1 Introduction – The Fatawa-i ‘Alamgiri

Considered the last “effective” ruler of the Mughal Empire, Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707, also known as Alamgiri) oversaw the apex of his imperial dynasty’s political might across much of South Asia. Though the Mughals remained the nominal overlords of this vast empire from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, in practice, the death of Aurangzeb was followed by a rapid diminution of Mughal power in the 150 years preceding the establishment of the British Raj in 1857-58.

The Fatawa-i ‘Alamgiri is a very large collection of legal codes reflecting the Mughals’ primary means of attempting to rule their empire. It is a multi-authored compendium (1660s/70s) of sharia-based laws, i.e., it emerges out of the conceptual realm of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). Besides its length and breadth, the collection is notable given the fact that the Mughals were ethnic and religious minorities across most of the territory that they ruled. The Mughal emperors descended from a long line of “Turco-Mongol” steppe rulers of Central Asia, including Genghis Khan and Timur/Tamerlane. Mughal courtly figures were also deeply influenced by Persian culture and, unsurprisingly, by the cultures of their subject populations across South Asia.

In the excerpts from the Fatawa-i Alamgiri that follow, you will find a series of statements about what constitutes proper marriage practices within the Mughal realm. As you read through these statements, consider the following questions:

• How would these laws, compiled and disseminated by Islamic jurists and elites, have been received by the majority non-Muslim population of India? Would the day-to-day lives of non-Muslims have been impacted by these Fatawa?
• What aspects of these Fatawa might non-Muslims have agreed with? For example, what cultural assumptions about women’s position in society, or about the responsibilities of married people, would have been shared across religious divides?
• How do these perspectives, emanating from people of disparate faiths and places of origin, compare with what we’ve learned so far about societies in Western Europe, the Americas, Africa, and East Asia? What sorts of similarities or differences might we note, for example, between the interactions of Europeans and Native Americans/Kongolese/Japanese on the one hand, and between the diverse inhabitants of South Asia on the other?

This module was last updated in October 2022