Available online at: http://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/ijik IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 DOI: 10.15575/ijik.v13i1.21293 * Copyright (c) 2023 Leila Chamankhah This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Received: Oct 19, 2022; Revised: Dec 21,2022; Accepted: Jan 27,2023 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah Punjabi University, Patiala, India Corresponding Author E-mail: l.chamankhah@gmail.com Abstract Ẓafarnāmah (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, Ẓafarnāmah is widely regarded as a spiritual text. However, as the researcher will argue in the following, Ẓafarnāmah 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. Keywords: Ẓafarnāmah, Guru Gobind Singh, Aurangzeb, India, Persian, Mirror For Princes, Political Ethics. INTRODUCTION “Justice brings longevity, while injustice reduces life expectancy, and Comfort is the result of order (Fouchecour, 1999).” This study uses the original Persian text (both Ẓafarnāmah and Fatḥnāmah), published in one volume with an English translation by Sardar Darshan Singh and a foreword by Shri I.K. Gujral. The researcher has compared it to the other two versions as well: Guru Gobind S ingh, Ẓafarnāmah and Fatḥnāmah, ed: Devinder Singh Duggal 1980 (Jullundur, Institute of Sikh Studies), and Guru Gobind Singh, Ẓafarnāmah (Letter of Victory) (G. G. Singh, 1980, 2000, 2018). Guru Gobind Singh’s opening section of Ẓafarnāmah, where God the Almighty is praised as the absolute holder of the attributes such as the Benevolent (G. G. Singh, 2018), the Merciful, the Powerful, the Provider (rāziq), among other things, should not make us believe that we are dealing with a religious text or a book of prayer. Under the surface of this beautifully versed manuscript, written in Persian and published many times since its inception, there is a deep and well-established legacy of political ethics and statecraft that goes back to the medieval period. Pertinent to this is its mystical coloring and orientation, reminiscent of a typical Sufi manual and accessible (and, in fact, popular) in Mughal India. Furthermore, Ẓafarnāmah has gained a worldwide reputation and attention beyond the boundaries of the Sikh community in its homeland, Punjab, and has also been a subject of interest for artists, particularly musicians, singers, and filmmakers, to convert it into a work of art (Ashkouri, 2020; BMupdate, 2022). Matthias Haake sheds light on different aspects of this genre, i.e., ‘the mirror for the princes,’ including the appropriateness of its usage not only in Islamic tradition but also for Greco-Roman culture on the one hand and the criteria by which a text should be categorized under the rubric of “the mirrors for princes” on the other (Haake, 2015). According to him, “five constitutive determinants” must define whether a text is a mirror of princes or not. The most important of them is that both the author and the addressee should not be just individuals but “members of a specific social group with a characteristic social https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) 12 │ role” (Haake, 2015). Aurangzeb, the addressee, and Guru Gobind, the author, are members of the Mughal Indian elite. Mohsen Zakeri defines ‘the mirrors for princes’ as follows: “A guide to political and social behavior was drawn up to advise and address rulers, princes, or administrative officials. The present (fictional or real) that the author has guided in some way, or an old ruler to his son. Using various literary forms, it discusses the ruler's duty in managing state affairs and protecting his subjects. It contains his war practices, his kingdom, and his government, and it advises him on choosing officials and female friends and companions. This guide also contains explanations of his religion, duties, and need for self-control and serves as a role model for his people.” (Zakeri, 2015). As we will observe in the following, Ẓafarnāmah contains all the requirements that a text in ‘mirrors for princes’ should have. These manuscripts came to the fore from “the beginnings of the Umayyad period (41–132/661–750) and continued from thereon steadily to the early twentieth century” (Zakeri, 2015). RESEARCH METHOD The present research is historical research based on a desk study (Korzenik, 1985), in which the author has conducted a preliminary investigation into Ẓafarnāmah, a crucial literary work in Sikhism, in the context of the theories and mechanisms of historical texts in statecraft and political ethics. Utilizing the existing theoretical frameworks in this field, the author has argued that Ẓafarnāmah shares similarities with its peers with a long and well-established history in the medieval ages. As qualitative research, the author relied on analyzing data obtained by reading a historical manuscript, which embeds a great deal of the legacy of political ethics and Persian literature. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Suppose we classify political thought in general into three categories of political philosophy, sīyāsatnāmah nivīsī (books in politics and statecraft, or mirrors for princes), and sharīʿ atnāmah nivīsī (sharīʿa-based books, also political jurisprudence/fiqh) (Kalāntarī, 2004). In that case, Ẓafarnāmah falls within the second class. It is not a political philosophy text because it does not philosophize about the best kind of government or the common good. However, these two remain his main concerns throughout the text. In the same way, it should not be treated as a text in sharīʿ atnāmah nivīsī, either, not only because the best kind of politics does not generate from religious law but also because the author’s life has been damaged by a ruler who wants to enforce the sharīʿa law, and sharī‛a (religious law) stands against the political rule (sīyāsa), which is inclusive, just, and non-violent (Hazelwood, 2019). Guru Gobind criticized Aurangzeb's political approach for portraying his political ideals mixed with morality, which contrasted sharply with his opponents (G. G. Singh, 2018). Furthermore, he has a wider and more comprehensive perspective of life and spirituality, which goes beyond the scope of sharīʿa (Fenech, 2013). The frequency and the supremacy of political ideas over theological ones are relevant to this. As Seyed Sadegh Haghighat ind icates, if in the ‘state’ and ‘religion’ twins of the sīyāsatnāmah/sharīʿ atnāmah writings, political power gains superiority to religion, then the text is one of the first. If theological terms and ideas gain supremacy and prevalence, then the text is one of the sharīʿatnāmah (Haghighat, 2015). Political ideas such as justice, honesty (to people), and avoiding oppression are superior to theological ideals. IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) │ 13 We know a lot about the sīyāsatnāmah genre, its main ideas, and the authors, who reminded us that sīyāsatnāmahs are the expressions of the continuity of pre-Islamic wisdom and practicality of statecraft and good governance as the main goal of Persian kings and their viziers in the Islamic era (Ismail, 2021). However, here the author is not a vizier (who traditionally carried the bu rden, as well as the wisdom of monarchies), but a spiritual leader whose destiny was supposed to be in the opposite direction of Aurangzeb’s, i.e., on the right side of history and morality in early eighteenth-century India. Categorizing Ẓafarnāmah as an example of “mirrors for princes” is deliberate because, as an insider and one of the elites, he is concerned with the destiny of the monarchy of Aurangzeb and his fortune. This is why he places a mirror in front of Aurangzeb to see his true face and who he is. Any good ruler “must seek consultation (mushāwara)” (Leder, 2015), and since Aurangzeb lacks such a thing (because if he had sought consultation, he would have been better behaved), Guru Gobind offers it to him by all means (G. G. Singh, 2018). Putting the dichotomy of sīyāsatnāmah or sharīʿatnāmah aside for now, both genres have been written for the counsel and well-wishing of monarchies, and both are pursuing the same ethical objectives (Rizvi, 1981). The only difference is the authors' standpoints: the first is secular, based on the classic duality of religion and state. Scholars such as Javad Tabatabai and Neguin Yavari believe that the internal logic of the sīyāsatnāmah genre is secular, which is why these books should not be classified under kalām or sharīʿatnāmah. At the same time, the second one is religious, with sharīʿa at its center. The key term is justice, the missing link of Aurangzeb’s reign because the absence of justice and righteousness in his political and personal manner destroyed his monarchy and separated people from him (passim) (Forster & Yavari, 2015). Thus, that is why we called Ẓafarnāmah a typical text in sīyāsatnāmah nivīsī, because, like all other similar texts, it mainly concerns itself with justice (both divine and mundane and in its relationship to people) and honesty. In a nutshell, the unjust ruler is ineligible to rule, and ʿadl and ṣidq are two pillars of governance and rulership. So, we have theological virtues/values, and political and civic ones, and justice in Ẓafarnāmah (as well as sīyāsatnāmah and sharīʿatnāmah texts) is political and civic and, therefore, secular (Briggs, 2015). On the other hand, the extensive use of animal fables indicates Ẓafarnāmah’s tribute to texts such as Kalīlah wa Damnah, which contains another aspect of ancient political wisdom or the significance of physical beauty and a healthy body in governance (Zakeri, 2015). More importantly, an ideal ruler cannot be devoid of a good-looking face and a harmonious physique (passim). Ostensibly, we see the mark of Ferdowsi again, whose heroes and heroines in Shāhnāmah all benefit from the virtue of beauty. Since justice traditionally means balance and harmony among pieces and sections of things, a just ruler is physically balanced, and all pieces of their face and body are in the right place. Generally speaking, in ‘the mirrors for princes’ literature, the nexus between good governance and physical beauty and corporal perfection has been emphasized (Hugen, 2020). Even a quick glimpse into the classics such as Naṣīḥat ul-mulūk of Saʿdī (d. 1291/1292), Sīyar ul- mulūk of Khwaja Niẓām ul-Mulk (d. 1092) and Naṣīḥat ul-mulūks of Ghazali (d. 1111), displays some similarities with Ẓafarnāmah of Guru Gobind Singh. However, the text diverges from its peers when it seems that less emphasis is placed on the political philosophy of good governance and instead focuses on practicality and spiritual weight and color due to the status of Guru Gobind Singh (G. G. Singh, 2000). Guru Gobind is forced to take up arms against the ẓālim ruler because the latter has broken his oath. He has every reason to feel uncomfortable with Aurangzeb’s misconduct, but probably the most important of all is his dishonesty when he broke his Qurʾānīc oath. Guru Gobind mentions Ferdowsi as the only Persian poet whose name appears in Ẓafarnāmah is deliberate (G. G. Singh, 2000). Of course, he was IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) 14 │ familiar with other poets, not only because he was one himself (and that is why he chose poetry to convey his messages), but also because the Persian language was an established language in the late Mughal court. Muzaffar Alam, quoting Qasim Ghani, shows how Persian had established itself “in a large part of northern India as the language of the Muslim elite Ghani, 1941, 152-233, 381-485 in Alam (2013). In the following, he brings up the famous line of Hafiz of Shiraz (d. 1398) saying that “All the Indian parrots will turn to crunching sugar with this Persian candy that goes to Bengal,” as proof of “the receptive audience that Persian poetry had in India.” However, why it has to be Ferdowsi and not other poets such as Rumi, Saʿdi, and Hafiz? Because Ferdowsi is the only poet who exclusively recites about monarchy and the virtues of good monarchies and those who preserve them. Shāhnāmah (the Book of the Kings), as the title sounds, is a long epic poem that tells the mythical and, to some extent, historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Guru says: “How beautifully Firdausi, the eloquent Iranian poet, has expressed it! He who acts in haste pays the devil” (G. G. Singh, 2000). He slams Aurangzeb for his hasty manner after he broke his oath and killed his two sons (however, in the following copy, it says four sons, which does not seem to be correct). See: Guru Gobind Singh, Ẓafarnāmah and Fatḥnāmah title the Book of Victory (G. G. Singh, 1980) and ascertain that even if Aurangzeb “swears on the Holy Quran a hundred times, I will never trust you because your past actions have only shown that you are a great liar” (Ibid., p. 115). He mentions Ferdowsi immediately after he accuses Aurangzeb of the wrongdoing of killing fire (a metaphor for the truth). In contrast, the blaze of fire turns into a “devastating conflagration,” and Aurangzeb himself will be a witness to “its ramifications” (Ibid., p. 107). However, what does he mean by the frequent references to “truth” and its connection to himself? Does he mean that he is an ideal type or the representative of truthfulness and righteousness and, therefore, is standing on the right side of history? In all probability, yes, and it is exactly here where Ẓafarnāmah, just like Shāhnāmah, gains an apocalyptic tone of the battle between good and evil as well. Like Ferdowsi’s heroes, Guru Gobind talks about his virtues and Aurangzeb’s countless vices, according to the author (G. G. Singh, 2000). In his brilliant paper entitled “A Muslim State in a Non-Muslim Context: The Mughal Case,” Muzaffar Alam discusses the popularity, as well as the functionality of Persian, not only as a vehicle of liberalism but also as a symbol of the Mughal triumph in India. Alam reads: “the Persian cosmopolis was the third important idiom to reinforce the Mughal political discourse. The resources for developing this Indo- Muslim imperial idiom came from Persian literary culture. The Mughals showed unprecedented interest in patronizing Persian literary culture under their rule. Mughal India has thus been particularly noted for its extraordinary achievements in poetry and a wide range of prose writings in Persian. “In terms of sheer profusion and variety of themes, this literary output was probably incomparable with that under any other Muslim dynasty” (Alam, 2013). In addition, Eaton's book discusses the same problem in more detail. Eaton shows how important the Persian language was at all administrative, political, and cultural levels in the Mughal period (Eaton, 2019). However, from the perspective of our research, Persian, in which the author of Ẓafarnāmah was an expert, was also a vehicle of spirituality and mystical ideas. Pertinent to this is maʿrifat (true and divine knowledge) and its significance in defining who the winner (in both spiritual and non-spiritual battles) is. Maʿrifat and dānish parastī (wisdom), alongside justice, is another key motif of Ẓafa rnāmah, which helps Aurangzeb to avoid wrongdoings and always walk on the path of ʿ idalat (G. G. Singh, 2000). IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) │ 15 Nevertheless, suppose Ẓafarnāmah portrays a religious leader who, by his counsel, attempts to warn a tyrant of the consequences of his wrongdoings. In that case, Fatḥnāmah should be treated as an expression of the wrath of an assertive and outspoken rival whose life has been damaged by Aurangzeb. Because Guru had been wounded, he did not fear displaying his feeling s in his book for all to see. Just like Ẓafarnāmah, Fatḥnāmah also initiates with the praise of God, not the God of raḥma and karāma, but the Creator of blades, bows, spears, and axes. The god of horses and brave men. He has no appreciation for Aurangzeb’s wealth, throne, and army, this time not because of Aurangzeb’s misconducts, but because the Almighty has endowed him with the better, which is the dawt (i.e., the priceless wealth) of good faith and spirituality that people like Aurangzeb will never have (G. G. Singh, 2000). Taking off the mantle of a gentle counselor and adopting the bitter tongue of an open enemy, Guru Gobind calls Aurangzeb “cunning and deceitful” (G. G. Singh, 2000) because he does not stand for his name (G. G. Singh, 2000). He eventually threatens him with revenge by “putting fire under the hoofs of his horses and banning him from drinking Punjab’s water” (G. G. Singh, 2000). Finally, he calls Aurangzeb “a cunning and sneaky jackal who has killed two lion cubs,” although he alerts him that “if those lions were still alive, they took a hard revenge from him” (G. G. Singh, 2000). Fatḥnāmah, a concise text of eleven pages, should also be understood in the context of Guru Gobind’s theological Weltanschauung, again with justice at its center. Fatḥnāmah finished in December 1704, and Ẓafarnāmah was written a few months later, in May 1705. However, since justice is a political virtue, the author will not leave the job to the Almighty to execute because he and his Khalsa, with the blessings of God, are mighty and capable enough to “pour the stream of steel and iron on [Aurangzeb’s men], until there remains no sign of th e abode of evil [i.e., oppression, injustice, and oppression] in this pure land” (G. G. Singh, 1980). CONCLUSION We gained some lessons from Guru Gobind Singh’s Ẓafarnāmah and his political ethics. His foe, Aurangzeb, is ineligible to rule because he has broken his oath to the Qurʾān. Equally, he is ẓālim because he lacks the two important political virtues of justice and honesty, and therefore, he is dishonest to people and God both. In such a condition, the battle with him, standing on the wrong side of history and morality, is a battle for establishing a just order based on divine law, which Guru represents. It is a battle for justice. Ẓafarnāmah is a text in statecraft and rulership mixed with political ethics, in which civic virtues such as justice and honesty play central roles. Alongside virtues, the author benefits from the rich treasury of fables and animal stories as a medium to call out his political opposition. Ẓafarnāmah is also significantly impacted by the mystical culture of Mughal India. The first twelve verses are dedicated to the praise of God, who displays His presence through His names and attribute s, and from this perspective, Ẓafarnāmah diverges from its peers. The way Guru Gobind Singh praises the unseen and non -graspable God who displays Himself through his manifestations (tajallīyāt, also the doctrine of theophany) or attributes such as karīm, qayyūm, kāmil, amīn, razzāq, dilpadhīr, inter alia, is a witness to the proof that Akbarīan mysticism, and particularly the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd, had already become integrated into the mystical teachings of eighteenth-century India. One of the things that the author of the sīyāsatnāmah emphasizes is the caring nature of a good ruler. One of his main responsibilities is that which God bestows to be a shepherd for his people and take care of the lives of his people. It is obvious that as a religious individual, Guru thinks not only of the physical well-being of the subjects under Aurangzeb’s rule but also of their spiritual and ethical status, which, unfortunately, has been decayed by his tyrannical misconduct. IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) 16 │ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is grateful to Professor Arvind, the Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala (PUP), for his support and encouragement, although the author takes full responsibility of their words in this paper. REFERENCES Alam, M. (2013). A Muslim State in a Non-Muslim Context: The Mughal Case, in Mirrors for the Muslim Prince: Islam and the History of Statecraft (M. Boroujerdi, Ed.). New York: Syracuse Univers ity Press. Ashkouri, F. (2020). Quarantine in Punjab, an opportunity to turn Zafarnameh into Music. Retrieved from euro news website: https://parsi.euro news.com/2020/04/24/zaf arnam eh-persian-po etry-t ur n- to-video-clip-in-penjab -india-luck-down-tim e BMupdate. (2022). Ẓafarnāmah. 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IJIK, Vol. 13 No. 1: 11-17 Ẓafarnamah: A Glimpse into the Text and its Historical and Intellectual Context Leila Chamankhah ISSN 2302-9366 ( Print ) ISSN 2302-9781 (Online) │ 17 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 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 ʿArabī’s Theory of Wilāya in the Shīʿ a World", was published by Palgrave McMillan in September 2019. I also published several articles on different aspects of Islamic studies, Iranian studies, and Shīʿa intellectual history.