20 years of research leads to this new book

It’s not every day not even once a month or a year that a highly researched work on India’s most favourite non-fictional character is presented in the most compelling way to the lovers of both history and fiction. It took almost 20 years of hard work and living with Akbar for the veteran journalist Shazi Zaman to come up with a highly compulsive historical fiction on Akbar.nbsp;

Written by Shazi Zaman and published by Rajkamal Prakashan in Hindi the book ‘Akbar’ is no ordinary historical novel. Shazi Zaman is a veteran electronic media journalist and is Group Editor of ABP News Network. He passed out from the prestigious St. Stephen’s College University of Delhi with a degree in History. He has worked for BBC World Service Star News Aajtak Zee and Doordarshan. His earlier novels ‘Prem Gali Ati Sankari’ and ‘Jism Jism Ke Log’ were also published by Rajkamal Prakashan.

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It’s a close examination into possibly every material available on the celebrated emperor till date. The author travelled extensively right from the Indian Museum in Kolkata to Victoria Albert in London scrutinized most available painting of him and studied the Mughal architecture at the time of Akbar and his contemporaries. The book also draws from some of the exemplary work on Akbar such as Akbarnama Muntakhab-ut-TawarikhBaburnama Humanyunnama and Tazkirat-ul-waqiat.nbsp;

nbsp;Commenting on the new book Ashok Maheshwari Managing Director of Rajkamal Prakashan said quot;We have a long association with Shazi Zaman. His father Badiuzzaman saheb was an eminent personality and we have published his books also. I believe the novel ‘Akbar’ will be a landmark in the Hindi publishing industry. It is a matter of great satisfaction to us that a reputed and established publication Speaking Tiger has taken it’s English rights. quot;nbsp;

nbsp;quot;In publishing generally a book is translated into other languages after it becomes popular. nbsp;It is remarkable that even while the Hindi book is under publication the English rights have been taken by Speaking Tiger from Rajkamal Prakashan. The English translation will appear in next few months. The next steps is to publish it in other Indian Languages for which the announcement will be made soonquot; a representative from the publication said. nbsp;Speaking on the association Ravi Singh Publisher and Co-Founder Speaking Tiger said quot;Speaking Tiger is delighted to be the publisher of the English edition of this monumental work of scholarship and literary imagination. Shazi Zaman has written an epic novel on an epic subject.quot;nbsp;

We all know Emperor Akbar as the most fascinating king of the Mughal Empire but Shazi Zaman’s book will reveal many untold facets of the legend’s life.

quot;It is my labour of two decades on the emperor’s quest to understand various denominations of his time and his determination to take on temporal and religious forces. He is a complex personality relevant for all complex times. nbsp;I am sure the two tall names of Indian publishing -Rajkamal Prakashan and Speaking Tiger –would carry Akbar far and wide. ‘Akbar’ has also deepened a bond of two generations that I have with Rajkamal Prakashan. They have published my father’s works as also my past two novelsquot; said the author Shazi Zaman.

Apart from a fine scholarly content the book also has other attractions such as coloured pictures of Akbar. There is also a map especially designed by the cartographer Faiz Habib and the image of Akbar’s original shield currently available at Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay Mumbai. The structure has a Sun in the center and zodiac signs in the outer layer signifying what historians believe that king Akbar was a strong devotee of Sun and was an ardent believer of astrology. The shield also has a line written in Persian which means ‘Akbar the emperor with a lofty fortune .’nbsp;

Editorial Director of Rajkamal Prakashan Samuh Satyanand Nirupam further added quot;We did a lot of meetings in the past 6 months and discussed every doubt in length to make sure no point was left untouched. We moved forward only when both of us agreed on all points. I must say I am extremely moved by the effort Shazi Zaman has put in for Akbar. As far as I remember the only such well researched novel in Hindi till date is by Rahul Sankrityayan. After a long time Hindi literature is going to have something of this sort.quot;