`Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni

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ʿAbd al-Qadir Bada'uni (1540, Toda, India – c. 1615, India) was an Indo-Persian historian and translator living during the Mughal period in India.^[1] He lived in Basavar as a boy studying in Sambhal and Agra.^[1] He moved to Badaun, the town of his name, in 1562 before moving on to enter the service of prince Husayn Khan for the next nine years in Patiala.^[1] His later years of study were governed by Muslim mystics. Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar appointed him to the religious office in the royal courts in 1574 where he spent much of his career.^[1]

He translated the Hindu works, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.^[1] However, as an Orthodox Muslim, he strongly resented the reforms of Akbar, and the elevation of Hindus to high offices. He was also renowned for his rivalry with Abul Fazl.^{[citation needed]}

He is notable as the author of the Muntakhab al-Tawarikh "selection of chronicles" (ed. College Press, Calcutta, 1865, trans. R.A Ranking, 1894), often called Tarikh-e Bada'uni "Bada'uni's History", a history of Muslim India with additional biographical treatments of many Muslim religious figures, scholars, physicians and poets. Other works by Bada'uni included a Kitab al-Hadith ("book of sayings [of Muhammad]", lost), a chapter in the Tarikh-e alfi "history of the millennium", commissioned by Akbar to celebrate the millenary of the Hijrah, and a summary of the Jami al-Tawarikh, the "Universal History" of Rashid al-Din.^{[citation needed]}