TimDuncan875676 at 17:01, 7 February 2026

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{{Short description|Indian poet and scholar (1547–1595)}}
{{for|the Bahá'í Hand of the Cause|Abu'l-Qásim Faizi}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox poet
| name = Faizi (Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak)
| image =
| caption =
| pseudonym = Faizi
| birth_name = Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak
| birth_date = 20 September 1547
| birth_place = [[Agra]], [[Mughal India]] (now India)
| death_date = 15 October 1595
| death_place = [[Lahore]], Mughal India (now Pakistan)
| occupation = Poet, Scholar, Malik-ush-Shu'ara (Poet Laureate) of Akbar’s court
| language = Persian; also composed in Arabic; translated Sanskrit works into Persian
| notable_works =
* Divan ("Tabashir al-Subh")
* Nal o Daman
* Markaz ul-Advar
* Translations: Lilavati (Sanskrit to Persian)
* Arabic works: Swati al-Ilham, Mawarid al-Kalam
| years_active = c. 1566–1595
| relatives = [[Abul Fazl]] (younger brother)
| movement = Mughal literary culture; one of Akbar’s Navaratnas
}}

'''Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak''', popularly known by his pen-name, '''Faizi''' (20 September 1547 – 15 October 1595<ref name="orsini">{{cite book|editor-last=Orsini|editor-first=Francesca |title=Love in South Asia: A Cultural History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2006|pages=112–4|isbn=0-521-85678-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kWG6wH4lDqUC&pg=PT127}}</ref>) was a [[poet]] and scholar of late [[medieval India]] whose ancestors were the ''Malik-ush-Shu'ara'' (poet laureate) of [[Akbar]]'s Court.<ref name="ain1">[[Heinrich Blochmann|Blochmann, H.]] (tr.) (1927, reprint 1993). ''The Ain-I Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl Allami'', Vol. I, Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, pp.548–50</ref> He was the elder brother of Akbar's historian [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak|Abul Fazl]]. [[Akbar]] highly recognised the genius in him and appointed him tutor for his sons and gave place to him among his decorative '[[Navaratnas]]'.

==Life==
[[File:Faizi represent his work 'Nal wa daman' to Akbar.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Faizi represent his work 'Nal wa daman' to Akbar.]]
Faizi was born in [[Agra]] on 5 Sha'ban, AH 954 (20 September 1547),<ref name=ain1/> he was the eldest son of Shaikh Mubarak of [[Nagaur]]. Shaikh Mubarak was a scholar in the [[philosophy]] literature of Greece as well as in Islamic theology. He was educated mostly by his father.<ref name="orsini"/>
In AH 974 (1566–8), he reached Akbar's court. Akbar successively appointed him tutor for his princes, [[Jahangir|Salim]], [[Murad Mirza (son of Akbar)|Murad]] and [[Daniyal (Mughal prince)|Daniyal]].<ref name="orsini"/> In AH 990 (1581), he was appointed ''sadr'' of Agra, Kalpi and Kalinjar. In 1588, he became [[poet laureate]] of Akbar's court.<ref name=ain1/> In AH 999 (1591–2), he was sent to [[Khandesh]] and [[Ahmednagar]] as Mughal envoy.<ref name="orsini"/>

In AH 1003 (1594), a few years after his return from [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], Faizi suffered from asthma and died on 10 Safar, AH 1004 (15 October 1595) at Lahore. Initially, he was buried in the Ram Bagh at [[Agra]] but his body was later transferred to another family mausoleum near [[Sikandara]].<ref name="orsini"/>

==Works==
He composed significant poetic works in [[Persian language|Persian]] and is ascribed by [[`Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni|Bada'uni]] and his other contemporaries to have composed over a hundred poetic works, but all the titles are not known to us. His ''[[Diwan (poetry)|Divan]]'' (collection of poems), was entitled ''Tabashir al-Subh''. His ''Divan'' comprises [[qasida]]s, [[ghazal]]s, [[ruba'i]]s and elegies.<ref name=r1>Majumdar, R.C. (ed.)(2007). ''The Mughul Empire'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, {{Listed Invalid ISBN|81-7276-407-1}}, p.622</ref>
The exaltation of [[pantheism]] in some of his lyrics brought on him the enmity of the orthodox Muslim clergy.<ref name=cne>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Feisi, Abul-Feis ibn Mubarák}}</ref><ref name=ea>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Feisi, Abul Feis ibn Mubárak}}</ref>

In pursuance of the literary practice then in vogue, Faizi planned to produce a ''Panj Ganj'' (literally five treasures) or ''Khamsa'' in imitation of the Persian poet [[Nizami Ganjavi]]. At the age of 30, he started writing five works: the ''Nal o Daman'' (a Persian imitation of the famous Indian epic ''[[Nala]] and [[Damayanti]]''), the ''Markaz ul-Advar'' (The Centre of the Circle), the ''Sulaiman o Bilqis'' ([[Solomon]] and Balkis – the [[queen of Sheba]]), the ''Haft Kishvar'' (The Seven Zones of the Earth) and the ''Akbarnama'' (The History of Akbar). His two completed works, the ''Markaz ul-Advar'' and the ''Nal o Daman'' (completed in 1594) was the ''javab'' (imitation) of Nizami's the ''Makhzan ul-Asrar''and the ''Layla o Majnun''.<ref name=r1/> His other three incomplete works, the ''Sulaiman o Bilqis'', the ''Haft Kishvar'' and the ''Akbarnama'' were the imitations of the ''Khusraw o Shirin'', the ''[[The Seven Beauties (poem)|Haft Paykar]]'' and the ''Sikandarnama'' respectively.<ref name=ain1/><ref name=ea/>

During his stay in [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] from 1591–3, Faizi wrote a celebrated series of reports on political and cultural conditions of Deccan, as well as contemporary [[Iran]].<ref name="orsini"/> He wrote a number of books in Arabic which include "Swati al-Ilham" and "Mawarid al-Kalam" (written without dotted letters) and translated [[Bhāskara II|Bhaskaracharya]]'s celebrated Sanskrit work on mathematics, ''[[Lilavati]]'', into Persian. According to its preface, this work was completed in AH 995 (1587).<ref>Ali, M. Athar (2006). ''Mughal India'', New Delhi: Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-569661-1}}, p.178</ref> [[Friedrich Max Müller]]'s ''Introduction to the Science of Religion'' (1870, last ed. 1882) has a number of metrical paraphrases of Faizi's poems.<ref>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Feisi|year=1905}}</ref>

==Described by his brother Abu'l-Fazl==

Of my eldest brother what shall I say? Notwithstanding his spiritual and worldly perfections, he took no step without my concurrence, indiscreet as I am, and devoting himself to my interests, advanced my promotion and was an aid to good intentions. In his poems he speaks of me in a manner which I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, as he says in his eulogium:

{|align="center"
|<poem>
My verse may share both great and little worth to subhraj,
Its theme sublime—I lowlier than the earth.
A father's virtues shall it far proclaim
And vaunt the glory of a brother's fame:
He, touchstone of all wisdom, who inspires
My strain with sweetness that a world admires;
If through a riper age, I pass him by,
In merit, centuries between us lie.
What though the branching savin taller grows,
What gardener mates its beauty with the rose?
</poem>
|}

He was born in the Jalali year 469, corresponding to A.H. 954 (A.D. 1547). In what tongue shall I indict his praise? In this work I have already written of him and poured forth the anguish of my heart, and quenched its furnace with the water of narration and broken the dam of its torrents and alleviated my want of resignation. His works which are the scales of eloquence and penetration and the lawns of the birds of song, praise him and speak his perfections and recall his virtues. He was one of the nine jewels in Akbar's court.<ref>Abu'l-Fazl 'Allami, '''A'in-I Akbari''' (3 vols.). Vol. 3 trans. H. S. Jarrett, 1894. Vol. 3, pp. 478–524</ref>
Faizi also translated the Yogvashisth into [[Persian language|Persian]].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Arshad, A.D. (ed.) (1973). ''Insha i-Faizi'', Lahore:Majlis-e-Taraqqi ye Adab.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Nobility from the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:1547 births]]
[[Category:1595 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Indian poets]]

[[Category:16th-century scholars]]
[[Category:Indian diplomats]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:16th-century Indian scholars]]
[[Category:16th-century Persian-language poets]]
[[Category:Sanskrit–Persian translators]]
[[Category:16th-century Mughal Empire people]]
[[Category:People from Agra]]
[[Category:16th-century nobility]]

Faizi - Revision history

TimDuncan875676 at 17:01, 7 February 2026