Feyżī’s Poetry at the Mughal Court

Abstract

How did religious poets contribute to ideas about religion, tolerance, and spiritual truth in the Mughal Empire? This dissertation examines the poetry of Feyżī (1547–1595), the poet laureate of the Mughal emperor Akbar. Feyżī wrote during a period in which Emperor Akbar promoted a vision of peaceful coexistence among people of different religious backgrounds, known as ṣulḥ-i kull ("universal peace"). Akbar's religious vision is commonly associated with the concept of dīn-i ilāhī ("Divine Religion"). The dissertation demonstrates how Feyżī built upon a rich tradition of Persian mystical poetry that challenged religious conventions and questioned established oppositions between belief and unbelief, the tavern and the mosque, and other conventional binaries. In his poetry, he employs themes such as doubt, love, wine, and even blasphemy to reflect on spiritual experience and the search for mystical truth. Rather than offering straightforward answers, Feyżī embraced paradox and contradiction as ways of approaching the divine. By situating Feyżī's poetry within its historical and intellectual context, this dissertation shows how literature played a significant role in debates about religion, knowledge, and diversity in the Mughal world. It argues that poetry was not merely an artistic form, but also a vehicle for philosophical reflection, theoretical inquiry, and a powerful means of exploring different modes of belief and the human condition.