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Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've covered a lot of Aurangzeb's military campaigns, his architecture, his bans on music and wine, his taxes. But there's a personal side to him that rarely gets discussed, and it's maybe the most human aspect of his reign: his devotion to copying the Quran by hand. Luna: He personally copied the Quran? I knew he was pious, but that's a whole other level. Lucas: It is. According to the maasir i alamgiri, the official court history, Aurangzeb was a skilled calligrapher. He learned the art as a prince, and throughout his life, he would copy the Quran in his own hand. The Maasir says he completed at least three copies — one of which he sent to Mecca, another to Medina, and a third he kept with him in the Deccan. Luna: Three copies? That's an incredible investment of time. How long would that take? Lucas: Months, if not years, for each. The Quran is about 600 pages — copying it by hand in elegant naskh or thuluth script is painstaking work. But Aurangzeb wasn't just doing this as a hobby. In Islamic tradition, copying the Quran is a deeply meritorious act, especially for a ruler who wanted to project an image of piety. But there's a twist: the copies he sent to Mecca and Medina are lost. Only the one he kept in the Deccan might still exist, and even that's a mystery. Luna: Wait, really? What happened to them? Lucas: The copies sent to the holy cities probably perished in fires or simply decayed over centuries. But the Deccan copy — legend says it was kept in Aurangzeb's personal library in Aurangabad. After his death, his successors didn't value it the way he did. Some accounts say it was broken up — pages torn out and sold as relics. Others claim it was taken by the British after the fall of the Mughal Empire. There's a rumour that a single folio surfaced in a London auction in the 1990s, but it was never authenticated. Luna: So there might be a page from Aurangzeb's Quran floating around out there. That's wild. Lucas: It is. And it raises a question: was Aurangzeb's calligraphy a genuine act of faith, or a political performance? He was, after all, the emperor who banned music at court and outlawed wine. His personal piety was very public. But some European travelers, like Niccolao Manucci, were sceptical. Manucci wrote that Aurangzeb 'pretended to be a saint' but was actually ruthless and cold. He claimed the emperor would copy the Quran in public view, then order executions in private. Luna: So the copying was part of his image? A calculated move to bolster his legitimacy? Lucas: Possibly. But other sources suggest it was genuine. The maasir i alamgiri, which is generally reliable, describes him as 'constant in prayer and fasting.' It says he would copy the Quran during his campaigns in the Deccan, even in the midst of war. In 1685, during the siege of Bijapur, he reportedly finished a copy while camped outside the city walls. That doesn't sound like a man who's only pretending. Luna: He copied the Quran during a siege? That's intense. Did he have a dedicated scribe helping him? Lucas: No, it was strictly his own hand. He was trained by the best: the famous calligrapher Mirza Muhammad Zaman, who had also taught his brother Dara Shikoh. But Dara, who was more eclectic in his religious interests, preferred Persian poetry and Hindu philosophy. Aurangzeb stuck to the Quran. And he even wrote a commentary, or tafsir, in the margins of his personal copy — which is something scholars still debate. Some say it was a sign of his deep learning; others, that he was reinforcing his own interpretation of Islam. Luna: What was his interpretation? He was Hanafi, right? Lucas: Yes, he followed the Hanafi school, which is one of the more flexible Sunni legal traditions. But Aurangzeb took a very strict line — he implemented sharia law more rigorously than any Mughal before him, and his fatawa e alamgiri was a massive compilation of Hanafi jurisprudence. So his Quran copying fits into that: he was not just a ruler, but a scholar-king who personally engaged with the sacred text. Luna: Did any other Mughal emperor do this? Copy the Quran by hand? Lucas: A few. His father Shah Jahan was a patron of calligraphy but didn't copy the Quran himself. Babur wrote poetry. Humayun was an astrologer. But Aurangzeb is unique in the extent of his personal devotion. Interestingly, there's a story that when Dara Shikoh was executed, Aurangzeb kept his brother's calligraphy tools as a trophy — and later used them to copy the Quran. That's a dark irony, if true. Luna: Wow. So he literally used his brother's pens to write the Quran. That's… complicated. Lucas: It is. And it brings us back to the question of motivation. On one hand, copying the Quran is a humble act — you're a servant of the divine word. On the other, Aurangzeb was the most powerful man in India, and he knew his every action was watched. The Quran he copied was not just a personal devotion; it was a statement. He even inlaid some copies with gold and precious stones, which were later stripped by later rulers. Luna: So the lost Quran — if we found it, what would it tell us? Lucas: A lot. His handwriting, his marginal notes, the quality of the paper and ink — all of that would give us insight into his state of mind. For example, some historians think he wrote the Deccan copy during his final years, when he was exhausted and grieving. If his handwriting deteriorated, that might show his physical decline. But without the manuscript, we're left with accounts and fragments. There's a famous story that a British soldier in the 19th century bought a page in a bazaar in Delhi, thinking it was just old Arabic, and later sold it for a fortune. Luna: So there are pages out there. Maybe in private collections. Lucas: Very likely. The problem is authentication. Aurangzeb's calligraphy isn't widely documented, so it's hard to verify. But there are a few known examples — a Quran in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is sometimes attributed to him, but it's contested. And in 2013, a Quran said to be in his hand was offered at a Dubai auction, but it didn't sell. So the hunt continues. Luna: I love that — a historical mystery that's still alive. And it gives a different picture of Aurangzeb, beyond the conqueror. Lucas: Exactly. He's often reduced to the 'Zinda Pir' — the living saint — or the tyrant. But here he's a man bent over a page, letter by letter, in a tent in the Deccan. It's a reminder that even the most controversial figures had moments of quiet devotion. And that's worth remembering. Luna: Absolutely. Well, I'm going to be looking out for any suspicious Quran pages now. Lucas: You and me both. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Fexingo History.