No More Learning

In the less settled and newly conquered provinces the old system
remained undisturbed, but Akbar insisted on the enforcement of the
branding regulation in all provinces. It is to the unpopularity of this
measure that Abu-'l-Fazl attributes the rebellion which broke out
in Bihar and Bengal in 1580, but though this may have been a con-
tributory cause the rebellion was chiefly due to Akbar's religious
innovations. In 1576, when Khan A'zam was summoned from Gujarat
to join a projected expedition to Badakhshan, it was discovered that
he had made no attempt to enforce the obnoxious regulation in his
province, and he so violently condemned it that he was deprived of
office. Another might have lost his life, but Akbar could never cross
the "river of milk".
Sulaiman Kararani, who had been governor of Bihar under Sher
Shah, established his independence in Bengal when the power of the
Sur dynasty declined. He had placated Akbar by acknowledging
his authority and occasionally sending his tribute, and had died in
1 See also chap. XVI.


## p. 111 (#143) ############################################

ABU-'L-FAZL AND BADAUNI ARRIVE AT COURT
in
a
1572. His elder son, Bayazid, who succeeded him, had been put to
death, after a reign of a few months, by his turbulent Afghan nobles,
who raised to the throne his younger brother Daud.
This prince was intoxicated by his elevation to power and by the
extent of his resources. He was the master of much treasure, of
40,000 cavalry, of 140,000 infantry, of 20,000 guns of sorts, of 3300
elephants, and of an enormous fleet of river boats. He defied Akbar
by refusing to acknowledge his supremacy, and invaded his dominions
and destroyed the fort of Zamaniya, near Ghazipur. Mun‘im Khan
had been sent against him, and had compelled him to retire to Patna,
where he besieged him. In the conduct of the siege he experienced
considerable difficulties, less from the activity of the enemy than from
the insubordination of Khan 'Alam, who had been sent to assist him,
and his reports caused Akbar to march in person to his assistance.
Before he left Fathpur Sikri his famous secretary, Abu-'l-Fazl, and
the historian, 'Abdul-Qadir Badauni, were presented to him for the
first time.
Abu-'l-Fazl was now a young man of twenty-three. As a boy he
had studied assiduously under his father, Shaikh Mubarak, and had
afterwards followed his own bent in reading and meditation, until
he became, as he himself confesses, a prig of the first water. He
meditated and speculated on the mysteries of all religions, and was
so perplexed by the differences between the formalists of every faith
that he had “neither strength to remain silent nor power to cry out”.
He was a mystic and a visionary, and was the worst possible adviser
that one of Akbar's tendencies could have had in spiritual matters.
It was probably not he who invented the “Divine Faith”, for that
seems to have been the bantling of Akbar's own brain, but both he
and his father undoubtedly had a part in encouraging Akbar's
extravagant view of his spiritual prerogative.
He was favourably received, and, though he did not at once enter
the imperial service, he found, as he says, in Akbar his "true spiritual
guide. His eyes were opened and he perceived the spiritual excellence
of a sovereign who was the confluence of the oceans of religious and
worldly duty, the dayspring of the lights of outward forms and
inward graces", and much more to the same effect.
Abu-'l-Fazl undoubtedly had for Akbar an admiration none the
less genuine for its coincidence with his interest, but few will agree
with the late Mr Blochmann that the charge of flattery and wilful
concealment of facts damaging to the reputation of his master is
absolutely unfounded, or that he praises with much more grace and
dignity than any other eastern writer. In gross flattery there can be
neither grace nor dignity, and Abu-'l-Fazl's flattery is uncouth in
form and style and differs from the formal and customary tribute of
other panegyrists by verging on blasphemy.
Akbar left“Agra by boat on 20 June, his army marching by: land,


## p. 112 (#144) ############################################

112
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
and on 4 August reached Patna, where it was decided to capture
Hajipur on the north bank of the river, the depot whence the garrison
of Patna drew its supplies, but Akbar first made a foolish proposal
to Daud that the differences between them should be settled by single
combat. Even Daud had the wit to understand that great armies
are not maintained merely as spectators of tournaments, and re-
jected the proposal.
Hajipur was taken on 7 August, and on 9 August the Afghans
evacuated Patna by night and fled. Akbar pursued them the next
day as far as Daryapur, near Barh, and, though he failed to come up
with them, took much plunder, including 265 elephants. The next
day he was joined by Mun‘im Khan who had followed him, and who
was left to complete the conquest of Bengal, Akbar returning to Delhi,
which he reached on 17 October. On his way he received two
despatches from Mun'im Khan, the first announcing the bloodless
capture of the fortified pass of Teliyagarhi, the gate of lower Bengal,
and the second the occupation of Daud's capital, Tanda.
In 1575 the province of Gujarat suffered severely from a pestilence,
and from a famine which lasted for six months, a calamity rare in
that fertile region and greatly aggravated by the wars and disorders
which had devastated it.
Meanwhile the conquest of Bengal proceeded but slowly, owing to
dissensions between the officers and the sloth and insubordination
of the trocps. Mun'im Khan made Tanda his headquarters and left
the direction of operations in the field chiefly to Todar Mal. Ghora-
ghat," Satgaon ? and Burdwan were occupied, but an imperial force
was defeated in Chota Nagpur by Junaid Kararani, Daud's cousin,
against whom Todar Mal was obliged to advance in person. He
defeated him, and occupied Midnapore, but Junaid soon recovered
from his defeat, and marched into Bihar, which had been invaded
by another Afghan force under Taj Khan. The imperial governor.
Muzaffar Khan Turbati, was thus obliged to deal with two rebel
forces and also to recover Hajipur, which another body of Afghans
had recaptured, but after many vicissitudes he succeeded in expelling
all the rebels and in restoring order in the province.
Todar Mal, still at Midnapore, was preparing to advance into
Orissa, where Daud had taken refuge, but his troops insisted that their
defeat of Junaid had earned them some repose and refused to embark
on a fresh campaign. Mun‘im Khan sent him a reinforcement which
enabled him to prevent the malcontents from retreating, but not to
induce them to advance.
Daud, hearing of these dissensions, assembled a considerable army
and marched against Todar Mal, who advanced to Chitwa, but,
nistrusting the spirit and the loyalty of his officers, again appealed
to Mun'im Khan, who at length took the field in person and joined
1 25° 15' N. , 89° 18' E.
2 22° 58' N. , 88° 23' E.
2


## p. 113 (#145) ############################################

BENGAL OCCUPIED. THE “HALL OF WORSHIP”
. " 113
him. An attempt to turn Daud's flank and to cut his line of retreat
compelled him to prepare for battle.
The battle is variously known as that of Bajhaura, Mughulmari,
and Tukaroi, and the researches of the late Mr Blochmann 1 have
determined its site, which was on the road from Midnapore to
Jaleswar, rather more than half-way from the former to the latter,
and within three miles of the eastern bank of the Subarnarekha.
The result of the battle was for some time in doubt. Mun‘im Khan
was severely wounded, 'Alam Khan was killed, and the centre broke
and fled, throwing even the left wing, under Todar Mal, into some
confusion. The centre was, however, rallied and drove back the van-
guard of the Afghan centre. Todar Mal then pressed forward and
drove the right wing of the Afghans from the field. Their left wing
also gave way, and Daud fled, and took refuge in Cuttack. Todar
Mal pursued him vigorously as far as Bhadrakh, and after Mun'im
Khan had joined him there envoys from Daud arrived, to sue for
peace. Daud offered to appear before Mun‘im Khan and swear
allegiance to Akbar, to surrender his elephants and pay tribute, and
to wait personally on the emperor when approved service should
have ensured him a favourable reception. The troops had long been
weary of field service in the unaccustomed climate of Bengal, so
Mun‘im Khan accepted these terms, and on 12 April received Daud
on the bank of the Mahanadi. Daud made obeisance and delivered to
Mun'im, besides many rich gifts, his nephew Muhammad, son of
Bayazid, to be detained at the imperial court as a hostage, and in
return received as a grant the greater part of Orissa. There was
much rejoicing in the army at the termination of hostilities, but Todar
Mal, the real hero of the campaign, stood aloof. He strongly dis-
approved of the treaty, and refused to affix his seal to it, but the news
of peace was welcomed at court.
When Mun'im Khan, after returning to Tanda, had expelled the
local Afghans who during his absence had occupied all the territory
to the east of the Ganges, Bengal, though the seeds of future trouble
remained, was at length quiet, and Akbar had leisure to turn his
thoughts to other matters. For his favourite amusement he built at
Fathpur Sikri his famous 'Ibadat-Khana, or "Hall of Worship", which
would have been more accurately styled a hall of debate. Its exact
design has never been ascertained, but it seems to have been cruci-
form in plan, the four arms of a Greek cross forming four halls for
the accommodation of four classes of disputants and their supporters :
(1) Shaikhs, or those who had acquired a reputation for sanctity or
for the possession of peculiar spiritual gifts, (2) Sayyids, or descen-
dants of Muhammad, (3) the 'Ulama, or jurists and doctors of the
sacred law of Islam, and (4) nobles of the court interested in specula-
tive theology. None but Muslims werę at first admitted to the dis-
1 Ain-i-Akbari, trans. , 1, 375.
8


## p. 114 (#146) ############################################

114
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
cussions, for Akbar, though much attracted by the pantheistic
mysticism of the Sufis, was still a professing Muslim, and even had
he desired to admit professors of other faiths the strength of the
orthodox party was then so strong that he could not have done so.
The orthodox, or Sunni, party was led by Mulla ‘Abdullah of
Sultanpur, entitled Makhdum-ul-Mulk, and by the Sadr, Shaikh
'Abdun-Nabi. Their orthodoxy was beyond question, but even the
rigid Sunni, Badauni, condemns the worldliness, avarice and duplicity
of Makhdum-ul-Mulk, but adds, with approval, “owing to his exer-
tions many heretics and schismatics had gone to the places prepared
for them”. Shaikh 'Abdun-Nabi had put to death a Brahman
convicted of the offence of abusing the prophet of Islam, and had
interpreted the marriage law with an exactitude which had given
great offence to Akbar.
Shaikh Mubarak, the father of Faizi and Abu-'l-Fazl, had revelled
in spiritual experiences. He had been been in turn a Sunni, a Shiah,
a Sufi, a Mahdiist, and probably many other things besides. He had
even professed to be the Mahdi, and for this offence had shortly
before this time been obliged to go into hiding to save his life, for
the jurists had decided to have him put to death for heresy. His
position in the discussions was that of a free-lance. He had at first
no system to offer as a substitute for orthodox Islam, and his object
was purely destructive, the complete discomfiture of his enemies. His
great learning fitted him for the task. He was versed in all contentious
questions, and well knew how to set his persecutors by the ears, for
even the orthodox had their differences. He soon had the doctors
of the law cursing and reviling one another, and their vituperation
and vulgar abuse at first diverted and afterwards disgusted Akbar.
The introduction of Shiah disputants poured oil on the flames of
strife, and the wrangles between the various sects and the intolerant
violence of the orthodox gradually alienated Akbar from Islam, but
he was still a professing Muslim, and in this year a party from his
court, including his wife Salima and his aunt Gulbadan, set out on
the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Eastern Bengal was still unsettled, and Mun'im Khan transferred
his headquarters from Tanda to Gaur, further to the east. His
officers knew if he did not why the old city had been abandoned,
and protested, but in vain, against being compelled to inhabit so
pestilential a spot. Their worst anticipations were soon realised.
Fourteen officers of high rank fell victims to the climate, and the
mortality among the troops was so great that the living were unable
to bury the dead, and threw the corpses into the river. Mun'im
Khan remained obstinate until he was recalled to Tanda by the
renewed activity of Junaid Kararani in Chota Nagpur, and there
he fell sick and died after a short illness in October, 1575.
The officers elected Shaham Khan Jalair as their leader, but


## p. 115 (#147) ############################################

FRESH CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE RANA
115
could not agree among themselves, and Daud, profiting by their
dissensions and by the broken spirit of their troops, took the field.
He captured Bhadrakh and Jaleswar, and Shaham Khan, thoroughly
disheartened, retired into Bihar, leaving the whole of Bengal in the
hands of the Afghans.
Earlier in the year Mirza Sulaiman of Badakhshan, having been
expelled from his principality by his rebellious grandson, Shah Rukh,
had sought an asylum at the imperial court and Akbar had generously
but thoughtlessly promised to recover his throne for him. The loss
of Bengal postponed indefinitely the fulfilment of this rash promise
and Akbar attempted to console the disappointed exile with the chief
command in Bengal, but the offer was rejected. In 1576 Sulaiman
set out for Mecca, and the government of Bengal was bestowed upon
Khan Jahan, governor of the Punjab, whose army had already been
mobilised for the recovery of Badakhshan, and Todar Mal accom-
panied him. They found the officers of the Bengal army in an in-
tractable mood. They trembled for the safety of the wealth which
they had amassed in Bengal, they dreaded Akbar's wrath, and many,
who were Sunnis, resented their subordination to the Shiah, Khan
Jahan, but he, with the assistance of Todar Mal, reduced them to
obedience and established his authority. Daud, now re-established
at Tanda, had sent a force to occupy Teliyagarhi, but Khan Jahan
captured both the fortress and the pass and slew half of the force
which garrisoned them.
Early in 1576 Akbar started on his annual pilgrimage to Ajmer,
and while there opened hostilities against the Rana, who had failed
to appear at court and had fortified himself at Gogunda. Man Singh
was appointed to the command of the army sent against him, and
with him were associated Ghiyas-ud-din, 'Ali Asaf Khan, two of the
Barha Sayyids, and Rai Lon Karan, a Rajput of the Kachhwaha clan.
The army marched from Mandalgarh towards Gogunda and halted
in the plain of Haldighat, below the pass of that name. “At this
pass Pratap was posted with the flower of Mewar, and glorious was
the struggle for its maintenance. Clan after clan followed with
desperate intrepidity, emulating the daring of their prince, who led
the crimson banner into the hottest part of the field. ”
The battle was fought in the latter half of June, “when the air
was like a furnace". A charge by Hakim Sur the Afghan, who was
fighting for the Rana, put Lon Karan's Rajputs to flight, and Asaf
Khan's contingent maintained a heavy fire of musketry and shot
flights of arrows into the mingled mass. Badauni, who was present,
asked Asaf Khan how it was possible to distinguish friend from foe.
and Asaf Khan replied, "They will hear the whiz of the arrows,
be they who they may, and on whichever side they fall the gain is
Islam's”.
For some hours the day appeared to be going in favour of the Rana,


## p. 116 (#148) ############################################

116
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
but shortly after midday Man Singh's rearguard arrived on the field,
and it was believed that Akbar had marched to his assistance. The
Muslims raised a shout, and the Rajputs lost heart and gave way,
and "the best blood of Mewar irrigated the pass of Haldighat. Of
the nearest kin of the prince five hundred were slain: the exiled prince
of Gwalior, Ram Sah, his son Khandirao, with three hundred and
fifty of his brave Tuar clan, paid the debt of gratitude with their lives.
Since the expulsion by Babur they had found sanctuary in Mewar,
whose princes diminished their feeble revenue to maintain inviolable
the rites of hospitality. Mana, the devoted Jhala, lost one hundred
and fifty of his vassals, and every house of Mewar mourned its chief
support. ” The loss to the imperial troops was not heavy, but they
were too exhausted to pursue, and it was not until the following day
that they occupied Gogunda.
The campaign in Bengal made little progress. Tanda had been
occupied, but Daud had retired into the fortress of Ak Mahall, now
Rajmahal, and Khan Jahan had reported that with the force at his
disposal it was impossible to attack the fortress. News of the battle of
Haldighat was sent to Bengal to encourage him, Muzafar Khan
Turbati was ordered to march with the army of Bihar to his assistance,
and he was informed that Akbar himself was about to start for
Bengal.
The advent of the rainy season had made military operations almost
impossible, but, after being joined by Muzaffar Khan, Khan Jahan
attacked Daud. Progress over the flooded ground was toilsome and
slow, and the advance was checked by a marshy stream, but fords
were discovered and the troops crossed by degrees. Their left was
checked by the enemy's right, but when Todar Mal was able to
bring his whole force into action the Afghans fled. Their left, which
had been exposed all night to the fire of the imperial artillery, was
already broken and their whole army was in retreat before Khan
Jahan's centre was engaged. As he was advancing to the attack
shouts of victory were heard, and two officers led Daud before him.
His horse had stuck in the mud as he was attempting to flee, and he
had been seized. He was at once executed and his head was sent
to Agra.
Akbar, perturbed by the absence of satisfactory news from Bengal,
set out from Fathpur Sikri on 22 July, 1576. He had marched but
one short stage when Sayyid 'Abdullah Khan arrived in his camp
and threw down Daud's head before him. He returned to Fathpur
Sikri and ordered public rejoicings for the victory.
The independence of Bengal waś now finally extinguished. We may
lament the defeat of the gallant Rana and the misfortunes which
befel his land of heroes, but no such sentiment is aroused by the
extinction of Afghan dominion in Bengal, and the substitution of
Akbar's milder and more sympathetic rule. The Afghans were


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SUBMISSION OF MINOR RAJPUT CHIEFS
117
illiberal tyrants, either bigots or debauchees, without a spark of feel-
ing for those subjected to their sway.
In September Akbar set out on his pilgrimage to Ajmer where
Man Singh, who had been summoned from the Rana's country in
disgrace, joined the camp. He was a loyal servant of Akbar, and he
had no reason to love Partab Singh, who made no secret of his
opinion of those Rajputs who had given daughters or sisters in mar-
riage to Muslims, even of the imperial house, but he could hardly
be expected to incur the infamy of delivering to disgrace, if not to
death, the chief of his race, and he had undoubtedly let slip oppor-
tunities of taking the Rana. Akbar should not have imposed such a
task upon a Rajput, and he now seems to have understood that he
had too severely tested a faithful servant, for after the lapse of a few
days Man Singh and his officers were pardoned and were admitted
to his presence.
Akbar's zeal for the religion in which he had been bred now rose
in a final flicker. A large number of pilgrims was about to start for
Mecca, travelling by Gogunda and Idar, a route selected with a view
to giving the strong escort accompanying them an opportunity of
attacking the Rana in his mountain fastnesses. Akbar, in an access
of religious frenzy, announced his intention of personally performing
the pilgrimage. He was dissuaded from the insane project, but in
token of his desire to fulfil one of the obligations of a good Muslim,
donned the pilgrim's garb and accompanied the caravan for a few
miles on its way to Golconda. The troops accompanying the caravan
had no success against the Rana, but the Raja of Idar was reduced
to obedience.
Akbar now perceived that he could not count on even the most
loyal of his Hindu officers to aid him in humbling the chief of their
race, and perforce contented himself for the time by reducing to
obedience the minor chiefs of Rajasthan. The Rawals Partab of
Banswara and Askaran of Dungarpur were constrained to pay him
homage, and the latter to give him a daughter in marriage. In 1557
Zain Khan Kuka compelled the rebellious Raja of Bundi to submit,
and in 1578 the Bundela, Madhukar Sah of Orchha, who had been
in arms for more than a year against an imperial force, surrendered
to Sadiq Muhammad Khan, and was presented at court, where he
swore allegiance to the emperor.
In the summer of 1577 Akbar sent to the Muslim state of Khandesh
an expedition which secured the submission of Raja 'Ali Khan, who
had lately succeeded his nephew as its ruler. The event is less trivial
than it seems, for it was the first step in a great enterprise. conceived
by Akbar, but not finally accomplished until the reign of his great-
grandson, Aurangzib—the reconquest of the Deccan, which had been
severed from the empire of Delhi for two hundred and thirty years.
In the course of his rapid descent-on-Gujarat in 1573. Akbar had


## p. 118 (#150) ############################################

119
,
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
learned that the small kingdom of Berar, the northernmost of the five
independent states of the Deccan, which was annexed by Ahmadnagar
in the following year, was in the last throes of its death struggle, that
confusion and disorder reigned in Ahmadnagar, and that his move-
ments had excited apprehension and alarm in that kingdom. This
information suggested to him the reconquest of the Deccan between
which and his dominions Khandesh was the only political barrier.
Raja 'Ali Khan was in a dilemma. His sympathy lay with the
states of the Deccan, and he earnestly desired the maintenance of
their independence, though he knew that their constant bickerings,
their internecine strife, and their bitter and bloody domestic feuds,
to which the continued independence of his own small kingdom was
partly due, not only exposed them to the risk of imperial aggression,
but deprived him of the hope of effectual assistance from any one
of them should he venture to stand forth as their champion. He could
not hope to withstand alone the might of Akbar, and he was thus
obliged to belie his sympathies first by making formal submission to
Akbar, and at a later period by aiding him with his forces against
both Ahmadnagar and Bijapur; but even when his troops were ranged
in the field beside the imperial forces his influence was ever exerted
to prevent the complete subjugation of Ahmadnagar.
Many years were to pass before Akbar found an opportunity of
attacking Ahmadnagar, but it was with this end in view that he
secured the allegiance of the ruler of Khandesh.
The unfortunate province of Gujarat, which had hardly begun to
enjoy peace, was now the scene of another rebellion.
Muzaffar Husain Mirza, son of Ibrahim Husain Mirza, who had
been slain in 1573, had been carried off to Ahmadnagar by his
mother, but was now persuaded by Mihr 'Ali, a turbulent and am-
bitious adherent, to attempt to wrest Gujarat from Akbar. He was
able, owing to the treachery or cowardice of the imperial officers,
to occupy Nandurbar and Baroda without striking a blow, and on
25 May 1577 the expeditionary force in Khandesh was ordered to
march against him. He defeated one force, and compelled another to
seek refuge behind the walls of Ahmadabad; but Todar Mal, who had
been occupied at Patan with financial affairs, hastened to Ahmadabad
and drove the rebels towards Cambay. They were obliged to retire
from Cambay and were defeated on 6 June near Dholka, whence
the Mirza fled with a few followers to Junagarh, but, after Todar
Mal's departure, returned, plundered Cambay, defeated Vazir Khan,
the viceroy at Sarnal, and drove him into Ahmadabad, where he
besieged him. The rebels even effected an entrance into the city, and
were engaged in plundering when a stray bullet killed Mihr 'Ali,
their real leader, and the youthful Mirza and his followers fled in
dismay to Nandurbar, whither Vazir Khan, suspecting a trap, did
not venture to follow them.
The young


## p. 119 (#151) ############################################

1
AKBAR’S RELIGIOUS MEDITATIONS
119
The gross inefficiency of Vazir Khan compelled Akbar to recall
him, and in September Shihab-ud-din Ahmad Khan was transferred
from the government of Malwa to that of Gujarat. Akbar was now
at Ajmer, whence he marched, by Merta and Narnaul, to the Punjab,
occupied on the way by the issue of regulations for the reform of the
administration of the imperial mints. At Narnaul he lodged with
the saintly Shaikh Nizam-ud-din, “a Sufi who had attained the first
stage of recognition of God, had overcome his desires, and had
acquired complete hope in God's mercy”,1 but he was disappointed,
when he attempted to lure the Shaikh into the paths of vague
speculation in which he himself was wandering, to find that he was
a staunch Muslim. Akbar had already assumed the character of a
spiritual guide, for since leaving Ajmer he had rated Todar Mal for
what Abu-'l-Fazl styles his "bigotry and prejudice”. In the hurry
of departure the images before which the Hindu was wont to perform
his morning devotions had been mislaid, and he would neither eat,
sleep nor work until he could perform his devotions after his rule.
According to Abu-'l-Fazl Todar Mal's “good fortune” led him to give
ear to his master's advice and he returned to his work.
Akbar was now meditating deeply on spiritual matters. At Shadi-
wal,” which he reached on 30 January, 1578, he addressed his courtiers
on his abhorrence of flesh as food, regretting that the demands which
his duties made upon his strength compelled him to indulge in it,
and assuring them that he proposed in future to abstain from it on
Fridays. On 20 April he was at Bhera, on the bank of the Jhelum,
where he organised a vast battue similar to the hunt of 1567 at Lahore.
The barbarous sport had been in progress for four days, much game
had already been killed, and the ring of beaters had almost closed
in for the final slaughter when all engaged in it were surprised by a
sudden order that the hunt was to cease, the beaters were to disperse,
and no living creature was to be injured.
It is difficult to understand precisely what happened to Akbar,
but he was evidently overcome by some form of religious ecstasy.
He had for some time been working himself into a frame of mind
susceptible of such a visitation. Badauni says: "A strange ecstasy
and a strong sense of attraction to God came upon the emperor, and
an unseemly change was exhibited in his manner, in such sort that
it was impossible to explain it, and each attempted to explain it in
his own way; but that which is secret is with God, and at once he
ordered the hunt to be stopped. ” 3 Abu-'l-Fazl suggests that he was
on the point of abdicating, or of dying. "He was near abandoning
this state of struggle, and entirely gathering up the skirt of his genius
from worldly pomp. ” The same author, naturally, represents him
as having been singularly favoured, and of having communed with
1 Bad. (trans. Haig), MI, 44.
2 32° 31' N. , 74° E.
8 Text I, 273, 274.
6


## p. 120 (#152) ############################################

120
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
God face to face. "A sublime joy took possession of his bodily frame.
The attraction of cognition of God cast its ray. " He proceeds: "About
this time the primacy of the spiritual world took possession of his
holy form, and gave a new aspect to his world-adorning beauty. . .
What the chiefs of purity and deliverance (i. e. Sufi seers) had searched
for in vain, was revealed to him. ” The vision was perhaps preceded
or followed by an epileptic fit, for Akbar was subject to that malady.
According to Dr Vincent Smith:
Akbar was by nature a mystic who sought earnestly, like his Sufi friends, to
attain the ineffable bliss of direct contact with the Divine Reality, and now and
again believed, or fancied, that he had succeeded. His temperament was pro-
foundly melancholic, and there seems to be some reason to suspect that at times
he was not far from the danger of falling into a state of religious mania. His
ambition and intense interest in all the affairs of this world saved him from that
fate, and brought him back from dreams to the actualities of human life. He
was not an ordinary man, and his complex nature, like that of St Paul, Mu-
hammad, Dante, and other great men with a tendency to mysticism, presents
perplexing problems. 1
On his way from Bhera to Fathpur Sikri Akbar sent a mission to
his half-brother, Muhammad Hakim, in Kabul urging him to make
full submission to him, and another to 'Ali Shah of Kashmir demand-
ing his allegiance, but neither was successful. Mughammad Hakim
continued to regard himself as a sovereign prince, and 'Ali Shah,
whose predecessors on the throne of Kashmir had never owned the
sovereignty of Delhi, saw no reason for acceding to an insolent
demand.
After a rapid journey to the shrine at Ajmer, which proved that
his physical endurance, despite his spiritual experiences, had in no
way abated since the expedition of 1573, Akbar reached Fathpur
Sikri on 12 September, and signalised his arrival at his capital by
an act of profusion which may perhaps be connected with the vision
at Bhera. He filled a dry cistern with coined money, to the value of
four and a quarter million rupees, which was distributed in charity
and in gifts to his courtiers and to learned men. Abu-'l-Fazl was not
forgotten.
Another result of the Bhera vision was the revival of the discussions
in the "Hall of Worship", and it was now that the Muslim dogmatists
disgraced themselves.
The orthodox party consisted of two factions,
one headed by Makhdum-ul-Mulk and the other by Shaikh 'Abdun-
Nabi, whose differences were mainly personal, though Muslim theo-
logy presents difficulties sufficient to arouse strife even between the
orthodox. Their recriminations either convinced Akbar that he could
find no peace in Islam or furnished him with a pretext for abjuring
a faith which claimed the obedience of one who was resolved to be
supreme in spiritual as in temporal matters, and it was now that he
first openly admitted to the discussions Christians, Hindus, Jains,
1 Akbar, 160.
1
!


## p. 121 (#153) ############################################

AKBAR ASSUMES SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY
121
Zoroastrians and Sabaeans. 'Abdun-Nabi was dismissed, owing to
his unseemly violence in dispute, from the office of Sadr-us-Sudur,
and his place was filled by Sultan Khvaja, who, although he had led
the pilgrims of 1576 to Mecca, was a latitudinarian in religion and a
self-seeker in politics and ultimately became a convert to the "Divine
Faith”.
Akbar suffered neither the death of Khan Jahan in Bengal nor the
disturbances which followed it to interrupt his religious meditations
and discussions. Muzaffar Khan Turbati was appointed in 1579 to the
government of the province, and peace was restored.
The Zoroastrian theologian Mahyarji Rana, who had been invited
to court in 1578, had taken a prominent part in the conferences in
the "Hall of Worship", and his influence was observed in Akbar's
acts of reverence to the sun, and in rites ordained for the evening
hour, when the lamps were lit, which led many to believe that the
emperor had become a convert to the ancient religion of Persia; but
no system could hold him, and he was really engaged in the compila-
tion of a bewildering code of rites culled from all religions. In the
same year a Portuguese mission arrived from Bengal, led by Antonio
Cabral, a priest who aroused Akbar's curiosity, but was too diffident
of his own learning and abilities to assume the post of a spiritual
guide, and recommended the emperor to seek the advice of Jesuit
missionaries of the College of St Paul at Goa. His advice was followed
and Akbar sent an envoy to Goa, to beg for the services of “two
Fathers well versed in letters" who should bring to his court the
Gospels and other books on their faith. The Viceroy, Dom Luis de
Athaide, was averse from complying with the request, fearing lest
Akbar, despite his fair words, should detain the priests as hostages,
but the zeal of the Jesuits overcame his scruples, and on 17 November
Father Antonio Monserrate, Father Rodolfo Acquaviva and Father
Francisco Enriques, a Persian convert from Islam, left Goa by sea.
Akbar was now, at the instigation and with the assistance of Shaikh
Mubarak and his sons, Faizi and Abu-'l-Fazl, preparing to assume
spiritual as well as temporal authority over his subjects. As a first
step he decided personally to recite the khutba, following the example
of Muhammad and his successors, the Caliphs. Faizi composed for
him a khutba in verse, followed by selected texts and the opening
chapter of the Koran; and on 26 June, 1579, the anniversary of Mu-
hammad's birth, he ascended the pulpit of the principal mosque of
Fathpur Sikri and recited Faizi's effusion and the rest of the khutba :
In the name of Him who gave to us the empire,
Who endowed us with a wise heart and a strong arm,
Who guided us in the path of equity and justice,
Putting away from our heart aught but equity-
His attributes transcend man's understanding,
Exalted be His majesty! God is most great!


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122
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
The orthodox Badauni says that Akbar stammered and trembled,
and had to be helped out by others in the recitation of the verses,
and that he then descended from the pulpit and left the regular reciter
of the khutba to complete the office; but other authors say that he
acquitted himself of his task and then, descending from the pulpit,
led the prayers. The innovation was generally unpopular. Many
suspected that Akbar claimed to be prophet as well as king, and some
even scented in the closing words (Allahu Akbar 1) of Faizi's verses
a pretension to divinity.
The notion of infallible human guidance is not entirely foreign to
Islam. Each of the four orthodox schools of law of the Sunnis
virtually attributes infallibility to its founder, and the Shiah sect
bestows the title "infallible" on its Imams, 'Ali, the cousin and son-in-
law of the prophet, and his eleven successors. Since the disappearance
of the twelfth Imam the mujtahid, who holds, in Shiah communities,
the highest rank among divines and jurists is regarded as infallible
in questions of faith and morals. But a text of the Koran and a
traditional saying of Muhammad place the authority of the lawful
and just ruler above that of divines and jurists, and the leading
ecclesiastics of the court were so discredited by their dissensions, and
by their unseemly wrangles in debates arranged by Shaikh Mubarak
and his two sons in the “Hall of Worship”, that their claim to reli-
gious leadership could be challenged without difficulty, and Shaikh
Mubarak avenged himself on his former persecutors by preparing
the famous Infallibility Decree. This was drawn up in the form of a
petition beseeching the sovereign_to assume the authority imposed
upon him by the Koran and the Traditions, and was couched in the
following terms :
Whereas Hindustan is now become the centre of security and peace, and the
land of justice and benevolence, so that numbers of the higher and lower orders
of the people, and especially learned men possessed of divine knowledge, and
subtle jurists who are guides to salvation and travellers in the path of the diffu-
sion of learning have immigrated to this land from Arabia and Persia, and have
domiciled themselves here; now we, the principal 'Ulama, who are not only well
versed in the several departments of the law and the principles of jurisprud-
ence, and well acquainted with the edicts based on reason and testimony, but
are also known for our piety and honest intentions, have duly considered the
deep meaning, first, of the verse of the Koran, “Obey God, and obey the Prophet,
and those who are invested with authority among you"; and, secondly, of the
genuine Tradition, “Surely the man who is dearest to God on the Day of Judge-
ment is the just leader ; whosoever obeys the Amir obeys Me, and whosoever
rebels against him rebels against Me"; and, thirdly, of several other proofs
based on reason and testimony ; and we have agreed that the rank of Just King
is higher in the eyes of God than that of Mujtahid.
Further we declare that the King of Islam, the Asylum of Mankind, the Com-
mander of the Faithful, Shadow of God in the world, Abu-'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din
Muhammad Akbar, Padishah-i-Ghazi (whose kingdom God perpetuate ! ) is a
most just and wise King, with a knowledge of God.
1 This phrase can be read as “God is great” or as "Akbar is God”.


## p. 123 (#155) ############################################

DISCONTENT OF ORTHODOX DIVINES
123
Should, therefore, in future, religious questions arise regarding which the
opinions of the mujtahids are at variance, and His Majesty, in his penetrating
understanding and clear wisdom, be inclined to adopt, for the benefit of the
nation and in the interests of good order, any of the conflicting opinions which
exist on that point, and should he issue a decree to that effect, we do hereby
agree that such a decree shall be binding on all his people and all his subjects.
Should His Majesty see fit to issue a new order in conformity with some text
of the Koran, and calculated to benefit the nation, all shall be bound by it, and
opposition to it will involve damnation in the next world, and loss of religious
privileges and property in this.
This document has been written with honest intentions and for the glory of
God and the propagation of Islam, and has been signed by us, the principal
'Ulama of the Faith, and leading Theologians, in the month of Rajab, A. H. 987
(August-September, 1579).
This document, which, when approved by Akbar, became an
imperial decree, was signed by Makhdum-ul-Mulk, Shaikh 'Abd-
un-Nabi, Jalal-ud-din the chief Qazi, Sultan Khvaja the Sadr, the
learned Ghazi Khan of Badakhshan, and Shaik Mubarak. Badauni
says that all signed it unwillingly, without specifying the nature of
the pressure brought to bear on them, except Shaikh Mubarak, who
added after his signature, "This is an affair which I desired with all
my heart and soul, and for the accomplishment of which I have been
waiting for years".
The decree limited Akbar to the adoption of one of the conflicting
opinions delivered by the jurists of Islam, or, in case there was no
dispute, to the authority of a verse of the Koran, and one of its chief
objects was, ostensibly, the propagation of Islam; but these conditions
were ignored by Akbar. He was now pope as well as king, and so
far was he from propagating Islam that he ridiculed and persecuted
it, and shortly afterwards attempted to substitute for it a religion
of his own invention; but he did not venture at once to violate the
conditions of the decree, and immediately after its issue set out on
his last annual pilgrimage to Ajmer, earning thereby the contempt
of the orthodox. “The wonder of wonders was that he should have
all this faith in the saint of Ajmer while he denied the foundation
of everything, the prophet from each fold of whose skirt many
millions of perfected saints like him of Ajmer had sprung. "
Shaikh Mubarak was not slow to avenge himself on his persecutors,
and at Ajmer Makhdum-ul-Mulk and Shaikh 'Abdun-Nabi discovered
that their complaisance in signing the decree was to avail them
nothing, and that they were to be banished to Mecca. Notwith-
standing their orthodoxy, neither had any taste for the pilgrimage,
still less for the society of the other.
In order to allay the resentment aroused by his innovations Akbar
was obliged to descend to more hypocrisy. On his return march
from Ajmer he ostentatiously recited every day the ritual prayers,
and after his arrival at Fathpur Sikri he received with an extravagant


## p. 124 (#156) ############################################

124
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
display of devotion a heavy stone brought from Mecca, which was
said to bear the print of Muhammad's foot. He did not believe the
relic to be genuine, and would have felt no reverence for it if he had,
but he and his courtiers went out for six or seven miles to meet the
stone, and bore it, in turn, to Fathpur Sikri. This act of hypocrisy,
too gross to deceive even the simplest, was performed, according to
Abu-'l-Fazl, lest the Sayyid who brought the stone should be put
to shame, and in order to silence those who regarded Akbar's inquiries
and discussions with suspicion. Of the latter object, at least, it failed.
An opportunity of interference in the domestic affairs of Kashmir
now presented itself. Yusuf, who had succeeded his father, 'Ali Shah,
on the throne of that kingdom, had been expelled by a kinsman,
Lohar Chakk, who had usurped his throne, arrived at court in
January, 1580, and sought Akbar's aid. 1. A few months later Akbar
despatched him into the Punjab and ordered his officers in that
province to restore him, but the nobles of Kashmir, dreading the
invasion of their country by an imperial army, promised Yusuf their
support if he would return alone. He defeated and captured his
cousin, and on 8 November, 1580, regained his throne without Akbar's
assistance. Some years were to elapse before Akbar found another
pretext for intervention in Kashmir,
On 18 February, 1580, the first Jesuit mission, under Father
Monserrate, reached Fathpur Sikri and was most cordially received.
The priests in their cassocks and hats, unarmed and clean shaven,
were objects of great curiosity to the people as they passed through
the town. They were graciously received and Akbar was favourably
impressed by their refusal of a gift of 800 gold pieces, which he
offered them. His reverence for the gospels and the images and
pictures which they had brought with them, his eager inquiries, and
his genuflexions in the chapel which he permitted them to furnish
and open encouraged them to hope that they might succeed in
inducing him to become the Constantine of the East, but they were
grievously mistaken, and soon discovered their error.
Akbar's attitude towards Christianity is an interesting study. He
was most curious in his inquiry into its doctrines, and probably held
a higher opinion of the faith than of any other single religion which
he studied. He invited no fewer than three Jesuit missions to his
court, he permitted the priests of each mission to propagate their
faith, and even sent his sons to them to receive instruction in Christian
doctrine, and he encouraged each mission to hope for his conversion,
but disappointed each.
The priests, despite the temptation to which the hope of attaining
so great an object exposed them, were uncompromising in their state-
1 Coins of the Kashmir type, but bearing the name of Akbar, were struck
in A. H. 987=March, 1579, to February, 1580. (Ed. ]


## p. 125 (#157) ############################################

a
AKBAR AND CHRISTIANITY
125
ment of what the Church required of a convert, and two, at least,
of their demands Akbar could never be persuaded to admit. The
first was submission and implicit obedience, and the second was the
dismissal of all his wives save one. The priests of each mission, though
at first encouraged by his bitter hostility to Islam, soon perceived
this his ambition was to become the prophet of a creed of his own
compilation, and that submission and obedience were not to be
expected of him. His refusal to dismiss his wives they attributed to
his incontinence, but here, perhaps, they judged him harshly. He
was a man of strong passions, but he might possibly have been per-
suaded to subdue these. The difficulty in complying with the demand
of the priests was rather political than personal. It was with a
political end in view that Akbar had married Rajput princesses, and
those Rajput chiefs who had been persuaded to bestow daughters or
sisters on him in marriage, though they had become closely allied
to the throne, which was Akbar's object, had violated their own social
code and incurred the condemnation of their more exclusive brethren.
The dismissal of their daughters and sisters from the palace as dis-
carded concubines would have raised the whole of Rajasthan against
Akbar, his bitterest enemies would have been those whom he had
doubly disgraced, and his highest political object, the fusion of the
two great rival faiths and the establishment of a united empire, would
have been irretrievably lost. Some of the doctrines of the Christian
faith, above all the Incarnation, presented difficulties to Akbar, but the
priests were probably unable to appreciate the gravity of his chief
difficulty, the political effects of his acceptance of Christianity, for
those of each mission accused him of having wilfully deceived them.
In 1580 his religious vagaries began to bear their fruit. · He had
not yet promulgated his new faith, but he had given grave offence
to all Muslims, who were the dominant community in the empire.
His discourse was ever of universal toleration, but in practice he
excepted the faith in which he had been bred. Its leaders had been
expelled from court and few opportunities were lost of holding its
doctrines and observances up to scorn and ridicule. Muslims believed
their faith to be in danger, and many conceived that the only means
of saving it lay in deposing its enemy and placing on his throne an
orthodox sovereign. Their choice fell on Akbar's half-brother, Mu-
hammad Hakim, the ruler of Kabul and nominally, though not in
fact, a vassal of the empire. He was a drunkard, a poltroon, and in
no way comparable with Akbar, but he was believed to be an orthodox
Muslim and that sufficed. It was in Bihar and Bengal that the
Muslim officers first rose in rebellion: In Bihar orders had been issued
for the resumption of all grants; both there and in Bengal the brand-
ing regulation had been enforced, and the foreign, or field service,
allowance of the troops, which had been fixed for Bengal at 100
and in Bihar at 50 per cent. on their ordinary pay, was reduced


## p. 126 (#158) ############################################

126
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
to 50 and 20 per cent. The unpopularity of these measures was
enhanced by the severity with which they were enforced and it
needed but little to rouse the malcontents. The fire of rebellion was
kindled by Mulla Muhammad of Yazd, the qazi of Jaunpur, who,
as a jurist, promulgated an authoritative decree that rebellion
against a sovereign who had apostatised from Islam was a religious
duty.
It was in Bihar that the fire of rebellion first broke into flame. The
caravan conveying to the capital Bengal's annual contribution to the
imperial treasury was there attacked by rebels and plundered. The
skilful dispositions of the officer commanding the escort saved all but
a few elephants, but he was himself captured and put to death.
Todar Mal was summoned from Bengal to suppress this rebellion
and on his departure a rebellion broke out there. It was led by
members of the Qaqshal tribe of Turks and rapidly spread over the
whole province. The Qaqshals proclaimed Muhammad Hakim as
their sovereign, and Muzaffar Khan attempted to conciliate them
by promising that the unpopular reforms would not be enforced. He
might have succeeded in restoring peace had they not discovered
his design of putting them to death at a conference to which he haci
invited them. They slew his emissaries and besieged him in Tanda,
and when the rebels in Bihar defeated a force which he had sent to
defend Teliyagarhi they attacked Tanda, captured him and put him
to death.
The rebel forces of both provinces then concentrated near Teliya-
garhi and caused the khutba to be recited in the name of Muhammad
Hakim, but retired when Todar Mall advanced against them. He
followed them but his own troops were so disaffected that he was
obliged to take refuge in Monghyr, where the rebels besieged him.
Akbar sent Khan A'zam, who had been pardoned, with an army
into Bengal, and he compelled the rebels to raise the siege. Some
retired into lower Bengal but a force under Ma'sum Khan Kabuli
returned to Bihar, occupied the town of Bihar, and besieged Patna.
Ma'sum Khan Farankhudi attacked them and compelled them to
retire to Gaya, and at the end of September they were dispersed by
Todar Mal. Other minor operations cleared Bihar of rebels for the
time, but disaffection was everywhere rife, and Ma'sum Khan
Farankhudi, repenting of his activity in Akbar's cause, retired to
Jaunpur and there began to assemble a force with which to support
that of Muhammad Hakim. He was joined by Niyabat Khan, an
officer who had rebelled in the Allahabad district but had been defeated
and driven into Oudh.
Akbar's position, even in his capital, was so precarious that he had
been unable to take the field in person against the rebels. He had
detected a conspiracy among his courtiers, headed by Shah Mansur,
the revenue minister, to invite Muhammad Hakim to India and


## p. 127 (#159) ############################################

AKBAR MARCHES AGAINST MUHAMMAD HAKIM 127
raise him to the throne. Shah Mansur was suspended from office,
and the other conspirators were dispersed and prevented from com-
bining, but Akbar refrained, perhaps prudently, from proceeding to
extremities against them. He attempted to conciliate Ma'sum Khan
Farankhudi by conferring on him the assignment of Ajodhya, and his
acceptance of it and his promptitude in withdrawing from Jaunpur
deceived Akbar into the belief that he had returned to his allegiance,
but at Ajodhya he was joined by a number of rebels from Bihar
and Bengal and openly declared for Muhammad Hakim. A force
under Shahbaz Khan was sent against him and defeated him, thus
relieving Akbar of immediate fear of an attack from the east. Rebels
were still in ‘arms in Bengal, but peace had been restored in Bihar;
and early in February, 1581, Akbar was able to leave Fathpur Sikıi
in order to meet his brother, who, encouraged by the invitations
which he had received, and by exaggerated reports of the extent of
the discontent with Akbar's rule, had left Kabul with the intention
of wresting the crown from his brother. Shah Mansur, who had been
pardoned and restored to office, accompanied Akbar's army, but it
was discovered that he was again in correspondence with Muhammad
Hakim. Some of his correspondence was produced, and he was con-
demned to death, and on 25 February was hanged near Thanesar.
He was intensely unpopular, owing to his inquisitorial methods, and
some historians have suggested that the evidence against him was
fabricated by his enemies, but there appears to be no doubt of his guilt,
for Akbar fully appreciated his past services and deeply regretted
the necessity for his execution.
Muhammad Hakim had meanwhile crossed the Indus and ad-
vanced as far as Lahore, before which city he encamped. He had
been persuaded that all Muslims in India were eager to rise in defence
of Islam, and was bitterly disappointed to find that not even the
mullas of Lahore would join him, while the nobles were prepared to
defend the city against him and even to meet him in the field. His
dismay was increased by confirmation of the report that Akbar was
marching against him, for he had believed that he would not dare
to leave his capital, and by the news that his chief partisan at court
had been detected and executed, and he retreated hurriedly towards
Kabul, losing many of his men in the passage of the Chenab and the
Jhelum. His departure enabled the nobles of the Punjab to meet
Akbar at Machiwara on 8 March.
After a visit to Nagarkot (Kangra) Akbar continued his march,
and on reaching the Indus, laid the foundation stone of the fortress
of Attock and wrote to his brother commanding him to receive him
at Kabul as his sovereign. To this order Muhammad Hakim returned
no reply, and on 27 June a force nominally under the command of
the youthful Sultan Murad, Akbar's second son, but in fact under
that of Man Singh, was sent towards Kabul with orders to move


## p. 128 (#160) ############################################

128
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
>
slowly, in order to give Muhammad Hakim an opportunity of making
his submission. Akbar followed this force on 12 July, and received
later two unsatisfactory replies from his brother. His nobles, either
from sloth or from disaffection, urged him to pardon his brother and
retire, but the advance was continued. Muhammad Hakim, still
encouraged by his counsellors to believe that Akbar's Muslim officers
were ready to turn against their master and that the Hindus would
be an easy prey, wrote privately to many of the Muslims urging them
to join him, but one of his messengers was put to death, and all who
received letters immediately disclosed them to Akbar, and Muham-
mad Hakim fled from Kabul to Ghurband. The forces of Akbar and
his son Murad met on the march, and on 10 August both reached
Kabul and lodged in the citadel. Muhammad Hakim sent messages
expressing his contrition and tendering his submission. He was par-
doned, but Akbar humiliated him by appointing his sister, Bakht-un-
Nisa Begam, to the government of the province of Kabul. Muham-
mad Hakim, after Akbar's departure, returned and resumed the
functions of his former office, but all official orders were issued in
his sister's name.
Akbar reached Fathpur Sikri, on his return from Kabul, on
1 December, 1581. At the intercession of his mother and his foster-
brother, Khan A'zam, he granted a free pardon to Ma'sum Khan
Farankhudi, even though he had once again risen in rebellion during
his absence in Kabul, but the pardon was nothing more than a formal
expression of respect for the mediators, for a few months after it was
granted Ma'sum Khan was assassinated while returning from court
at midnight.
In order to celebrate in a fitting manner his victory over his brother
Akbar summoned to court for the Nauruz feast all provincial gover-
nors, and the absence of Khan A'zam and Shaham Khan from Bengal
and Bihar provoked a recrudescence of rebellion in those provinces,
placing the loyal officers in a position of some peril.
The position of the Jesuit mission was now most embarrassing.
Akbar's intermittent interest in the Christian faith had no effect on
his hostility to the Portuguese. A small town near Daman had been
ceded to them in 1575 by Gulbadan Begam, in order to ensure their
protection on her voyage to Mecca, but on her return Akbar ordered
his officers in Gujarat to recover the town, and they attacked the
Portuguese in Daman, but were repulsed with considerable loss.
Shortly afterwards a party of young men who had landed for
purposes of sport from the Portuguese ships near Surat was attacked,
and nine of them were captured and put to death on refusing to
apostatise to Islam. Their heads were sent to Akbar, as the priests
learned, and when the governor of Surat came to court for the Nauruz
he told them the whole story. Father Monserrate remonstrated with
Akbar, who falsely denied that he had seen the heads and hypocri-


## p. 129 (#161) ############################################

.
THE "DIVINE FAITH" :
· 129
tically expressed his regret at the occurrences at Daman and Surat.
He issued public orders to the governor of Broach to desist from
attacking the Portuguese, but sent secret instruction for the capture
of Diu. A quantity of arms was smuggled into the fortress in bales
of cotton, and the imperial officers requested the governor, Pedro
de Menezes, to allow their troops passage through Portuguese terri-
tory. He was aware of their design, but acceded to their request,
and even allowed them to enter the fortress, where the sight of the
Portuguese troops standing to arms and ready to resist any act of
aggression so alarmed them that they hastily left and withdrew their
troops from Portuguese territory. Akbar was bitterly disappointed
by the failure of the scheme and repeatedly asked the priests who
were in command at Diu, but they, at the time, suspected nothing.
The authorities at Goa so resented Akbar's perfidy that the Provincial
of the Society of Jesus recalled the mission from his court. Akbar
divined the reason for its recall, and swore to Father Monserrate
that he had not been implicated in the hostile acts on the western
coast. The Provincial's letter had left the priests some discretion, and
it was decided that Rodolfo Acquaviva should remain at court, while
the other two returned to Goa with Sayyid Muzaffar, Akbar's envoy,
who bore a letter to Philip II of Spain and Portugal. This letter,
written by Abu-'l-Fazl, bears the date corresponding to 14 April,
1582, and the mission must have left the court about that time.
Life at the holy city of Mecca had so palled upon Makhdum-ul-
Mulk and Shaikh Abdun-Nabi that they had prevailed upon
Gulbadan Begam to allow them to return to India in her train, and
they were now lurking in Gujarat, hoping for eventual forgiveness,
but their enemies at court had not forgotten them, and so excited
Akbar's wrath at their returning without leave that officers were sent
to Gujarat to arrest them. Makhdum-ul-Mulk, as Abu-'l-Fazl writes
with malicious exultation, died of fright and left much wealth which
was confiscated. “The other malevolent fellow" could not excuse his
disobedience, and Akbar, after striking him in the face, sent him to
prison, "where counsel is received”, and he was shortly afterwards
strangled.
It was now, in the rainy season of 1582, that Akbar took advantage
of the presence of the provincial governors at court to promulgate
his new religion, the Din-i-Ilahi or “Divine Faith”. This step was
perhaps accelerated by a wonderful escape which he and his courtiers
had had. They had been playing draughts, chess and cards beside
the great lake to the north of Fathpur Sikri when the dam burst,
and it seemed that all must be overwhelmed by the torrent which it
released, but all escaped except one menial servant who was drowned.
Abu-'l-Fazl represents the escape of the courtiers as a miracle due
to Akbar's presence, but Akbar himself regarded the accident as a
.
9


## p. 130 (#162) ############################################

130,
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
sign of divine displeasure at the playing of frivolous games and
ordered their discontinuance.
He had examined the doctrine and the practices of many religions,
Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Chris-
tianity, and had meditated on them but was satisfied with none.
The formalism and the intolerance of the orthodox professors of the
faith in which he had been bred had disgusted him. Many of the
doctrines of Hinduism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism appealed to him
but he could not join the bodies professing them, as members of those
religious and social systems are born, not made. He would have been
welcomed into the Christian Church, but as a lay member, and
Christianity was as uncompromising as Islam, and made demands
to which he was neither inclined nor able, without arousing the
implacable hostility of the two great religious bodies in his empire,
to submit. He was much attracted by the mysticism of the Sufis,
but theirs was too vague a creed, and too bare of ritual, to which he
inclined, to command his allegiance. Less fortunate in his counsellors
than his predecessor, 'Ala-ud-din Khalji, who, when he conceived the
idea of proclaiming himself the prophet of a new faith, had been
dissuaded by a faithful and fearless servant from committing an act
of such folly and presumption, Akbar had suffered himself for some
years to be flattered by Shaikh Mubarak into the belief that he was
something more than king, and that it was his duty to assume his
place as the spiritual as well as the temporal sovereign of his
peoples. With the aid of this adviser he had concocted an eclectic
creed likely, as his vanity persuaded him, to command an assent
from all men which neither Christianity nor Islam had been able to
ensure.
He summoned a general council, composed of the high officials
present at the capital but not including Father Rodolfo Acquaviva,
and, after discoursing on the evils of religious discord and strife,
declared that all religious bodies ought to be united, "in such fashion
that they should be both 'one' and 'all', with the great advantage
of not losing what is good in any religion, while gaining whatever is
better in another. In that way honour would be rendered to God,
peace would be given to the peoples, and security to the empire".
He called upon all to express their opinion, and the officials, doubtless
warned of what was expected of them, assented to his proposals,
agreeing that "he who was nearer to heaven, both by reason of his
office and by reason of his lofty intellect, should prescribe for the
whole empire gods, ceremonies, sacrifices, mysteries, rules, solem-
nities and whatever else was required to constitute one perfect and
universal religion". There was but one dissentient voice, that of Bhag-
wan Das, who, admitting that neither Hinduism nor Islam was perfect.
desired to know what the new religion was, that he might decide
whether to accept it or not. Akbar was unwilling or unable to


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EXCLUSION OF ISLAM
131
formulate his faith, and ceased to press the raja. It was not, indeed,
an easy matter to define the creed, for, as Dr Vincent Smith says:
The organization of the adherents of the Din-i-Ilahi was that of an Order
rather than of a church. The creed, so far as there was one, inculcated mono-
theism with a tinge of pantheism, the practical deification of the emperor as the
vicegerent of God, filled with a special grace; and the adoration of the sun,
with subsidiary veneration of fire and artificial lights. . . . The whole gist of the
regulations was to further the adoption of Hindu, Jain, and Parsi practices,
while discouraging or positively prohibiting essential Muslim rites. The policy
of insult to and persecution of Islam, which was carried to greater extremes
subsequently, was actively pursued, even in the period from 1582 to 1585.
Islam was the one faith excluded from the benefit of sulh-i-kull, or
“universal toleration”, on which Akbar continually descanted. The
names “Muhammad" and "Ahmad" were disused, and one foolish
ordinance required that all words containing letters peculiar to
Arabic, the sacred language of Islam, should be misspelt, the nearest
equivalents of such letters being substituted. For the ordinary Muslim
salutation, "Peace be on you”, and the reply "And on you be peace",
the disciples of the new faith were required to substitute Allahu
Akbar (“God is most great") and jalla jalaluhu (“May His glory be
extolled"), and cavillers were not slow to note that each formula
embodied one of Akbar's names. It is but just to add that the new
faith condemned the Hindu practices of sati, the burning of widows,
and child marriage.
Abu-'l-Fazl and some later writers, loth to deprive Islam of the
adherence of so great a man as Akbar, are at pains to prove that he
never ceased to be a Muslim, and that the Divine Faith was but
Islam reformed; but the Portuguese priests reported more than once
that he was not a Muslim, and the question is decided by one of his
"Happy Sayings", recorded by Abu-'l-Fazl himself. "Formerly I
persecuted men into conformity with my faith, and deemed it Islam.
As I grew in knowledge I was overwhelmed with shame. Not being
a Muslim myself it was unmeet to force others to become such. '
The shast, as the vow which his disciples were required to take was
called, comprised a repudiation of Islam, and the acceptance of the
four grades of entire devotion, namely sacrifice of Property, Life,
Honour and Religion.
By means of bribery and pressure eighteen more or less prominent
converts, including one Hindu, Raja Birbal, were secured for the
Divine Faith. Man Singh, at a later period, bluntly replied to Akbar's
overtures, "If discipleship means willingness to sacrifice one's life,
I have already carried my life in my hand : what need is there of
further proof? But if it has another meaning, and refers to faith,
I am a Hindu. If you order me to do so I will become a Muslim,
but I know not of the existence of any other religion than these two. "
Khan A'zam, Akbar's foster-brother, long resisted his importuni-
ties and in 1593 fled to Mecca. He returned from his pilgrimage so


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132
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
disgusted with the rapacity of the guardians and attendants of the
sacred shrine of Islam that he accepted, at length, the Divine Faith,
but its disciples seem never to have numbered more than a few
thousands of all classes. It languished after the murder of Abu-'l-
Fazl, its high priest, in 1602, and on Akbar's death in 1605 it ceased
to exist. .
Another foolish experiment now completed was also a failure.
Four years before, Akbar had shut up a number of wretched infants,
appointing dumb nurses to attend them, and taking other precautions
against their ever hearing the sound of the human voice. His object
was to discover "the divine language", for, as none of the children
could have learned to speak by human agency, if any one of them
spoke, the language which he spoke would be, Akbar believed, the
divine language. Of course the unfortunate children emerged dumb
from their confinement.
The recrudescence of rebellion in Bengal and Bihar has already
been mentioned. No serious steps had been taken against the Bengal
rebels since their flight from Monghyr, and during the absence of
Khan A'zam they invaded Bihar. On his return from court he
expelled them from Bihar, captured Teliyagarhi at the end of March,
1583, and followed them to the bank of the Kali Gang. Desultory
operations followed, the rebels sometimes fighting each other, but
operations were interrupted by the recall of Khan A'zam, who had
grown weary of campaigning in Bengal and had begged to be relieved.
His successor, Shahbaz Khan, attacked and defeated Ma'sum on
26 November, 1583, restored order in that part of Bengal which he
had occupied and carried off all the movable property of the rebels.
After some further fighting the officers of the army quarrelled with
Shahbaz Khan, compelled him to retire and refused to face the rebels
in the field.