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AKBAR, AKHBAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 454 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AKBAR, AKHBAR or AKBER, JELLALADIN MAHOMMED (1542-1605), one of the greatest and wisest of the See also:Mogul emperors. He was See also:born at See also:Umarkot in See also:Sind on the 14th of See also:October 1542, his See also:father, See also:Humayun, having been driven from the See also:throne a See also:short See also:time before by the usurper Sher See also:Khan. After more than twelve years' See also:exile, Humayun regained his See also:sovereignty, which, however, he had held only for a few months when he died. Akbar succeeded his father in 1556 under the regency of See also:Bairam Khan, a See also:Turkoman See also:noble, whose See also:energy in repelling pretenders to the throne, and severity in maintaining the discipline of the See also:army, tended greatly to the consolidation of the newly recovered See also:empire. Bairam, however, was naturally despotic and cruel; and when See also:order was somewhat restored, Akbar found it necessary to take the reins of See also:government into his own hands, which he did by a See also:proclamation issued in See also:March 156o. The discarded See also:regent lived for some time in See also:rebellion, endeavouring to establish an See also:independent principality in See also:Malwa, but at last he was forced to See also:cast himself on Akbar's See also:mercy. The See also:emperor not only freely pardoned him, but magnanimously offered him the choice of a high See also:place in the army or a suitable escort for a See also:pilgrimage to See also:Mecca, and Bairam preferred the latter alternative. When Akbar ascended the throne, only a small portion of what had formerly been comprised within the Mogul empire owned his authority, and he devoted himself with See also:great determination and success to the recovery of the revolted provinces. Over each of these, as it was restored, he placed a See also:governor, whom he superintended with vigilance and See also:wisdom. He tried by every means to develop and encourage See also:commerce; he had the See also:land accurately measured for the purpose of rightly adjusting See also:taxation; he gave the strictest instructions to prevent See also:extortion on the See also:part of the taxgatherers, and in many other respects displayed an enlightened and equitable policy. Thus it happened that, in the fortieth See also:year of Akbar's reign, the empire had more than regained all that it had lost, the recovered provinces being reduced, not to subjection only as before, but to a great degree of See also:peace, order and contentment. Akbar's method of dealing with what must always be the See also:chief difficulty of one who has to See also:rule widely diverse races, affordsperhaps the crowning See also:evidence of his wisdom and moderation.

In See also:

religion he was at first a Mussulman, but the intolerant exclusiveness of that creed was quite See also:foreign to his See also:character. See also:Scepticism as to the divine origin of the See also:Koran led him to seek the true religion in an eclectic See also:system. He accordingly set himself to obtain See also:information about other religions, sent to See also:Goa, requesting that the Portuguese missionaries there should visit him, and listened to them with intelligent See also:attention when they came. As the result of these inquiries, he adopted the creed of pure See also:deism and a See also:ritual based upon the system of Zoroaster. The religion thus founded, however, having no vital force, never spread beyond the limits of the See also:court, and died with Akbar himself. But though his eclectic system failed, the spirit of See also:toleration which originated it produced in other ways many important results, and, indeed, may be said to have done more to establish Akbar's See also:power on a secure basis than all his economic and social reforms. He See also:con-ciliated the See also:Hindus by giving them freedom of See also:worship; while at the same time he strictly prohibited certain barbarous Brahmanical practices, such as trial by See also:ordeal and the burning of widows against their will. He also abolished all taxes upon pilgrims as an interference with the See also:liberty of worship, and the capitation tax upon Hindus, probably upon similar grounds. See also:Measures like these gained for him during his lifetime the See also:title of " See also:Guardian of Mankind," and caused him to be held up as a See also:model to See also:Indian princes of later times, who in the See also:matter of religious toleration have only too seldom followed his example. Akbar was a munificent See also:patron of literature. He established See also:schools throughout his empire for the See also:education of both Hindus and Moslems, and he gathered See also:round him many men of See also:literary See also:talent, among whom may be mentioned the See also:brothers Feizi and Abul Fazl. The former was commissioned by Akbar to translate a number of See also:Sanskrit scientific See also:works into See also:Persian; and the latter (see Amu.

FAIL) has See also:

left, in the Akbar-Nameh, an enduring See also:record of the emperor's reign. It is also said that Akbar employed See also:Jerome See also:Xavier, a Jesuit missionary, to translate the four Gospels into Persian. The closing years of Akbar's reign were rendered very unhappy by the misconduct of his sons. Two of them died in youth, the victims of intemperance; and the third, Salim, afterwards the emperor See also:Jahangir, was frequently in rebellion against his father. These calamities were keenly See also:felt by Akbar, and may even have tended to hasten his See also:death, which occurred at See also:Agra on the 15th of October r6o5. His See also:body was deposited in a magnificent See also:mausoleum at Sikandra, near Agra. See G. B. See also:Malleson, Akbar (" Rulers of See also:India" See also:series), 189o.

End of Article: AKBAR, AKHBAR

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