Badāʾūnī

Scholar/Historian

Abd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī served as ṣadr to Ḥusayn Ḫān for 9 years (973/1565–6 to 981/1574) but departed following a quarrel and spent the next year continuing his religious education by visiting a number of saints. In 981/1574 he was presented to the court of the Mughal ruler Akbar of which the latter appointed him one of seven imāms to lead prayers on one particular day of the week. In addition he served the court as a scholar and historian. However, a personal rivalry between Badāʾūnī and Abū al-Fażl (see Abū al-Fażl ʿAllāmī), whose influence with Akbar he could not match, left Badāʾūnī embittered and made him even more critical of Akbar’s religious policies than Badāʾūnī’s own orthodoxy may have already granted him. Nonetheless, he remained employed by Akbar on literary work from 982/1574 onwards, under whose auspices he was his most prolific, particularly in historiography and the translation of Hindū works into Persian. Various dates are given for the death of Badāʾūnī but 1024/1615 seems to be nearest to the truth.