Shah Abu'l Ma'ali
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Shah Abu’l Maʿālī, also Abu’l Maʿālī Shah (died 1564) was a Persian émigré intellectual, Sufi-leaning courtier, and poet who became briefly prominent at the early Mughal court, especially during the reign of Humayun. He was from Kashgar in Central Asia.[2][4] He is remembered today largely because of a series of depictions, including a portrait attributed to Mir Sayyid Ali (c. 1545), which is one of the earliest naturalistic Mughal portraits.[4]
Shah Abu’l Maʿālī was part of the wave of Safavid-trained literati and artists who entered Mughal service after Humayun's exile to Persia and return to India. He was a man of letters, poet, and an intellectual, associated with Sufi and heterodox religious ideas.[4]
He appears to have enjoyed temporary favor under Humayun. Contemporary sources portray Abu’l Maʿālī as eccentric, outspoken, and intellectually provocative, which likely contributed both to his prominence and his downfall.[4] As he had been a close confidant of Humayun, he assumed that he now also had a special position at court. According to Abu 'l-Fazl, this misjudgment caused him to behave so inappropriately.[4][5]
Humayun died unexpectedly in a fall in 1556.[6] His son Jalāl ud-Dīn Muhammad, commonly known by his epithet "Akbar", was crowned on February 14, 1556.[7] However, Bairam Khan, who was instrumental in the reconquest of India, remained in office for the next few years.[8] Akbar and his circle were deeply resentful of the arrogance of Humayun's protégé.[4] He was said to have "seditious thoughts", and Abu'l Fazl, the chronicler of Akbar's reign, wrote of Abu'l Ma'ali was now a drunken madman whose "brain had been ruined by the worship of his own beauty".[4] Three days after the coronation celebrations, Akbar held a large assembly to which Shah Abu 'l-Maʿali was also invited. He was arrested and taken to a prison in Lahore.[4][9] He was able to escape from there.[10]
After his escape, Shah Abu'l Ma'ali was involved in murder and insurrection in Kashmir and Rajasthan during a period of eight years.[4] Shah Abu'l Ma'ali, sought refuge in Kabul with Akbar's ten-year-old half-brother Mirza Muhammad Hakim and his influential mother Mah Chuchak Begam. His high lineage prompted Mah Chuchak to marry him off to her daughter Bakht-un-Nissa Begum. However, in his quest for unrestricted rule, Abu'l Maʿali murdered the Begam and some of her advisors just a few months later and attempted to take control of her son Mirza Muhammad Hakim.[11] Mirza Muhammad Hakim appealed for help to his cousin Mirza Sulayman, formerly appointed by Humayun as governor of Badakhshan, who intervened in Kabul.[11][12] Mirza Sulayman finally caught Shah Abu'l Ma'ali near Kabul, and remitted him to Mirza Muhammad Hakim, who had him strangled,[11] or hanged, in 1564.[4][13][14][15]
Portrait of Shah Abu’l Ma’ali. Attributed to Mir Sayyid Ali, c.1545, Mughal court. Harvard Museum, 2009.202.205
The arrest of Shah Abu'l Ma'ali. Painted by 'Abd us-Samad, Mughal, 1556–1560, Bodleian Library, Ms Ouseley, Add. 172, fol.17a
The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu’l-Maali. Victoria and Albert Akbarnama, folio 40
