Jahandar Namah: An Unpublished Source of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The successors of Aurangzeb were not in a condition to patronize the scholars. Inspite of these, the growth of Persian Literature on the whole was not hindered owing to withdrawal of the imperial patronage. The greater numbers of historical works were written on individual initiatives. One of the important among them is Jahandar Namah written by Nuruddin Faruqi.  In this paper an attempt has been made to write a historiographical note on Jahandar Namah, which is an unpublished Persian source of Early Eighteenth Century. It is an eye witness account which deals only the Emperor Jahandar Shah. This paper also contains information about the author's life and his ancestors, early life of Jahandar Shah, his struggle for the throne with his three brothers Azim-us-Shan, Jahan Shah and Rafi-us-Shan, his brief reign, influence of Lal Kunwar, role of his wazir Zulfiqar khan and other leading nobles of that period, his defeat by his nephew Farrukh Siyar and his execution with Zulfiqar Khan. Its significance lies, its unprejudiced nature of writing. This source is brief but written in a very simple and plain language.