Which Sikh Guru wrote the 'Zafarnama'?

Guru Gobind Singh wrote the Zafarnama, a Persian victory letter addressed to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

The letter was composed in 1705, after the Battle of Chamkaur and the Mughal assault connected with the evacuation of Anandpur. In it, Guru Gobind Singh condemned Aurangzeb and his officials for breaking assurances of safe passage. He framed the letter as a moral victory: military force had caused great suffering, but deceit and injustice had not defeated the Sikh cause.

The Zafarnama is written mainly in Persian and consists of roughly 111 verses. Its subjects include warfare, justice, religious conviction, morality, and the responsibilities of a ruler. Guru Gobind Singh’s Persian was appropriate for addressing the Mughal emperor in a language associated with imperial administration and elite literary culture.

Readers sometimes confuse the Zafarnama with a general historical chronicle because its name means “Book” or “Epistle of Victory.” It is specifically a letter to Aurangzeb, not a work by Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan, or Guru Tegh Bahadur. The text is also associated with the Dasam Granth tradition.