Faizi
Encyclopedia
Shaikh Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak, popularly known by his pen-name, Faizi (24 September 1547 – 5 October 1595 ) was a poet of late medieval India
Medieval India
Medieval India refers to the Middle Ages i.e. 5th to 15th century AD in the Indian subcontinent, it includes:*Early Middle Ages: Middle kingdoms of India*Hoysala Empire*Kakatiya Kingdom*Delhi Sultanate*Ahom Kingdom*Reddy Kingdom...

. In 1588, he became the Malik-ush-Shu'ara (poet laureate) of Akbar's Court. He was the elder brother of Akbar's historian Abul Fazl
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
Shaikh Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami was the vizier of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, and a Persian translation of the Bible...

. Akbar highly recognized the genius in him and appointed him tutor for his sons and gave place to him among his decorative 'Nav Ratnas'.

Life

Faizi was born in Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

, the fifth descendant of Shaikh Musa, a Sindhi
Sindhi people
Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...

 Shaikh who lived in Rel near Siwistan (Sehwan), in the realm of Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

. He was the eldest son of Shaikh Mubarak of Nagaur
Nagaur
Nagaur is a city in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Nagaur District. The Nagaur city lies about midway between Jodhpur and Bikaner. It was founded by the Naga Kshatriyas.- History :...

. He was born at Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

 on 5 Sha'ban, AH 954 (24 September 1547). His father, Shaikh Mubarak was a scholar in the philosophy and literature of Greece as well as in Islamic theology. He was educated mostly by his father. In AH 974 (1566-7), he reached Akbar's court. Akbar successively appointed him tutor for his princes, Salim, Murad and Daniyal. In AH 990 (1581), he was appointed sadr of Agra, Kalpi and Kalinjar. In AH 999 (1591-2), he was sent to Khandesh
Khandesh
Khandesh is a region of central India, which forms the northwestern portion of Maharashtra state.Khandesh was the terminal territorial part under the rule of Mughals. The Start of Deccan region demarcated by the boundary of Khandesh....

 and Ahmednagar as Mughal envoy. In AH 1003 (1594), a few years after his return from Deccan, Faizi suffered from Asthma and died on 10 Safar, AH 1004 (5 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
Sikandara
Sikandara is located on NH-2 about 80 km away from kanpur toward west. It is a town and a nagar panchayat in Kanpur Dehat district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Sikandara is written somewhere also as Sikandra. It is also a legislature constituency.Whatsoever it may be,it is somehow...

.

Works

He composed significant poetic works in Persian and is ascribed by Bada'uni and his other contemporaries to have composed over a hundred poetic works, but all the titles are not known to us. His Divan
Diwan (poetry)
-Etymology:The English usage of the phrase Diwan Poetry comes from the Arabic word diwan , which is loaned from Persian means designated a list or register. The Persian word derived from the Persian dibir meaning writer or scribe...

(collection of poems), was entitled Tabashir al-Subh. His Divan comprises qasida
Qasida
The qaṣīdaᵗ , in Arabic: قصيدة, plural qasā'id, قــصــائـد; in Persian: قصیده , is a form of lyric poetry that originated in preIslamic Arabia...

s, ghazal
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

s, ruba'is and elegies. 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 , the Markaz ul-Advar, the Sulaiman o Bilqis, the Haft Kishvar and the Akbarnama. 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-Asrarand the Layla o Majnun. His other three incomplete works, the Sulaiman o Bilqis, the Haft Kishvar and the Akbarnama were the imitations of the Khusraw o Shirin, the Haft Paykar and the Sikandarnama respectively. During his stay in Deccan from 1591-3, he wrote a celebrated series of reports on political and cultural conditions of Deccan, as well as contemporary Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. He also wrote a commentary on the Quran.

Faizi translated Bhaskaracharya's celebrated Sanskrit work on mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, Lilavati
Lilavati
Lilavati was Indian mathematician Bhāskara II's treatise on mathematics. It is the first volume of his main work Siddhānta Shiromani, Sanskrit for "Crown of treatises," alongside Bijaganita, Grahaganita and Golādhyāya.- Name :The name comes from his daughter Līlāvatī...

in to Persian. According to its preface, this work was completed in AH 995 (1587).

His brother Abu'l-Fazl

Of my eldest brother what shall I say? who notwithstanding his spiritual and worldly perfections, 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 :
My verse may share both great and little worth,
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?


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.
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