Abdul Hamid Lahori

Abdul Hamid Lahori (died 1654) was a traveller and historian during the period of Shah Jahan who later became a court historian of Shah Jahan. He wrote the book Padshahnama also referred as Badshahnama, about the reign of Shah Jahan. He has described Shah Jahan's life and activities during the first twenty years of his reign in this book in great detail.

Not much is known about the biographical details about Abdul Hamid Lahori, except from Amai-i Salih of Muhammad Salih, another court writer, who mentions his date of death to be 1065 A.H. (1654 AD).

In his own preface to the text, Lahori mentions that he called from his retirement in Patna to write official history as the Emperor wanted someone who could emulate the style of Akbarnama of Abul Fazl which he too greatly admired. Lahori could only finish the first two sections, from 1037/1627 to 1047/1637 and 1047/1637 to 1057/1647, thus the final section was completed by one of his pupils.

Abdul Hamid Lahori calls the glass pieces of the Shish Mahal of the Agra Fort as glass pieces "shishye halabi" because Haleb was the original name of Aleppo (Syria) which was the main centre for manufacturing these glasses.

He was a good scholar. He also had good knowledge of science and astronomy. Abdul Hamid was called Lahori because he was from Lahore, Punjab in modern Pakistan.

Lahori also wrote about the Shalimar Gardens in detail.

The English translation of the complete Padshahnama by Dr. Hamid Afaq Siddiqi has recently been published in two volumes by Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli (Delhi, 2011).

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