Dabestan-e Mazaheb

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The Dabestān-e Mazāheb, also transliterated as Dabistān-i Mazāhib (Persian: دبستان مذاهب) "School of Religions" is an imaginative examination and comparison of South Asian religions and sects of the mid-17th century. The work is believed to have been written around 1655 CE.

The Dabistan-e Madahib is best known for its chapter on the Dīn-i Ilāhī, the syncretic religion propounded by the Mughal emperor Jalālu d-Dīn Muħammad Akbar ("Akbar the Great") after 1581 and is possibly the most reliable account of the Ibādat Khāna discussions that led up to this.

A critical English-language edition by David Shea and Anthony Troyer in 1843 is slightly flawed since the translators were not well-versed in much of the subject matter. The editors, who were not certain of the identity of the author, suggest a certain Muhsin Fani and propose 1670 as his date of death. They furthermore stated that he was "of the philosophic sect of Sufis", but the 1993 edition of the Encyclopaedia Iranica suggests that the author was most likely a Zoroastrian.The present Persian edition of the text by Rezazadeh Malik attributes it to the son and successor of Azar Kayvan, Kay Khosrow Esfandiyar.

The author describes that he spent time in Patna, Kashmir, Lahore, Surat and Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh). He is perceived to have been a person of great scholarship and curiosity, and extremely open-minded for the context of his time. He mentions numerous interviews with scholars of numerous faiths, which suggests that he was well connected, and so qualified to report on the Dīn-i Ilāhī.

According to The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz a 'Dabistan' was comissioned by an Indian mystic prince Dara Shikoh and at least partially writtten by a Persian Jewish sufi Muslim convert Hazrat Sarmad. Walter Fischel notes: "Through the medium of the 'Dabistan' Sarmad thus became the channel through which Jewish ideas, though with a Sufic blending, penetrated into the religious fabric of the India of his time" (Kamenetz p. 249). An English version of this Dabistan by David Shea (1843) is available at the Digital Library of India IISc- [[1]]