The Dabestan-e Mazaheb (; ) 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. Kāvūs claimed Khosrow Esfandiyar as the author, who was a son of Azar Kayvan. Louis E. Fenech identifies the author of the work as Mobad Shah.Fenech, L. E. (2020). The Image of Guru Nanak in Dadu-Panthi Sources. Religions, 11(10), 518. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11100518. Retrieved on 7 May 2026 from: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/10/518
Editions
This work was first printed by Nazar Ashraf in a very accurate edition in movable type at Calcutta in 1809 (an offset reprint of this edition was published by Ali Asghar Mustafawi from Teheran in 1982). A lithographed edition was published by Ibrahim bin Nur Muhammad from Bombay in AH 1292 (1875). In 1877, Munshi Nawal Kishore published another Lithographed edition from Lucknow. The distinguished Persian scholar Francis Gladwin translated the chapter on the Persians into English and published it from Calcutta in 1789. A German version by E. Dalburg from Wurzburg was published in 1809. The section on the Roshani movement was translated into English by J. Leyden for the Asiatic Researches, xi, Calcutta and the entire work was translated into English by David Shea and Anthony Troyer under the title, The Dabestan, or School of Manners (1843) in three volumes from London.
The author describes that he spent time in Patna, Kashmir, Lahore, Surat and Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh). He is perceived to have been a person of great scholarship and curiosity, and extremely open-minded for the context of his time. He mentions numerous interviews with scholars of numerous faiths, which suggests that he was well connected, and so qualified to report on the Din-i Ilahi.
According to The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz, a Dabestan was commissioned by a Mughal prince, Dara Shikoh. The section on Judaism consists of translations by a Persian Jew, Sarmad Kashani, and his Hindu disciple from Sindh.Jews and Judaism at the Court of the Moghul Emperors in Medieval India, Walter J. Fischel, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 18, (1948 - 1949), pp. 137-177 Walter Fischel notes: An English version of the Dabestan by David Shea (1843) is available at the Digital Library of India IISc.
Religions included The work has information regarding several religions and their sects, over a course of twelve chapters. The religions and their sects included in Dabestan-e Mazaheb are as follows:
Iranian folk religion Sipasiyya Jemshaspiyya Samradiyya Khodaniyya Radiyya Shidrangiyya Pykeriyya Milaniyya Alariyya Shidabiyya Akhshiyya Zoroastrianism Mazdakism
Hinduism Vaishnavism Shaivism Shaktism Smartism Charvakism Jainism Sikhism Madariyya Jelali Kaka’i Bhakti
Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism
Judaism Orthodox Judaism Kashani, the followers of Sarmad Kashani Chala Christianity
Islam Sunni Shia Akbari Ali-Illahi Roshani
Sadakiyya, a religion founded by Musaylima
Wahidiyya, a central Asian religion founded by Wahid Mahmud
Din-i Ilahi
Notes
References
External links Translation by Shea and Troyer at the Packard Humanities Institute, also at The Dabestan-e Madaheb, or 'School of religious doctrines' Copies of the text in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library