No More Learning

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


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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. Shahbaz reported his difficulties to Akbar, and both he
and his officers were severely reprimanded, he for his arrogance and
overbearing conduct and they for their insubordination. Reinforce-
ments were sent, but it was not until early in 1585 that any operations
were undertaken, and even then the success attending them was slight.
Relations between Shahbaz and his officers again became so strained
that he was at length obliged to allow them to pursue Ma'sum
independently of his control, but five years elapsed before Bengal
was completely reduced to obedience.
Bengal had not been the only disturbed province of the empire.
In 1583 I'timad Khan, a noble of the former kingdom of Gujarat, who
had raised Muzaffar III to the throne, was appointed to the government
of that province. When employed there in 1572 his loyalty had been
doubted, but he was now above suspicion in that respect, and
Akbar believed that his local knowledge would be useful in Gu-
jarat and that those who accompanied him would supply his
other defects, which were indecision and lack of firmness. Unfor-


## p. 133 (#165) ############################################

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
133
tunately for him an attempt by his predecessor to enforce the branding
regulation had so enraged the local officers that many of them had
repaired to Muzaffar III, who had been living in retirement at
Junagarh since his deposition. I'timad Khan thus found himself
confronted with a serious rebellion, for the suppression of which
he was obliged to seek the unwilling aid of his predecessor, Shihab-
ud-din Ahmad, and while they were arranging the terms of which
they would co-operate Muzaffar III occupied Ahmadabad. Qutb-
ud-din Muhammad Khan, of the "foster-father cohort", advanced
from Broach to Baroda but was compelled to surrender and was
murdered by the rebels, and his wealth, in addition to that which
they had already acquired, enabled Muzaffar to raise an army of
nearly 30,000 horse.
Mirza Khan, son of Bairam Khan, was now sent to Gujarat. In
January, 1584, he defeated Muzaffar at Sarkhej, occupied Ahmada-
bad and drove Muzaffar into the hills between Nandod and Nandurbar,
and thence into Kathiawar. He was rewarded for his services with
his father's title of Khan Khanan; but Muzaffar continued to cause
trouble in Gujarat until 1593, when Khan A'zam, then governor of
Gujarat, having captured Junagarh, where he had taken refuge,
pursued him into Cutch and induced the Rao to point out his hiding
place, where he was taken, and on the day after his capture he
committed suicide.
Akbar had been occupying himself in 1583, at Fathpur Sikri, with
administrative reforms. Departments were created for the super-
vision and control of (1) criminal justice and the registration of
marriages and births, (2) camping grounds and halting places, (3) re-
ligious affairs, including the suppression of “bigotry”, (4) grants,
allowances and alms, (5) the appointment and dismissal of officials
employed on the crown lands, and the extension of cultivation, (6)
the administration of the army, and its allowances, (1) the regula-
tion of the prices of supplies and merchandise, (8) arms, and roads,
(9) the decision of questions of inheritance, (10) the buying and
selling of jewels and minerals, (11) public buildings, and (12) civil
justice. Most of these affairs needed regulating; others might have
been left to regulate themselves, but this was a distinction which
Akbar seldom drew. His suppression of bigotry was not entirely. con-
fined to orthodox Islam, for he saved from sati the widow of Jai Mal,
a cousin of Bhagwan Das, and imprisoned her son who had tried
to compel her to burn herself.
On the other hand Hindu ideals were encouraged by the transla-
tion into Persian of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The
orthodox Badauni was one of those employed on the translation, which
was styled the Razmnama, or "Book of the War", and he was deeply
disgusted with his task.
In the same year Akbar conceived a vast and characteristically


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134
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
extravagant design of conquest which came to nought. His intention
was first to subdue the independent kingdoms of the Deccan, then
to wrest the province of Kabul from his brother, Muhammad Hakim,
to extend his authority over Badakhshan, still vexed by the disputes
between Sulaiman and Shah Rukh, and then to recover from
'Abdullah II the Shaibanid, Transoxiana, the early home of his race.
With a view to prosecuting the first part of his scheme he proposed
to build at Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the
Jumna, a site hallowed by Hindu legend, a great fortified city, which
should serve the double purpose of securing the road to Bengal,
hitherto so disturbed, and of forming an advanced post for the
invasion of the Deccan by the little known eastern route through
Gondwana. He reached Allahabad in November, 1583, designated
the site of his city and of four forts, only one of which was completed,
and yet remains, and in February, 1584, on learning of his officers
temporary successes against the rebels in Bengal, returned to Fath-
pur Sikri.
Here, on the Nauruz festival of 1584, he introduced his "Divine
Era". Everything connected with him was divine. This was a solar
era, in which the
year was divided into the old Persian solar months,
and it was reckoned from the first Nauruz festival after his accession,
11 March, 1556. 1 A brief and inconclusive campaign against the Rana,
Partab Singh, was then undertaken, and in the folowing year his
great scheme of northern conquest was frustrated by 'Abdullah II,
to whom Sulaiman had foolishly appealed for aid. 'Abdullah expelled
both Sulaiman and his grandson from Badakhshan and took possession
of the country. Shah Rukh took refuge at Akbar's court, while
Sulaiman went to Muhammad Hakim at Kabul; but shortly after
the receipt of the news of the loss of Badakhshan Akbar learned that
his brother had died of a malady caused by strong drink. Although
his death was no cause of regret to Akbar, at the moment it exposed
the Kabul province to the risk of invasion by 'Abdullah; and Bhagwan
Das, now governor of the Punjab, and Man Singh were commanded
to march on Kabul and occupy the city.
The state of affairs in the country between Kabul and the Indus
was such as to demand the presence of Akbar himself. The neigh-
bourhood of the Khyber Pass was occupied by the Raushanais, a com-
munity of fanatical heretics who had imbibed strange doctrines from
a native of Hindustan, who had settled among the tribes, and regarded
brigandage as a religious duty.
The road between the Indus and the
pass was infested by the Yusufzais of Swat and Bajaur, and there was
one other object which drew Akbar to the Indus, the resolve to annex
the kingdom of Kashmir.
Akbar left Fathpur Sikri on 22 August, 1585, but not before he had
1 See Hodivala, Historical Studies in Mughal Numismatics, p. 11, for an ex-
planation of the era. (Ed. ]


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EXPEDITIONS INTO KASHMIR AND TRIBAL AREAS 135
received the first Englishmen who visited his court. These were
Newbery, Fitch and Leedes, a jeweller, the first of whom bore a
letter of recommendation from Elizabeth. We know nothing of the
nature of their reception, but Akbar took Leedes into his service.
From Kalanaur Akbar sent a mission to Yusuf Shah of Kashmir
summoning him to his camp to do homage for his kingdom, and
Ya'qub, Yusuf's son, who was in the imperial camp on a conciliatory
mission, fled on learning of the demand. Akbar's envoys rejoined
him when he reached Hasan Abdal and reported that though Yusuf
had received them well he had refused to do homage in person.
Akbar, therefore, resolved to enforce obedience, and on the last day
of 1585 an army, nominally under the command of Shah Rukh Mirza
but in fact under that of Bhagwan Das, marched from Attock
into Kashmir. '. At the same time an expedition under Zain Khan
was sent into Swat and Bajaur to subjugate the Yusufzais. Zain
Khan reported that his force was not strong enough to humble the
enemy, and Akbar sent him reinforcements under the command of
Raja Birbal, the court wit, and Hakim Abu-'l-Fath, a physician.
The amateur soldiers had plans of their own for the campaign, and
Zain Khan, fearing Birbal's personal influence with Akbar, dared
not oppose his insane project of a military promenade through the
difficult passes of Swat. The army, demoralised by earlier misad-
ventures, was attacked by the Yusufzais in the Malandarai Pass, and
Zain Khan, after fighting a most difficult rearguard action, was
defeated and narrowly escaped with his life. The Yusufzais fell on
the rest of the disorganised host, each man of which fought where
he stood. Of the twelve officers personally known to Akbar who fell,
the most important was Birbal, "who, from fear for his life, took the
road of flight, and was slain, and entered the ranks of the dogs of
hell, where he received a part of what was due to him for his base
actions". 1 Eight thousand men-about half of the army-perished,
and on 24 February, 1586, Zain Khan and Abu-'l-Fath led the remnant
into Akbar's camp. Akbar, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of
his intimate friend and early disciple, refused to see them and
severely blamed Abu-'l-Fath for his insubordination to Zain Khan,
but of the two amateurs Birbal had been the more to blame. The
responsibility for the mishap was Akbar's, who had appointed a
jester and a physician to a military command. Todar Mal was sent
to retrieve the disaster, and established fortified posts throughout the
Yusufzai country.
Meanwhile Bhagwan Das had advanced into Kashmir, and Yusuf
Shah, fearing lest he should succeed, in spite of cold, rain, snow and
scarcity of provisions, in reaching Srinagar, offered to do homage to
Akbar, and on 22 February, 1586, was received by Bhagwan Das, who
welcomed his submission for the army, which should never have
1 Bad. 0, 350.


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136
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
been sent into the mountains at that season of the year, was suffering
severely. It was understood by all that Akbar required only personal
submission and a promise of tribute, and that Yusuf would then be
permitted to return to his kingdom as the emperor's vassal. It was
on this understanding that Yusuf surrendered, and these were the
terms granted to him by Bhagwan Das. Akbar was displeased with
the treaty but, in order to secure Yusuf's submission, ratified it, and,
having ratified it, detained Yusuf as a state prisoner and prepared
to send another army into Kashmir to complete the subjugation of
the country. Bhagwan Das, whose honour had been besmirched by
his master, could not be expected to command a second expedition,
and was ordered to Kabul, but on his way thither attempted to
commit suicide. Abu-'l-Fazl attributes the act to a fit of temporary
insanity, but there is no doubt that he was in his right mind, and
that this act, characteristic of his caste, was an attempt to wipe out
the stain on his honour.
- Nearly all the counsellors of the emperor deprecated a second
invasion of Kashmir, but Akbar persisted and in July Muhammad
Qasim Khan invaded the country at the head of a large army.
On 15 October he entered Srinagar, the khutba was recited in the
name of Akbar, and Kashmir was formally annexed; but Yusuf's
son, Ya'qub Khan, evaded capture and remained in arms for nearly.
three years longer, until he surrendered to Akbar in August, 1589.
'Abdullah II had been suspicious of Akbar's movements, fearing
lest, after settling the affairs of Kabul, he should attack Balkh, and
he had sent an envoy to ascertain his intentions and to inquire the
meaning of his religious vagaries which had perplexed him for some
time. The envoy was not dismissed until September, 1586, by which
time 'Abdullah's anxiety had been allayed by Akbar's withdrawal
from the Indus. To 'Abdullah's implied censure he replied in a
quatrain:
Of God people have said that He had a Son;
Of the prophet some have said that he was a sorcerer ;
Neither God nor the prophet has escaped the slander of men,
Then how should I ?
Man Singh, having been appointed governor of Kabul, had reached
that city and had sent Muhammad Hakim's two young sons to Akbar.
He had inflicted more than one defeat on the Raushanais on his
way to Kabul, but they were neither crushed nor humbled, and
towards the end of 1586 closed both of the roads between Kabul
and the Indus and besieged Peshawar. Akbar was now at Lahore,
and Zain Khan was sent against the rebels, and with the help of
Man Singh compelled them to raise the siege, but they succeeded
in forming a confederacy with the Afridis, the Orakzais and the
Yusufzais, and kept the imperial troops in the field throughout the
year 1587. It was not until the following year that the Afridis and


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BERAR INVADED: SIND ANNEXED
137
the Orakzais submitted and undertook to keep the Khyber Pass
open. Jalal-ud-din, the youthful leader of the Raushanais, lost his
influence over his followers and fled to Balkh, and Zain Khan com:
pleted the subjugation of the Yusufzais.
· Before leaving Fathpur Sikri Akbar had sent an expedition into
the Deccan. Some of the nobles of Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmad-
nagar had made an attempt to overthrow his minister, Salabat Khan,
but, having been defeated, had fled to Akbar's court and begged him
to reinstate them in Berar as his vassals. Khan Afzam, governor of
Malwa, was ordered to invade and annex Berar, but the invasion of
that province was delayed by quarrels between Khan A'zam and
his officers, and it was not until 1586 that he led a futile raid into
Berar. An attack on the fortress of Kherla failed, and though some
districts of the province were ravaged and its capital, Ellichpur, was
plundered, the allied armies of Ahmadnagar and Khandesh cut the
raiders off from their base and compelled Khan A'zam to carry his
plunder off into Gujarat, harassing him on his way. After reaching
Nandurbar he attempted to arrange with Mirza Khan, Khan
Khanan, a concerted invasion of Berar, but the rainy season made
military operations impossible, and he returned to Malwa having
gained nothing but plunder.
The invasion of Berar was not the only attempt made at this time
to extend the imperial dominions. Sadiq Muhammad Khan, governor
of Multan, made an attempt to subdue Mirza Jani Beg, the ruler of
Sind, and, though he was unsuccessful, Jani Beg prudently sent to
Akbar's court at Lahore an envoy with tribute and an offer of sub-
mission. His allegiance was accepted but his submission was merely
formal, and it was not until 1590 that Sind was incorporated in the
empire. Akbar desired to possess it on sentimental grounds, as the
land of his birth, but also for use as a base of operations against
Qandahar, now in the hands of Shah ‘Abbas of Persia. The Khan
Khanan was therefore transferred to the government of Multan and
was ordered to annex Sind. He invaded the state, and, after twice
defeating Mirza Jani Beg, exacted from him a promise to make his
submission to Akbar in person. He appeared at court in 1593, and
at once gained favour by abjuring Islam and accepting the Divine
Faith. He was rewarded with the command of 3000 horse, and after
a short time was sent back to Sind as governor of the province. This
is a fair example of Akbar's method of gaining disciples.
The appointment of Man Singh to Kabul had been a mistake.
It may be that Akbar had appointed him to that province in order
to punish the Afghans, the champions, under Muhammad Hakim, of
orthodox Islam, and it is certain that his presence in Kabul with a
large force of Rajputs was most offensive to the Muslim population;
but Akbar was not obliged to admit his error, and recalled Man
Singh late in 1587 on the ground that he had been dilatory in dealing


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138
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
with the Raushanais, and appointed him to the government of Bihar.
With him was sent the unfortunate Yusuf of Kashmir, who received
the command of 500 horse and a grant in Bihar, in order, says
Abu-'l-Fazl, that his fitness for restoration to Kashmir as imperial
governor might be tested. The command of a small body of horse
and the administration of a small district are no tests of fitness for
the government of a great province. Yusuf never gained any promo-
tion and there is no evidence that Akbar ever proposed to make
amends for the wrong which he had done him.
In May, 1589, Akbar paid his first visit to Kashmir, but before
leaving Lahore availed himself of an opportunity of interfering
again in the affairs of the Deccan. Before he left Fathpur Sikri
Burhan-ud-din, the younger brother of Murtaza Nizam Shah of
Ahmadnagar, having rebelled against his brother, had fled from that
kingdom and had taken refuge with Akbar, who had received him
into his service. Murtaza Nizam Shah had since been murdered by
his son Husain, who succeeded him, but in April, 1589, had been
murdered by his nobles, who then raised to the throne Isma'il, the
son of Burhan-ud-din. Burhan now sought and obtained Akbar's
permission to make an attempt to gain the throne to which his son
had been raised, and Akbar offered to aid him, but Burhan declined
his assistance lest it should provoke the hostility of his subjects and
of the kings of Bijapur and Golconda. He failed in his first attempt,
but a second attempt, in which he was assisted by Raja 'Ali Khan
of Khandesh, was more successful. He deposed his son, and ascended
the throne of Ahmadnagar as Burhan Nizam Shah II. 1
In his tour through Kashmir Akbar inquired into the revenue
administration of the province, and at the end of July left Srinagar
for Kabul. At Baramula he received the submission of Ya'qub, who
had been in rebellion ever since the death of his unfortunate father.
Akbar, as he was returning from Kabul to Lahore, was deeply
grieved by the news of the death of Todar Mal on 20 November,
1589. He was himself much to blame for the death of his loyal and
faithful servant, for Todar Mal, who was old and worn out, had
sought and obtained permission to retire to Hardwar, but Akbar had
recalled him before he could even reach that town, and he had died
eleven days after his return to Lahore. He had served his master
with no less ability than zeal, and Abu-'l-Fazl remarks that if he
had not been a bigot he would have been truly great. This means,
of course, that he was a pious and orthodox Hindu, who refused to
acknowledge Akbar either as his prophet or his god. Bhagwan Das
attended his funeral, and probably caught a chill, for he died four
days later. Badauni records the two deaths in a characteristic manner.
"In the year 998 Raja Todar Mal and Raja Bhagwan Das, Amir
ul-Umara, who had remained behind at Lahore, hastened to their
1 See vol ma, pp. 461, 462.


## p. 139 (#171) ############################################

SECOND CHRISTIAN MISSION
139
abode in hell, and to torment, and in the lowest pit became the
food of beasts and scorpions. May God scorch them both ! "1 Man
Singh, the heir of Bhagwan Das, received the title of raja, and was
promoted to the command of 5000 horse.
During 1590 the rebellion in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was finally
crushed by Man Singh and his son, Jagat Singh. The great Hindu
landholders, encouraged by the many Muslim rebels who yet
remained in arms, had ceased to pay revenue, or to admit imperial
officials to their estates. Order was first restored in Bihar, and Man
Singh marched in the spring through Chota Nagpur to Orissa. He
received some slight assistance from Sa'id Khan, now governor of
Bengal, and prepared to attack Qutlu Khan Lohani, who advanced
to meet him. Qutlu was a rebel who, by formally submitting, had
been recognised as governor of Orissa, and, having been left in peace
there, had ceased to remit revenue to the capital or to acknowledge
Akbar as his sovereign. He was now in failing health, and died before
he could meet Man Singh in the field. The Afghan officers attempted
to set up his young son, Nasir Khan, as their leader, but they were
neither sufficiently strong nor sufficiently united to withstand Man
Singh, and sought safety in submission, but the weakness of the
imperial cause in this remote province was disclosed by the terms of
peace. Nasir Khan made his submission in person to Man Singh,
and undertook that the khutba should be recited and the currency
issued in Akbar's name, in return for which, and for 150 elephants
and other tribute, he was confirmed in the government of Orissa.
Hindu sentiment was conciliated and imperial authority asserted by
the classification of the sacred area of Puri and Jagannath as crown
land.
It was in 1591 that the second Christian mission arrived at Akbar's
court. In 1590 a Greek sub-deacon named Leo Grimon, passing
through India with the object of travelling to Europe by way of Goa,
had reached Lahore, and had been entrusted with a letter to the
Portuguese authorities, requesting that some priests might be sent
to court. The letter seemed to indicate a desire on Akbar's part to
embrace Christianity, and two Portuguese priests set out for Lahore
with high hopes, only to discover on reaching court that the emperor
was in his usual frame of mind. He dallied with the priests, discussed
the doctrines of their faith, and expressed his approval of them, but
continued to issue regulations for his disciples in the Divine Faith.
The priests were well content to find that he had abjured Islam,
but were soon obliged to abandon all hope of converting him to
Christianity.
In March of this year Akbar had sent missions to the courts of the
Sultans of the Deccan. Faizi was accredited to Raja 'Ali Khan of
Khandesh and to Burhan Nizam Shah, and other envoys to Bijapur
171, 371.


## p. 140 (#172) ############################################

140
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
and Golconda. A report from Faizi acquainted Akbar with the
attitude of Burhan, who refused to acknowledge the emperor as his
overlord or to accept the position of a vassal. Akbar was furious and
sent his second son, Sultan Murad, with a large force into Malwa
with instructions to intervene in the affairs of the Deccan whenever
an opportunity should arise. It was not until 1593 that the missions
returned from the Deccan to court. The Sultans of Bijapur and
Golconda flattered Akbar's vanity by sending gifts rich enough to
pass as tribute, but Burhan's was paltry and his treatment of Faizi
had not been such as the emperor's envoy considered his due.
Meanwhile rebellion had once more broken out in Orissa. The
young Nasir Khan had observed the terms of his treaty with Man
Singh so long as his guardian lived, but on his death he had repudiated
it, had seized the crown lands of Puri and Jagannath, and had
plundered the estates of those who refused to join him in rebellion.
Man Singh, leaving Bihar in November, 1591, defeated the rebel
forces at Mednípur (Midnapore) on 18 April, 1592, and followed
them through Orissa. They evacuated Cuttack on his approach, and
took refuge with Raja Ram Chand of Seraen. Man Singh left a force
under Yusuf of Kashmir to besiege that fortress; on 8 June the garrison
surrendered and Orissa was at length completely subdued.
The inquiry into the sources and amount of the revenue of Kashmir
had caused deep discontent. Mirza Yusuf Khan, the governor, had
already reported to Akbar that the assessment which he had pro-
posed was too high, but Akbar had sent two officials to investigate
the question, obviously with a view to justifying his demand, and his
officers in the province, convinced that if he persisted in levying
revenue at the enhanced rate little or nothing would be left for them
and their troops, rose in arms and elected as their leader Yadgar,
the governor's cousin. Yadgar assumed the royal title and caused
the khutba to be recited in his own name. Akbar left Lahore for
Kashmir on 3 July, 1592, and halted at Bhimbar while a force which
he had sent in advance dispersed the rebels. Yadgar was captured
and put to death and his head was presented to the emperor, who
advanced and, on 14 October, entered Srinagar. Mirza Yusuf Khan
resigned the government of the province, professing himself unable
to administer it under the enhanced assessment, and the whole
province was therefore classed as crown land and was placed under
the charge of Khvaja Shams-ud-din, who had charge of the finances
of the Punjab, though it was assigned to the suba of Kabul, as a
sarkar of that great province. Akbar then left Kashmir and returned
to Lahore on 9 January, 1593.
He was now at the zenith of his power. In one year Kashmir,
Orissa, Sind and Kathiawar had been reduced to obedience, and the
last vestiges of rebellion had been wiped out in Gujarat. He was at
1 20° N. , 85° 45' E.


## p. 141 (#173) ############################################

QANDAHAR SURRENDERED TO MUGHULS
141
leisure to pursue fresh conquests, and it was to the Deccan, where
Burhan of Ahmadnagar had defied his authority, that his thoughts
first turned. Murad, first in Malwa but now in Gujarat, had been
ordered to seize an opportunity of invading Ahmadnagar, and now
more extensive preparations were made. The young prince Daniyal
was appointed to the nominal command of a great army, with the
Khan Khanan and Rai Singh of Bikaner as his tutors or advisers;
the governors of Delhi and Ajmer were ordered to join him with
their contingents, Shah Rukh Mirza and Shahbaz Khan were sent
to raise troops for him in Malwa, and Man Singh was directed to
invade the Deccan from the east; but the elaborate scheme came to
nought. Daniyal left Lahore in November, but loitered at Sirhind.
He was twenty-two years of age, far too young to command a great
army, but old enough to have his own way; and Akbar, incensed by
his dilatoriness, recalled him. It was as well that he did, for Murad,
who had, not unreasonably, regarded his appointment first to Malwa
and afterwards to Gujarat as an assurance that he was to receive
the chief command of the army of the Deccan, bitterly resented his
supersession by his younger brother, and had written to his father
a letter in which he announced his intention of rebelling if Daniyal
were allowed to retain the command.
Akbar now learned that his foster-brother, Khan A'zam, who had
fled to Mecca in 1593, rather than embrace the Divine Faith, had
returned to India, having landed at Veraval, in Kathiawar. Akbar
sent him a robe of honour, and he reached Lahore in 1594. The holy
men of Mecca had plundered him so shamelessly that he was dis-
gusted with orthodoxy and very readily abjured Islam, shaved his
beard, and became a disciple of the Divine Faith. For a convert so
distinguished and so beloved nothing was too good. His rank and
title were restored to him and he was offered his choice of the pro-
vinces of Gujarat, the Punjab, and Bihar, and chose the last.
The year 1595 was one of the most eventful in Akbar's reign. The
road to Qandahar had been opened by the capture of the fortress
and district of Sibi, and the Safavid prince, Muzaffar Husain Mirza,
who held Qandahar nominally as fief of the Persian empire but in
fact as an independent ruler, having quarrelled with his royal kins-
men and being menaced by the Uzbegs, surrendered Qandahar to
Shah Beg Khan, who had been deputed by Akbar to receive it. On
27 August the Persian prince arrived at Lahore with his escort of
2000 Qizilbash, and received the command of 5000 horse and an
assignment at Sambhal, "which was worth more than all Qandahar”.
The third Jesuit mission had already arrived at Lahore. Of the
second mission the Provincial of the Order of Jesus at Goa had
reported, with reference to its failure to convert Akbar: "Venerunt
filii usque ad partum, sed virtus non est pariendi”. The new mis-
sionaries, Jerome Xavier, a grand-nephew of St Francis, Father


## p. 142 (#174) ############################################

142
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
Pinheiro and Brother Benedict de Goes, had been sent in response
to another appeal from Akbar, and though no prospect of his con-
version remained they were permitted and even encouraged to preach
the Gospel to the people.
Akbar's own fantastic sect now lost one of its leading adherents,
for on 13 October Shaikh Faizi died of a complication of diseases.
The bigoted Badauni, who was deeply indebted to him and had
never permitted his orthodoxy to debar him from profiting by his
aid, extols him for his learning, justly enough criticises his poetry
and finds no language too strong for the condemnation of his
heterodoxy.
He was a master of malevolent activity, idle jests, conceit, pride, and malice,
and an epitome of hypocrisy, baseness, dissimulation, love of pomp, arrogance,
and ostentation. All Jews, Christians and Fireworshippers, not to speak of
Nizaris and Sabahis, held him in the very highest honour for his heresy, his
enmity to the followers of Islam, his contemptuous abuse of the noble com-
panions of the prophet, and of holy shaikhs, both dead and living, and of his
unmannerly behaviour towards all learned, pious, and excellent men. . . . He
used to regard all forbidden things as lawful, and all the injunctions of the
sacred law as unlawful. 1
Badauni also describes with much gusto his death agonies, and thus
excuses himself for his vilification of a deceased benefactor. "If any
should ask in accordance with what rules of generosity and fidelity
I arraign him so harshly. . . I reply, 'All this is true, but what can I do?
For the claim of the faith and the safeguarding of its covenant are
above all other claims; and love is of God and hatred is of God'. "
It is probably from regard for his patron's reputation that the
usually careful chronicler Abu-'l-Fazl refrains from noticing the
terrible famine of four years' duration which began in 1595; but
there is other unimpeachable evidence of the calamity, which was
followed by a pestilence. Relief measures were confined to the
distribution of alms, and failed lamentably to alleviate the sufferings
of the people. “In consequence of the dearth of grain and the necessi-
ties of ravenous hunger men ate their own kind. The streets and
roads were blocked with corpses, and no assistance could be given
for their removal. " 2 From the annual report of the Jesuit missions
for 1597 we learn that the pestilence was raging at Lahore in that
year, and that the Fathers baptized many children abandoned by
their parents.
The final plans for the conquest of the Deccan had now been
completed. The Khan Khanan, with whom were associated Shah
Rukh Mirza and Shahbaz Khan, was to invade the kingdom of
Ahmadnagar from Malwa, while Sultan Murad and Sadiq Muham-
mad Khan were to invade it from Gujarat, the two armies meeting
at Ahmadnagar, where Raja 'Ali Khan of Khandesh was to join
them.
1 Bad. (trans. Haig), II, 413, 414.
2 Zubdat-ut-Tavarikh, E, and D. VI, 193.


## p. 143 (#175) ############################################

SUCCESSES IN THE DECCAN
143
The course of the siege of Ahmadnagar has been followed in
vol. m. Its result was the cession of the province of Berar by Chand
Sultan to Akbar, and during the negotiations which ended with the
cession of the province the arrogance of Sadiq Muhammad Khan
drew from Chingiz Khan of Ahmadnagar the biting taunt : "I have
heard that the emperor Akbar claims to be a god. I now find that his
nobles claim to be prophets. ”
The peace procured by the cession of Berar was of short duration,
and in the war which broke out between the imperial troops and
those of the kingdoms of the Deccan, a battle was fought in the
neighbourhood of Sonpet on 8 and 9 February, 1597. 2 On the after-
noon of the first day both wings of the imperial army were put to
flight, and in the left wing Raja 'Ali Khan of Khandesh, who attempted
to make a stand, was slain, with thirty of his officers and 500 of his
men. The centre, under the Khan Khanan, stood fast and the wings
rallied during the night, and, finding the Khandesh camp empty,
concluded that their ally had either fled or deserted to the enemy,
and plundered his camp. After the battle, which was resumed on
the following day and ended in a decisive victory for the imperial
troops, the corpse of the valiant and unfortunate prince was dis-
covered, and those who had plundered his camp were overcome with
shame. It was the behaviour of the imperial troops on this occasion
that embittered Qadr Khan, who succeeded his father on the throne
of Khandesh under the title of Bahadur Shah, against Akbar.
Further successes in the Deccan were gained by Mirza 'Ali Beg
in 1598, but the local victories of an enterprising subordinate officer
failed to counterbalance the injury suffered by the imperial cause
from the disputes between Sultan Murad and the Khan Khanan,
which compelled the Khan Khanan to retire into Malwa. Owing
to these quarrels field operations were almost suspended, until Sayyid
Murtaza Sabzavari, by cutting off supplies, compelled the garrison
of the great fortress of Gawil to surrender, and by causing the family
of the officer commanding Narnala to be seized and detained as
hostages obliged him to surrender that fortress to Sultan Murad on
13 December, 1598.
Akbar spent the summer of 1597 in Kashmir, where he introduced
a lighter assessment of the revenue and opened public works, which
alleviated the distress of the famine-stricken, but returned to Lahore
in the early winter. During his long sojourn in the north peace had
not reigned in all parts of his empire, and the rebellion of Ram
Chandra, Raja of Bhath (Rewah), in Baghelkhand, was not sup-
pressed until Rai Patr Das captured his stronghold, Bandhogarh
Man Singh had been occupied in suppressing sporadic outbursts of
rebellion in Bengal and Orissa, had destroyed a nest of rebels in
pp. 464, 465.
2 See vol. II, p. 465.
3 23° 41' N. , 81° 3' E
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144
AKBAR, MYSTIC AND PROPHET
the Sunderbans, and had suppressed two attempts to place a pre-
tender on the throne of Cooch Behar, the ruler of which, Lachmi
Narayan, had submitted to Akbar.
Akbar, whose presence had been most necessary in the Deccan,
had been detained in the north by the apprehension that 'Abdullah II,
who had wrested Badakhshan from his cousins, intended to annex
Kabul also. His apprehensions were allayed by the death, on 4
February, 1598, of 'Abdullah. From his son and successor, 'Abdul-
Mumin, Akbar had nothing to fear, and he was now free to turn
towards the Deccan, but the desire of recovering his ancestral home
was revived by the opportune death of 'Abdullah and was, not
improbably, encouraged by Abu-'l-Fazl, who perceived an oppor-
tunity of attaining his own ends. He detested Akbar's eldest son,
,
Salim, and suggested that the task should be entrusted to him; but
the prince detected the malice which prompted the proposal. Akbar
was growing old, a campaign in Central Asia, against unknown
powers and unknown interests, might last long, and he had no inten-
tion of jeopardising his chance of ascending the imperial throne.
Abu-'l-Fazl naïvely records his disappointment by attributing Salim's
refusal to certain "worshippers of India". the writer's own native
land, and Akbar, too, was disappointed. He proposed to entrust the
task to one of his two younger sons, but honest and outspoken coun-
sellors dissuaded him from pursuing the scheme, and he wisely
resolved to march to the Deccan.
Akbar set out from Lahore on 20 November, and on 1 January,
1599, put to death Shaikh Sultan, the governor of Thanesar, an
orthodox old officer who had expressed himself too freely on the
subject of the Divine Faith. On 15 February Akbar dispatched
Abu-'l-Fazl from Agra to summon Sultan Murad to court, and to
order the Khan Khanan to march, with all the force which he could
muster, to the Deccan Abu-'l-Fazl was received near Burhanpur
.
by Bahadur of Khandesh, but the meeting was not cordial. Bahadur
offered Abu-'l-Fazl some gifts, which were not accepted, but refused
to join the imperial army in person, offering a contingent of 2000
horse under the command of his son, Kabir Khan.
Sultan Murad, whose health was completely shattered, left Shahpur
and marched towards the frontier of the Ahmadnagar kingdom in
order to avoid meeting. Abu-'l-Fazl and receiving the orders which
he bore, but Abu-'l-Fazł followed him, and joined his camp near
Tembhumi 1 early in May, 1599.