Multiple Audiences of a History from Sixteenth-Century Malabar: Zayn al-Dīn al-Maʿbarī’s Gift of the Strugglers for Jihad

Abstract

This article investigates the readership of a major primary source for the early modern history of South Asia, the sixteenth-century Arabic work Tuḥfat al-Mujāhidīn fī baʿḍ Akhbār al-Burtughāliyyīn (Gift of the Strugglers for Jihad in some Accounts of the Portuguese) by Zayn al-Dīn al-Maʿbarī. This work has frequently caught the eye of scholars trying to explain political, social and cultural developments in Malabar, not least because of its jihadic content. An understanding of its (intended) readership is therefore crucial for drawing meaningful connections between text and historical developments. On the basis of (the absence of) the dedication in the manuscripts of the work and indications in the text itself about the author’s interest in particular sections of society, this article breaks a lance for an understanding of the text as an address to multiple elite audiences.