FATĀWĪ-E ʿĀLAMGĪRĪ

 

FATĀWĪ-E ʿĀLAMGĪRĪ, abridged Persian translation by Qāżī Najm-al-Dīn Khan Kākorī (d. 1229/1814) of a six-volume Arabic work on Hanafite law (ed. Būlāq, 1276/1859) considered the authoritative compendium of religious law, policy, and practice in India. The original text, known also as Fatāwī-e hendīya (Cat. Bankipore XIX/1, p. 63), was prepared by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaikh Neẓām-al-Dīn Borhānpūrī (d. 1092/1681; Moḥammad-Kāzem, p. 1087; Baḵtāvar, p. 450) on the order of the Mughal emperor Awrangzēb ʿĀlamgīr (1068-1118/1658-1707; Ḵᵛāfī, p. 251). Qāżī Najm-al-Dīn’s translation, made at the request of Sir John Sur (in India 1793-98), has been published many times in Lucknow and Calcutta. Two earlier Persian translations of Fatāwī-e ʿālamgīrī were attempted by the Turkish scholar ʿAbd-Allāh Rūmī Čalpī and some of his students during Awrangzēb’s reign (Baḵtāvar, p. 388; Laḵnavī, V, p. 258) and by Moḥammad Ḥabīb-Allāh Akbarābādī (d. 1082/1671-72; p. xxviii) at the instance of Zēb-al-Nesāʾ (d. 1141/1702), Awrangzēb’s daughter. Neither of them is extant.

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

A. Ahmad, “The Role of ʿUlemāʾ in Indo–Muslim History,” Stud. Isl. 31, 1970, pp. 1-13.

Moḥammad Baḵtāvar Khan, Merʾāt al-ʿālam, ed. S. S. ʿAlawī, Lahore, 1979.

M. E. Bhaṭṭī, Barr-e-ṣaḡīr-e Pākestān o Hend men ʿelm-e-feqh, Lahore, 1972, p. 267 (in Urdu).

Moḥammad Ḥabīb-Allāh Akbarābādī, Ḏekr-e jāmīʿ-e awlīā-ye Dehlī, ed. Š. Ḥ. Qāsemī, Tonk, Rajastan, India, 1988.

Moḥammad-Hāšem Khan Neẓām-al-Molkī Ḵᵛāfī, Montaḵab al-lobāb II, ed. K. Aḥmad, Calcutta, 1869.

ʿA. Ḥ. Ḥasanī Laḵnavī, Nozhat al-ḵawāṯer wa bahjat al-masāmeʿ wa’l-nawāżer, Hyderabad (Deccan), V-VI, 1396-98/1976-78.

Marshall, Mughals in India, p. 377.

Moḥammad-Kāẓem, ʿĀlamgīr-nāma, Calcutta, 1868, pp. 1071-72.

Moḥammad Sāqī Mostaʿedd Khan, Maʾāṯer-e ʿālamgīrī, ed. A. ʿAlī, Calcutta, 1871, pp. 529-30.

Raḥmān-ʿAlī, Taḏkera-ye ʿolamāʾ-e Hend, Lucknow, 1914.

Shah Walī-Allāh Dehlavī, Anfās al-ʿārefīn, Delhi, 1315/1897.

(S. H. Qasemi)

Originally Published: December 15, 1999

Last Updated: January 24, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 4, p. 398