It is almost useless to add to this encomium bestowed on Abul Fazl's style. 'Abdullah, king of Bukhárá, said that he was more afraid of Abul Fazl's pen than of Akbar's arrow. Everywhere in India he is known as ‘the great Munshí.’ His letters are studied in all Madrasahs, and though a beginner may find them difficult and perplexing, they are perfect models. But a great familiarity, not only with the Persian lan­guage, but also with Abul Fazl's style, is required to make the reading of any of his works a pleasure. His composition stands unique, and though everywhere studied, he cannot be, and has not been, imitated. The writers after him write in the style of the Pádisháhnámah, the 'A´lamárái Sikandarí, or in the still more turgid manner of the 'A´lamgírnámah, the Ruq'át Bedil, and other standard works on Inshá.

A praiseworthy feature of Abul Fazl's works lies in the purity of their contents. Those who are acquainted with Eastern literature will know what this means. I have come across no passage where woman is lightly spoken of, or where immorality is passed over with indifference. Of his love of truth and the nobility of his sentiments* I have spoken in the Preface.

Abul Fazl's influence on his age was immense. It may be that he and Faizí led Akbar's mind away from Islám and the Prophet— this charge is brought against them by every Muhammadan writer; but Abul Fazl also led his sovereign to a true appreciation of his duties, and from the moment that he entered Court, the problem of success­fully ruling over mixed races, which Islám in but few other countries had to solve, was carefully considered, and the policy of toleration was the result. If Akbar felt the necessity of this new law, Abul Fazl enunciated it and fought for it with his pen, and if the Khán Khánáns gained the victories, the new policy reconciled the people to the foreign rule; and whilst Akbar's apostacy from Islám is all but forgotten, no emperor of the Mughul dynasty has come nearer to the ideal of a father of the people than he. The reversion, on the other hand, in later times to the policy of religious intoleration, whilst it has surrounded in the eyes of the Moslems the memory of Aurangzíb with the halo of sanctity and still inclines the pious to utter a rahimahu-lláhu (May God have mercy on him!) when his name is mentioned, was also the beginning of the breaking up of the empire.

Having elsewhere given numerous extracts from Badáoní to shew that Akbar's courtiers ascribed his apostacy from Islám to Faizí and Abul Fazl, I need not quote other works, and will merely allude to a couplet by 'Urfí* from one of his Odes in which he praises the Prophet—

The commentators unanimously explain this passage as an allusion to the brothers Faizí and Abul Fazl. I may also cite the Táríkh of Abul Fazl's death, which the Khán i A'zam Mírzá Kokah is said to have made—

But Abul Fazl appeared to him in a dream and said, “The date of my death lies in the words <Arabic>, ‘The slave Abul Fazl’—which likewise gives 1011 A. H.

Abul Fazl's works are the following—

(1) The Akbarnámah with the A´ín i Akbarí, its third volume. The A´ín i Akbarí was completed in the 42nd year of Akbar's reign; only a slight addition to it was made in the 43rd year on account of the conquest of Barár (1596-97, A. D.). The contents of the Akbarnámah have been detailed in the Preface. The second volume contains an account of the first forty-six years of Akbar's reign.* There exists a continuation up to the end of Akbar's reign by 'Ináyatullah Muhibb 'Alí. Thus at least the continuator is called in two MSS. that I have seen. Elphinstone says that the name of the continuator is Muhammad Salia, which seems to be a corruption of Muhammad Sálih.

(2) The Maktúbát i 'Allámí, also called Inshái Abul Fazl. This book contains letters written by Abul Fazl to kings and chiefs. Among them are the interesting letters written to the Portu­guese priests, and to 'Abdullah of Bukhárá, in reply to his question whether Akbar had renounced Islám. Besides, there are prefaces and reviews, a valuable essay on the progress of the art of writing, portions of which are given in the A´ín, &c. The collection was made after Abul Fazl's death by 'Abduççamad, son of Afzal Muhammad, who says that he was a son of Abul Fazl's sister and also his son-in-law. The book, as above remarked, is frequently read in Madrasahs, and there exist many lithographed editions. In all of them, the contents constitute three books; but Amír Haidar Husainí of Bilgrám says in the preface to his ‘Sawánih i Akbarí’* that he had a collection of four books, remarking at the same time that MSS. of the fourth are very rare. It looks, indeed, as if Amír Haidar's copy was unique.

(3) The Ayár Dánish,* which is mentioned on p. 106.

Besides, I have seen in different books that Abul Fazl also wrote a Risálah i Munáját, or ‘Treatise on Prayers’; a Jámi'ullu­ghát, a lexicographical work; and a ‘Kashkol’. The last word means a ‘beggar's cup,’ or rather the small basket or bowl in which beg­gars in the East collect rice, dates, &c., given as alms, and hence the term is often applied to collections of anecdotes or short stories. But I have seen no copies of these works. It was also mentioned above that Abul Fazl presented, on his introduction at Court, two commentaries, of which no MSS. seem to exist at present. Nor need I again refer to the part which he took in the translations from Sanskrit and the com­pilation of the Táríkh i Alfí.

The ‘Durar ul Manshúr’, a modern Tazkirah by Muhammad 'Askarí Husainí of Bilgrám, selects the following inscription written by 'Abul Fazl for a temple in Kashmír* as a specimen both of Abul Fazl's writing and of his religious belief. It is certainly very characteristic, and is easily recognized as Abul Fazl's composition.