Dabestan-e Mazaheb
17th century book comparing South Asian religions
The Dabestan-e Mazaheb (Persian: دبستان مذاهب; lit. 'school of religions') is a Persian language work on Comparative religion, written between 1645 and 1658, that examines and compares Abrahamic, Dharmic and other religions of the mid-17th century South Asia and the Middle East. Additionally, it has information on various Hellenic philosophical traditions, such as Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. The work, composed in the mid-17th century, is of uncertain authorship. The text's title is also transliterated as Dabistān-i Mazāhib, Dabistan-e Madahib, or Dabestan-e Madaheb.
The text is best known for its dedication of an entire chapter to Din-i Ilahi, the syncretic religion propounded by the Mughal emperor Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar after 1581 and is possibly the most reliable account of the Ibādat Khāna discussions that led up to this. It is also one of the first works in history to make any mention of Sikhism.
Authorship
Several manuscripts have been discovered that identify the author as Mīr Du'lfiqar Ardestānī (also known as Mollah Mowbad). Mir Du'lfiqar is now generally accepted as the author of this work.
Before these manuscripts were discovered, however, Sir William Jones identified the author as Mohsin Fani Kashmiri. In 1856, a Parsi named Keykosrow b.
The public source identifies “Dabestan-e Mazaheb” as 17th century book comparing South Asian religions. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dabestan-e, Mazaheb and 17th.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5207468. VIAF identifies the subject as 218361662. None of the 4 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1645, 1658, 1581 and 1856.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dabestan-e Mazaheb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.