Tarikh-i Alfi
Page from an illustrated manuscript of the Tarikh-i Alfi, depicting a meeting between the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil and the 11th of the Twelve Imams, Hasan al-Askari; c. 1593, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | |
| Author | Mulla Ahmad Thattavi; Abul Fazl; Jafar Beg; Naqib Khan; Fathullah Shirazi; Badayuni; Haji Ibrahim Sarhindi; Hakim Humam Gilani; Hakim Ali Gilani; Nizam al-din Ahmad Heravi |
|---|---|
| Language | Persian |
| Genre | World history |
Publication date | c. 1593/1594 |
The Tarikh-i Alfi (Persian: تاریخ الفی, lit. 'History of a Thousand') is a 16th-century Persian-language universal history compiled at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The work is a millenarian text that attempts to document the political history of the Islamic world over the span of one thousand years, from the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad to Akbar's reign in the late sixteenth century. Co-authored by a collection of scholars over approximately twelve years, the work was a foundational text in the Mughal court's historiography, and positions Akbar as a messianic philosopher-king.