Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context

Authors

  • Leila Chamankhah Punjabi University, Patiala

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15575/ijik.v13i1.21293

Keywords:

Ẓafarnāmah, Guru Gobind Singh, Aurangzeb, India, Persian, Mirror For Princes, Political Ethics.

Abstract

ẒafarnÄmah (Book of Victory), written by the tenth Sikh leader, Guru Gobind Singh (d. 1708), in 1705, about the Mughal emperor of India, Aurangzeb (d. 1706). It is widely considered evidence of a religious leader's spiritual victory over a tyrant who not only broke his Koranic oath (and, consequently, fell from his status as a good believer). The book, originally in Persian poetry, is composed of one hundred and eight bayts (verses), and the first twelve verses praise God and His power. Due to its bold divine connotations, ẒafarnÄmah is widely regarded as a spiritual text. However, as the researcher will argue in the following, ẒafarnÄmah should not be treated as just a spiritual text but as one of “the mirrors for princes,†which has a well-established tradition in the history of Persian literature and a political ethics tradition as well.

Author Biography

Leila Chamankhah, Punjabi University, Patiala

Leila Chamankhah a dual Ph.D. in Islamic studies (with specialization in Shia intellectual history) and political science (with specialization in Iranian studies). My areas of interest are Islamic studies, Shia intellectual history, Iranian Studies and Middle Eastern politics. I teach at the University of Dayton, Department of Philosophy, and will join the Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego from Spring 2021. My first book in English is entitled “The Conceptualization of Guardianship in the Iranian Intellectual History (1800 -1989): Reading Ibn Ê¿Arabī’s Theory of WilÄya in the ShÄ«Ê¿a World", was published by Palgrave McMillan in September 2019. I also published several articles on different aspects of Islamic studies, Iranian studies, and ShÄ«Ê¿a intellectual history.

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Published

2023-01-31

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2023): IJIK

Section

Articles

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