Sayyed Mīr Fathullāh Shīrāzī Namazi ( fa, ; died 15 August 1589) was a Persian

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

- an Islamic jurist, mechanical engineer,

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

—who worked for

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

, ruler of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. Shirazi was given the title of ''Azuddudaulah'', translated as "the arm of the empire.", p. 116 Shirazi was one of the students of the philosopher Ghyath al-Din Mansur Dashtaki. Eventually Shirazi left his native home of Safavid Persia to serve at the Mughal court.

Biography

Fathullah Shirazi Namazi was a polymath who worked as an imperial finance minister for Akbar. According to

Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, also known as Abul sharma, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), was the grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, from his appointment in 1579 until his death in 1602. He was the aut ...

's '' Akbarnama'', when Shirazi died, Akbar mourned his death:

Inventions

Among the inventions credited to him was an early anti-infantry volley gun with multiple

gun barrel A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pres ...

s similar to a hand cannon's. Another

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

-related machine he created could clean sixteen gun barrels simultaneously, and was operated by a cow. He also developed a seventeen-barrelled cannon fired with a matchlock. Not all of his creations were intended for warfare however; he designed a

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping ...

praised by

for its comfort. It could also be used to grind

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

when not transporting passengers.

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

land taxes were initially collected according to the Hijri calendar which did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles. In response, emperor

asked Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the Hijri and the native calendars. Referred to as the ''fôshôlī shôn'' (harvest calendar), Shirazi is credited as the formulator of the modern Bengali calendar. He invented the gaj-i-ilahi system.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirazi, Fathullah 1589 deaths 16th-century Indian inventors Firearm designers 16th-century Indian Muslims Iranian inventors 16th-century Iranian philosophers Islamic philosophers People from Shiraz Mughal Empire people