Padshahnama

File:The capture of Orchha by imperial forces (October 1635).jpg, Syed Khan-i-Jahan, Abdullah Khan Bahadur Firuz Jang and Khan Dauran enter Orchha.]]

Shah Jahan in his eighth regnal year asked Muhammad Amin Qazvini to write an official history of his reign and he completed his Badshahnama in 1636, which covers the first ten (lunar) years of Shah Jahan’s reign.

Jalaluddin Tabatabai wrote another Badshahnama, but the extant portion of the text covers only four years, from fifth to eighth regnal year of the emperor. The project was later given to Abdul Hamid Lahori, who wrote his Badshahnama in two volumes. The first volume of this work is based upon Qazvini’s work but has more details. The second volume covers the next ten (lunar) years of Shah Jahan’s reign. He completed his work in 1648. Lahori died in 1654. Muhammad Waris, a pupil of Lahori was given the responsibility to complete the task and his Badshahnama (completed in 1656) covers the rest of the period of Shah Jahan’s reign. His work was published by the Asiatic Society as the third volume of the Badshahnama of Lahori.

In 1799, Saadat Ali Khan II, the Nawab of Awadh in northern India, sent the Badshahnama, to King George III of Great Britain. Today, the imperial illustrated manuscript of the Badshahnama of Lahori is preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, and is known as the Windsor Padshahnama. It was produced between 1630 and 1657 and contains 44 miniatures, some full page narrative scenes of battles, court ceremonies and other events (11 are across two pages), and some smaller individual portraits, surrounded by geometric decoration. These illustrate the genealogy of the Mughal dynasty which begins the work. The page size is 58.6 x 36.8 cm, and 13 different lead artists worked on the volume.[https://www.rct.uk/collection/1005025/the-padshahnama "The Padshahnama 1656-57"], Royal Collection In 1994, while the volume was being rebound for conservation reasons, the opportunity was taken to tour all the miniatures in an exhibition that was shown in New Delhi, the Queen's Gallery in London, and six American cities.[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/cou.1999.4.3.011?needAccess=true&journalCode=ycou20 Review] of Beach, Milo C. and Ebba Koch, The King of the World: The Badshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Thames & Hudson. 1997, in The Court Historian, Volume 4, 1999 - Issue 3, [https://doi.org/10.1179/cou.1999.4.3.011]

Manuscripts of the Badshahnamas of Qazvini and Waris are preserved in the British Library. The original manuscript of the Badshah Nama that depicts the complete reign of Shah Jahan is preserved in Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, Patna, India.{{cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/islamic-knowledge-house-khuda-bakhsh-library-retains-glory/309270|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131050436/http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?309270|url-status=live|archive-date=January 31, 2013|title=Islamic knowledge house, Khuda Bakhsh Library retains glory|date=Jul 8, 2005|work=Outlook}}

Other individual miniatures are held in a number collections. The Khalili Collection of Islamic Art has one miniature in which Shah Jahan and his court watch two elephants fighting.{{cite book |last=Rogers |first=J. M. |title=The arts of Islam : treasures from the Nasser D. Khalili collection |date=2008 |edition= Revised and expanded|publisher=Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) |location=Abu Dhabi |oclc=455121277 |page=280|authorlink=J. M. Rogers}} There were some later illustrated manuscript copies made; for example the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has miniatures from 17th-century versions, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from one of around 1800.

The Padshahnama fits into a tradition of imperial autobiographies or official court biographies, seen in various parts of the world.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} In South Asia these go back to the Ashokavadana and Harshacharita from ancient India, and the medieval Prithviraj Raso. The Mughals' ancestor Timur had been celebrated in a number of works, mostly called Zafarnama ("Book of Victories"), such as those by Shami and Yazdi. The latter is the best known, and was also produced in an illustrated copy in the 1590s by Akbar's workshop. The tradition was continued by the Mughals with the Baburnama (autobiography, not illustrated before Akbar), Akbarnama (biography), and Tuzk-e-Jahangiri or Jahangir-nameh (memoirs of Jahangir).

File:The surrender of the Fort at Udgir to Khan Dawran (October 1636).jpg|The Mughal commander Khan Dauran captures the Fort at Udgir.

File:The siege of Daulatabad (April-June 1633).jpg|The Mughal Army captures Daulatabad fort in the year 1633.

File:A'zam Khan captures Fort Dharur (January 1631).jpg|Mughal commander Azim Khan captures Dharur.

File:Prince Awrangzeb (Aurangzeb) facing a maddened elephant named Sudhakar (7 June 1633).jpg|Prince Aurangzeb riding against the maddened War elephant Sudhakar in the year 1633.{{cite web |last=Abdul Hamid Lahori |url=http://warfare.atspace.eu/Moghul/ShahJahan/Prince_Awrangzeb_facing_a_maddened_elephant_named_Sudhakar.htm |title=Prince Awrangzeb (Aurangzeb) facing a maddened elephant named Sudhakar |year=1636 |work=Badshahnama |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106034412/http://warfare.atspace.eu/Moghul/ShahJahan/Prince_Awrangzeb_facing_a_maddened_elephant_named_Sudhakar.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2014 |access-date=July 1, 2013 |url-status=live }}

File:The siege of Qandahar (May 1631).jpg|The siege of the Safavid garrison at Kandahar (May 1631)

File:Shah Jahan Receives Persian Ambassadors.jpg|alt=Shah Jahan receiving Persian Safavid ambassador Ali Mardan Khan in the year 1638.[7][8]|Shah Jahan receiving Persian Safavid ambassador Ali Mardan Khan in the year 1638.{{cite web |last=Abdul Hamid Lahori |title=Shah Jahan Receives Persian Ambassadors |url=http://warfare.atspace.eu/Moghul/ShahJahan/Shah_Jahan_Receives_Persian_Ambassadors.htm |work=Badshahnama}}Ebba Koch (1994), Diwan-i 'Amm and Chihil Sutun: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan, p.1

{{commonscat}}

• {{cite book|last=Lahori|first=Abdul Hamid |authorlink=Abdul Hamid Lahori|title=Badshanama of Abdul Hamid Lahori|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924006140374#page/n7/mode/2up|year=1875|publisher=Hafiz Press, Lahore |others=tr. by Henry Miers Elliot }}
• [http://persian.packhum.org/main?url=pf%3Fauth%3D3%26work%3D001 Bádsháh-Náma of 'Abdu-L Hamíd Láhorí] Packard Humanities Institute

• [http://persian.packhum.org/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D80201017%26ct%3D21 Sháh Jahán-Náma of 'Ináyat Khán]

{{Reflist}}

• Beach, Milo C. and Ebba Koch, The King of the World: The Badshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Thames & Hudson. 1997. {{ISBN|0-500-97448-9}}.
• {{cite book |author=Kossak, Steven | title= Indian court painting, 16th-19th century. | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1997| isbn=0870997831 | url=https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15324coll10/id/12335 }} (see index: p. 148-152; plate 25)

• [https://www.rct.uk/collection/1005025/the-Badshahnama Illustrations from the Badshahnama] at Royal Collection; [https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/splendours-of-the-subcontinent-four-centuries-of-south-asian-paintings/the-padshahnama-book-of-emperors-of-abd-al-hamid-lahori more images]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181007141935/http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist188/mainframe.htm King of the World – The Badshahnama] at University of Pennsylvania

Category:Mughal royal books

Category:Books about the Mughal Empire

Category:Indian literature

Category:17th-century Indian books

Category:17th-century history books

Category:History books about the 17th century

Category:Islamic illuminated manuscripts

Category:Mughal art

Category:Indian manuscripts

Category:17th-century illuminated manuscripts

Category:Indian chronicles

Category:17th-century Persian books

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