Guru Arjan[3][4] (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਅਰਜਨ, pronunciation: [gʊɾuː əɾd͡ʒənᵊ]; 15 April 1563 – 30 May 1606)[2] was the fifth of the ten total Sikh Gurus.

[5][6] He completed the construction of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, after the fourth Sikh Guru founded the town and built a sarovar.

[7][8][9] Arjan compiled the hymns of previous Gurus and of other saints into Adi Granth, the first edition of the Sikh scripture, and installed it in the Harimandir Sahib.

[10] Guru Arjan was arrested under the orders of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir accusing him of supporting a rebellion under Khusrau Mirza.

[14][19] It is remembered as Shaheedi Divas of Guru Arjan in May or June according to the Nanakshahi calendar released by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 2003.

[29] In addition to Prithi Chand, a son of Guru Amar Das named Baba Mohan had also challenged the authority of Arjan.

[36] This, state scholars, may have triggered Guru Arjan to create a much enlarged, official version of the Adi Granth.

He referred to Arjan as a Hindu, who had "captured many of the simple-hearted of the Hindus and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners...for the three or four generations (of spiritual successors) they had kept this shop warm."

[46] Some Muslim traditional accounts such as of Latif in 19th-century states that Arjan was dictatorial, someone who lived in splendour with "costly attire", who had left aside the rosary and the clothes of a saint (fakir).

[51] Some scholars state that the evidence is unclear whether his death was due to execution, torture or forced drowning in the Ravi river.

[58] Dabistan-i Mazahib Mobad states Jahangir tortured Arjan in the hopes of extracting the money and public repudiation of his spiritual convictions, but the Guru refused and was executed.

[59] Jerome Xavier, in appreciation of the courage of Guru Arjun, wrote back to Lisbon, that Arjan suffered and was tormented.

[3] According to the Sikh tradition, before his execution, Arjan instructed his son and successor Hargobind to take up arms, and resist tyranny.

[15][61] Michael Barnes states that the resolve and death of Arjun strengthened the conviction among Sikhs that, "personal piety must have a core of moral strength.

[62][63][64] Recent scholarship[65][66] have offered alternative analyses, wary of "exaggerating fragmentary traces of documentary evidence in historical analysis".

[14][16][69] Arjan's father Guru Ram Das founded the town named after him "Ramdaspur", around a large man-made water pool called "Ramdas Sarovar".

[7][70] Continuing the efforts of Ram Das, Arjan established Amritsar as a primary Sikh pilgrimage destination.

[72][73] While having completing the Harmandir Sahib with dasvand donations during the first decade of his guruship between 1581 and 1589, creating a rallying point for the community and a center for Sikh activity, and a place for the installment of the Adi Granth, Arjan had also gone on a tour of Majha and Doaba in Punjab, where he would found the towns.

Due to their central location in the Punjab heartland, the ranks of Sikhs would swell, especially among the Jat peasantry, and create a level of prosperity for them; Arjan would serve not only as a spiritual mentor but as a true emperor (sacchā pādshāh) for his followers in his own right.

According to Christopher Shackle and Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, Arjan's compositions combined spiritual message in an "encyclopedic linguistic sophistication" with "Braj Bhasha forms and learned Sanskrit vocabulary".

[78] After Arjan completed and installed the Adi Granth in the Harimandir Sahib, Mughal emperor Akbar was informed of the development with the allegation that it contained teachings hostile to Islam.

[80] One of the Sikh community disputes following Guru Ram Das was the emergence of new hymns claiming to have been composed by Nanak.

[32][35] The composition of both Prithi Chand and his followers have been preserved in the Mina texts of Sikhism, while the mainstream and larger Sikh tradition adopted the Guru Granth Sahib scripture that ultimately emerged from the initiative of Arjan.