It was written in Persian, which was the literary language of the Mughals, and includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times.

The original manuscripts contained many miniature paintings supporting the texts, thought to have been illustrated between c. 1592 and 1594 by at least forty-nine different artists from Akbar's imperial workshop,[2] representing the best of the Mughal school of painting, and masters of the imperial workshop, including Basawan, whose use of portraiture in its illustrations was an innovation in Indian art.

It was bought by the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1896 from Mrs Frances Clarke, acquired by her husband upon his retirement from serving as Commissioner of Oudh (1858–1862).

[4] The first volume of Akbarnama deals with the birth of Akbar, the history of Timur's family and the reigns of Babur and Humayun and the Suri sultans of Delhi.

The third volume, called the Ā’īn-i-Akbarī, describes the administrative system of the Empire as well as containing the famous "Account of the Hindu Sciences".

It is famous for its rich statistical details about things as diverse as crop yields, prices, wages and revenues.

Here Abu'l Fazl's ambition, in his own words, is: "It has long been the ambitious desire of my heart to pass in review to some extent, the general conditions of this vast country, and to record the opinions professed by the majority of the learned among the Hindus.

I know not whether the love of my native land has been the attracting influence or exactness of historical research and genuine truthfulness of narrative..." (Āin-i-Akbarī, translated by Heinrich Blochmann and Colonel Henry Sullivan Jarrett, Volume III, pp 7).

Abu'l Fazl admits that he did not know Sanskrit and it is thought that he accessed this information through intermediaries, likely Jains who were favoured at Akbar's court.

This work is mostly not original and basically a compilation from the Tabaqat-i-Akbari of Khwaja Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad and the more famous Akbarnama of Abul Fazl.

His father Mulla Ali Sher Sirhindi was a scholar and Khwaja Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad, the writer of the Tabaqat-i-Akbari was his student.