The Impact of Akhlaq-i Nasiri on the Forms and Spaces of Akbar’s Fatehpur Sikri

Abstract

In this article, I examine the structures and spatial dynamics of Fatehpur Sikri to show how the overall design of the Mughal capital city was informed by Islamic philosophy and ethical texts known as akhlaq. Both discourses used the concept of the city to theorize how the ideals of justice could be materialized. After creating an interpretative framework based on these texts, I focus on four spaces of interaction at Fatehpur Sikri, the Jami Masjid, Diwan-i Aam, Ibadat Khana, and markets, to show how the phenomenology of Peripatetic Islamic philosophy, later translated for Mongol kings by Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201–74), influenced the meaning of the city. Through this investigation, I argue that Fatehpur Sikri was a means of bringing the ethical concepts of Persianate philosophy to life in sixteenth-century Mughal India and introducing a new set of social and religious norms to the people.