ABU’L-QĀSEM EBRĀHĪM SOLṬĀN, MĪRZĀ, only son of Kāmrān Mīrzā, the brother and rival of the Mughal emperor Homāyūn (r. 937-47, 962-63/1530-40, 1555-56). An incident of symbolic significance, placed in the year 952/1545 (or 951/1544), is related in the Akbar-nāma (tr. I, pp. 455-56): The boys Abu’l-Qāsem and Akbar, sons of two rival princes, wrestle for possession of a kettle-drum, and the latter wins. As a potential candidate for the throne, Abu’l-Qāsem became a source of concern for Akbar during the insecure early years of his reign. When Homāyūn died, Tardī Beg sent Abu’l-Qāsem to Akbar in the company of the royal guard which also escorted the crown jewels (W. Erskine, India under Baber and Humayun II, London, 1854, p. 529), and the new king soon confined his cousin in the fort of Gwalior, where he was eventually executed in 973/1565 or 974/1567. He was also a poet, but his dīvān, if he left one at all, has not survived. Two bayts are ascribed to him in the Haft eqlīm of Aḥmad Rāzī (I, p. 454). His taḵalloṣ was Šawkatī.
Bibliography:
Mīr ʿAlī Šēr Qāneʿ Tattavī, Maqālāt al-šoʿarāʾ, ed. S. H. Rāšedī, Karachi, 1957, p. 670, n. 18.
M. Maḥfūẓ-al-ḥaqq, ed., Dīvān-e Kāmrān, Calcutta, 1929, intro. Ferešta, tr. Briggs, II, p. 104.
(EIr)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 4, pp. 357-358
EIr, “ABU’L-QĀSEM EBRĀHĪM SOLṬĀN,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/4, pp. 357-358, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-qasem-ebrahim-soltan (accessed on 30 December 2012).
