ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD B. AFŻAL MOḤAMMAD B. YŪSOF ANṢĀRĪ, Mughal editor and author. He was a nephew of Akbar’s prime minister, Shaikh Abu’l-Fażl ʿAllāmī. Soon after his uncle’s assassination in 1602, ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad began to collect his official letters. He completed this collection in 1015/1606-07 under the title Mokātabāt-e ʿAllāmī. Storey (I, p. 542) lists the contents of its four daftars: (1) letters in Akbar’s name to kings and amirs; (2) letters in his own name to kings and amirs; (3) opening and closing sections of letters, extracts, and miscellaneous pieces; (4) miscellaneous letters.
ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad also authored a taḏkera, Aḵbār al-asfīāʾ, containing brief biographical notices of the major Sufi saints of India (1014/1605-06). These are principally drawn from Aḵbār al-aḵyār of ʿAbd-al-Ḥaqq Dehlavī, though ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad does add some new information and even a few new entries. Also attributed to ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad is Anīs al-ḡorabāʾ, “a Sufi tract, completed probably in 1048/1638” (Marshall, Mughals in India, p. 25).
Bibliography:
Storey, I, pp. 541-43, 983, 1313-14.
Ethé, Cat. India. Off. I, pp. 108, 266.
Mawlavī ʿAbd-al-Raḥīm, Lobāb al-maʿāref al-ʿelmīya fī mokātabāt dār al-ʿolūm al-eslāmīya, Agra, 1918, p. 1057.
Ḵayyāmpūr, Soḵanvarān, p. 377.
M. M. H. Ṣabā, Rūz-e rowšan, Tehran, 1343 Š./1966, p. 525.
(M. Baqir)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 14, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, pp. 160-161
M. Baqir, “'Abd-Al-Samad B. Afzal Mohammad,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, pp. 160-161; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-samad-b-afzal-mohammad (accessed on 16 January 2014).
