Abdul Hamid Lahori

Abdul Hamid Lahori (Punjabi: عبدالحمید لاہوری; died 1654) was a 17th century traveller and historian during the period of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who later became a court historian of Shah Jahan (Shah Jahan's official chronicler). He wrote the Padshahnama, about the reign of Shah Jahan. He has described Shah Jahan's life and activities during the first twenty years of his reign in this book in great detail Infirmities of old age prevented him from proceeding with the Third decade which was then chronicled by Waris, a historian.

Quotes

Padshahnama/Badshah-Nama

• It had been brought to the notice of His Majesty that during the late reign many idol temples had been begun, but remained unfinished at Benares, the great stronghold of infidelity. The infidels were now desirous of completing them. His Majesty, the defender of the faith, gave orders that at Benares, and throughout all his dominions in every place, all temples that had been begun should be cast down. It was now reported from the province of Allahãbãd that seventy-six temples had been destroyed in the district of Benares.
  • Badshah-Nama, by Abdul Hamid Lahori, in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol. VII, p. 36. Also quoted in B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946) [1]

• At the Bundela capital the Islam-cherishing Emperor demolished the lofty and massive temple of Bir Singh Dev near his palace, and erected a mosque on its site.
  • Orchha (Madhya Pradesh) , Badshah-Nama, by Abdul Hamid Lahori, quoted in Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb, Vol. I, p. 15.

• Some temples in Kashmir were also sacrificed to the religious fury of the emperor. The Hindu temple at Ichchhabal was destroyed and converted into a mosque.
  • Badshah-Nama, by Abdul Hamid Lahori, quoted in Sri Ram Sharma, Sharma, Sri Ram, Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, Bombay, 1962. p. 86.

• “Perhaps these instances [Mewar, Kangra, and Ajmer] made a contemporary poet of his court sing his praises as the great Muslim emperor who converted temples into mosques.”
  • Badshah-Nama Badshah Nama cited by Sri Ram Sharma, p. 63. Sharma, Sri Ram, Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, Bombay, 1962. , in Hindu Temples, Volume 2