Akbar, Mogul emperor of India

b. 1542; d. 1605

Born at Umarkot in Sind, when his father, Humayun, was fleeing to Persia from Delhi after being defeated by Sher Shah, the great Afghan leader. In 1555 Humayun regained his throne but died in the same year. Akbar was too young to rule and the kingdom was committed to a regent, Bairam Khan. Few of the provinces that Baber had conquered were in submission; Bairam reduced many, but was soon ousted by Akbar.

Akbar effected many reforms, in his early years; he abolished the tax on Hindu pilgrims at Muttra, forbade the enslavement of prisoners of war, and remitted the jizya, the poll tax on non-Muslims. Within 12 years he had conquered all of India, including the Deccan except for Gondwana, which became a tributary to him, and was able to devote himself to administration.

He was strongly influenced by his minister, Abu-l Fazl, who wrote the encyclopaedic work, Ain-i-Akbari, the Institutes of Akbar, preached Universal Toleration (Sulh-i Kul), and left a record of Akbar in the Akbar-Namah, a history of Akbar's reign. Akbar ruled firmly, destroying the authority of the wazir and creating an efficient civil service based on quality and not on rank. He was the true founder of the Mogul system of government.

His rule marked the beginning of the religious and literary renaissance of Muslim India. His building of Fatehpur Sikri as his new capital, following the miraculous birth of a son, was the beginning of a religious experience which was reaffirmed by Portuguese missionaries. His use of Christian and Hindu themes gave birth in him to a form of eclecticism, and his infallibility decree made him a heretic in the eyes of orthodox Muslims. However, modern research suggests that the religion he founded, the Din-i-Ilahi, was not an eclectic court religion, but a Muslim Sufi cult. The words inscribed on the Buland Darawaza at Sikri, 'The world is a bridge: pass over it, but build no house on it', would suggest a mystical idealism. The Portuguese missionaries from Goa who explained Christianity to Akbar also influenced the miniature paintings of the period. Akbar encouraged literature and established schools throughout the country.

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