UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 132 of 150

Correct — C, 2, 3, 1, 4. Three of the four names belong to a single family, and once you see that, the sequence almost writes itself: Shaikh Mubarak of Nagaur was the father, and Faizi and Abul Fazl were his sons, so the father goes first. (2) Shaikh Mubarak, born at Nagaur in 1505-06, was the philosopher-theologian whose liberal reading of Islamic law gave Akbar the legal cover for his religious experiments — he is the scholar generally credited with drafting the mahzar of 1579 that made the emperor the final arbiter in disputed questions of religious law. He died before either son; references differ on the exact year (the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 995 AH / 1587, Indian textbooks commonly say 1593), but every account puts his death in the years before Faizi's. (3) Faizi — Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak, born at Agra on 20 September 1547, the elder brother, whom Akbar made malik-ush-shuara, poet laureate of the court, in 1588 and tutor to the princes — died at Lahore on 15 October 1595. (1) Abul Fazl, born at Agra on 14 January 1551, Akbar's chief adviser from 1579 and the author of the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari, was murdered in August 1602 while returning from the Deccan: he was ambushed between Sarai Vir and Antri, near Narwar, by Vir Singh Deo Bundela, in a plot contrived by Akbar's eldest son Prince Salim, who had his severed head sent to him at Allahabad. (4) Daniyal Mirza, Akbar's third son, born at Ajmer on 11 September 1572, drank himself to death at Burhanpur on 19 March 1605 — about seven months before Akbar's own death on 27 October 1605. So the order is Shaikh Mubarak → Faizi → Abul Fazl → Daniyal = 2, 3, 1, 4, which is option (c).

• (a)2, 1, 4, 3 — Right start, wrong finish. It correctly puts Shaikh Mubarak first, but then sends Faizi to the very end — after Abul Fazl (1602) and after Daniyal (1605). Faizi died in October 1595, seven years before his younger brother was killed, and Akbar's grief at his death is one of the well-known scenes of the reign. Any sequence that outlives Faizi past 1595 is wrong.
• (b)3, 2, 1, 4 — This is the family-tree trap: it places Faizi ahead of Shaikh Mubarak, i.e. the son dying before the father. Shaikh Mubarak was born in 1505-06 and was an old man by the 1580s; his sons were born in 1547 and 1551. Whichever year you accept for Mubarak's death — 1587 or 1593 — it precedes Faizi's death in 1595.
• (d)2, 4, 3, 1 — It opens correctly with Shaikh Mubarak, then jumps straight to Daniyal, who in fact died last of the four, on 19 March 1605. It also leaves Abul Fazl's murder at the end, after Daniyal's death, whereas Abul Fazl was killed in August 1602 — nearly three years earlier, and while Daniyal was still alive and commanding in the Deccan.

Akbar's court was not only a political centre but an intellectual one, and one family sat at the heart of it. Shaikh Mubarak of Nagaur, a scholar of Greek philosophy as well as Islamic theology, ran a madrasa at Agra; his sons Faizi and Abul Fazl carried his liberal, rationalist temper into the imperial service. Faizi became poet laureate; Abul Fazl became Akbar's closest adviser and the official chronicler whose Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari are still the primary sources for the reign. Against them stood the orthodox chronicler Abd al-Qadir Badauni, whose Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh gives the hostile version of the same events. Daniyal, the fourth name, belongs to a different thread — Akbar's own sons and the succession crisis of his last years.

Chronology questions of this kind are answered by anchoring, not by memorising four dates. Anchor one: a father dies before his sons, which kills option (b) at sight. Anchor two: Abul Fazl's murder is the single most famous date here — 1602, and everyone remembers it was ordered by Prince Salim while Akbar was still alive, which places it before Akbar's death in 1605. Anchor three: Daniyal died in 1605, only months before his father, so he must come after Abul Fazl. That leaves only Faizi to place, and since he predeceased his brother, the sequence closes as father → elder brother → younger brother → prince. The temptation the examiner is exploiting is that students know Abul Fazl well and the other three barely at all, so they guess at whichever option puts '1' where it feels right.

• Shaikh Mubarak of Nagaur (born 1505-06) was the father of both Faizi and Abul Fazl and is generally credited with drafting the mahzar of 1579. His death year is reported differently by different authorities — the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 995 AH / 1587, Indian textbooks commonly give 1593 — but all place it before Faizi's death.
• Faizi (Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak), born at Agra on 20 September 1547, was made malik-ush-shuara — poet laureate — of Akbar's court in 1588 and tutored the princes. He died at Lahore on 15 October 1595.
• Abul Fazl, born at Agra on 14 January 1551, served Akbar from 1579 until his death and wrote the Akbarnama (whose third volume is the Ain-i-Akbari). He was assassinated in August 1602 between Sarai Vir and Antri, near Narwar, by Vir Singh Deo Bundela at the instigation of Prince Salim; he was buried at Antri.
• Daniyal Mirza, Akbar's third son, was born at Ajmer on 11 September 1572 and died at Burhanpur on 19 March 1605 of delirium tremens brought on by severe alcoholism — roughly seven months before Akbar's own death on 27 October 1605.
• Abul Fazl and Faizi are both counted among Akbar's Navaratnas, the nine jewels of the court.

• Treating the four names as unrelated events. Shaikh Mubarak is the father of Faizi and Abul Fazl — the family relationship is itself the chronological clue.
• Confusing Abul Fazl (Akbar's historian, d. 1602) with Abdul Hamid Lahori (Shah Jahan's official historian, author of the Padshahnama) or with Abul Fazl Bayhaqi of the Ghaznavid period.
• Mixing up Akbar's sons. Daniyal was the third son; Salim became Jahangir; Murad was the second. Only Salim survived Akbar.

UPPSC has a settled habit of asking Mughal-court material as a four-item chronological code, where the marks come from ordering rather than from any single fact. UPSC prefers the identification form — 'who wrote the Akbarnama', 'in Indian history, who was X' — so learn each figure with one date and one work attached.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Abul Fazl, the author of the Akbarnama, was assassinated in 1602 by

  • (a)Vir Singh Deo Bundela
  • (b)Rana Amar Singh of Mewar
  • (c)Raja Man Singh of Amber
  • (d)Mirza Aziz Koka

  Answer(a) Vir Singh Deo Bundela — he ambushed Abul Fazl between Sarai Vir and Antri, near Narwar, in a plot contrived by Prince Salim, and was later rewarded with Orchha when Salim became Jahangir.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who among the following held the office of malik-ush-shuara (poet laureate) at the court of Akbar?

  • (a)Abul Fazl
  • (b)Faizi
  • (c)Abd al-Qadir Badauni
  • (d)Nizamuddin Ahmad

  Answer(b) Faizi — Abul Fazl's elder brother was appointed poet laureate in 1588; Badauni and Nizamuddin Ahmad were historians, and Abul Fazl was the chronicler and chief adviser, not the laureate.