertaken by Abu’l Fazl at the order of Emperor Akbar. It was completed in , the forty-second regnal year of the emperor, after having gone through five revisions. The Ain was part of a larger project of history writing commissioned by Akbar. This history, known as the Akbar Nama, comprised three books. The first two provided a historical narrative. We will look at these parts more closely in Chapter . The Ain-i Akbari , the third book, was organised as a compendium of imperial regulations and a gazetteer of the empire. The Ain gives detailed accounts of the organisation of the court, administration and army, the sources of revenue and the physical layout of the provinces of Akbar’s empire and the literary, cultural and religious traditions of the people. Along with a description of the various departments of Akbar’s government and elaborate descriptions of the