Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana

Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana (1556-1627) is an Indian Sufi poet popularly known as Rahim. He was a poet at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar and the son of Bairam Khan, a great Turkish statesman, warrior and caretaker of Mughal emperor Akbar. He was the stepson of Akbar as Akbar married Bairam Khan’s wife. He was a very generous person and used to give alms to the poor and needy people.

Since Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana was not in support of Jahangir’s succession to the throne after Akbar’s death, Jahangir, killed his two sons and left their bodies at the khooni darwaja to rot.

Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana translated The Memoirs of Babar from Turkish to Persian. He was a Muslim, but a great devotee of Lord Krishna. He belonged to the Bhakti period and wrote couplets in Hindi in praise of Lord Krishna. During this period there was integration between the Hindu and the Islamic elements in both art and literature. It had two schools of belief Sagun (believed that god has a particular form like Krishna, Vishnu etc.) and Nirgun (believed that God doesn’t have any fixed form and shape). He was a follower of the Sagun school of Bhakti Poetry as he wrote about Krishna.

Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana was among one of the nine Navratna’s of Akbar’s court. He loved Indian civilization and was also an accomplished poet and an astrologer. Apart from being a person of Iranian origin he had an exceptional command over Sanskrit language. He wrote two works on the subject of Astrology- Khet Kautukam and Dwawishd Yogavali, which are still referred by people interested in Astrology.