Who Wrote Badshah Nama? Identifying the Author

The question asks about the author of the historical work known as ‘Badshah Nama’. This book is a significant chronicle detailing the reign of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.

Let’s examine the given options to determine the correct author:

1. Abdul Hamid Lahori
2. Abul Fazl
3. Gulbadan Begum
4. Ziauddin Barani

Analysing the Options

We need to identify which of these notable historical figures is credited with authoring ‘Badshah Nama’.

• Abdul Hamid Lahori: He was a traveller and historian during the reign of Shah Jahan. He was commissioned by Shah Jahan himself to write the history of his reign. His work is considered a primary source for the period.
• Abul Fazl: He was the grand vizier of Emperor Akbar and the author of Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign, which includes the Ain-i-Akbari. His work predates Shah Jahan's reign.
• Gulbadan Begum: She was the daughter of Emperor Babur and the half-sister of Emperor Humayun. She authored ‘Humayun Nama’, a personal account of her brother Humayun's life. Her work relates to an earlier period of Mughal history.
• Ziauddin Barani: He was a Muslim historian and political thinker who lived during the Delhi Sultanate, not the Mughal period. His famous work is ‘Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi’, which covers the history of the Sultanate period up to the reign of Firoz Shah Tughlaq.

Determining the Author of Badshah Nama

Based on the historical context and the reigns covered by the works of these authors, Abdul Hamid Lahori is the historian who wrote the ‘Badshah Nama’ detailing the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan. He is considered the principal author of the work, which covers the first twenty years of Shah Jahan's rule.

Therefore, the author of the book ‘Badshah Nama’ is Abdul Hamid Lahori.

Revision Table: Mughal and Sultanate Historians and their Works

Additional Information on Badshah Nama

The term ‘Badshah Nama’ (also spelled Padshah Nama) translates to ‘Book of the Emperor’. It is a genre of works written as the official history of a Mughal emperor's reign. While Abdul Hamid Lahori wrote the most famous version covering Shah Jahan's reign, other historians also contributed to documenting parts of his rule or continued the chronicle. Lahori's Badshah Nama is particularly valued for its detailed accounts and illustrations.