Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605 is a biography of Akbar I (reigned, 1556-1605), the third and greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. The author, Vincent Arthur Smith, was an Irish-born historian and antiquary who served in the Indian Civil Service before turning to full-time research and scholarship. After assuming the throne while still a youth, Akbar succeeded in consolidating and enlarging the Mughal Empire. He instituted reforms of the tax structure, the organization and control of the military, and the religious establishment and its relationship to the state. He was also a patron of culture and the arts, and he had a keen interest in religion and the possible sources of religious knowledge. The book traces Akbar's ancestry and early years; his accession to the throne and his regency under Bayram Khan; his many conquests, including Bihar, the Afghan kingdom of Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, Kashmir, Sind, parts of Orissa, and parts of the Deccan Plateau; and his annexation of other territories through diplomacy, including Baluchistan and Kandahar. The book devotes considerable attention to Akbar's religious beliefs and interests. On several occasions Akbar requested that the Portuguese authorities in Goa send priests to his court to teach him about Christianity, and the book recounts the stories of the three Jesuit missions organized in response to these requests. By origin a Sunni Muslim, Akbar also sought to learn from Shiʻite scholars, Sufi mystics, and Hindus, Jains, and Parsis. The last four chapters of the book are not chronological but deal with the Akbar's personal characteristics, civil and military institutions in the empire, the social and economic conditions of the people, and literature and art. The book contains a detailed chronology of the life and reign of Akbar and an annotated bibliography. Also included are maps and illustrations. Maps of India in 1561 and India in 1605 show the extent of Akbar's conquests, and sketch maps illustrate his main military campaigns. |
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Common terms and phrases
Abu-l Fazl Adham Adham Khan Agra Ahmadābād Ahmadnagar Ajmēr Akbar Akbar's reign Allahabad army arrived Asirgarh Babur Badaoni Bahadur Bairām Khān Bēgam Bengal Bihār Blochmann building Burhanpur capital Chitōr Christian command Commentarius conquest court dāms Dās death Deccan Delhi District early elephants emperor empire famine Father Fathpur Fathpur-Sikri favour Fazl's Firishta fortress Gujarāt Gwalior Hindu historian honour Humayun ibid imperial India Islām Jahangir Jarric Jesuit Kabul Kashmir Khānān Khwaja king Laet Lahore later Maclagan Majesty mansabdārs marched ment Mewar Mirzā mission Mogul Mogul empire Monserrate mosque Muhammad Hakim Muhammadan Munim Khan Muslim Muzaffar nobles officers palace Panjab Persian Portuguese Prince Salim province Rājā Rājā Todar Mall Rājpūt Ralph Fitch Rānā rebellion rebels recorded regnal year began religion revenue rupee scil sent Shah Shaikh Sikri Singh sovereign story Sultan Surat Tabakāt throne tion translated Uzbeg Xavier
Popular passages
Page 83 - HOW doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ! How is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the nations, And princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
Page 428 - There are many that hate painting ; but such men I dislike. It appears to me as if a painter had quite peculiar means of recognising God ; for a painter in sketching anything that has life, and in devising its limbs, one after the other, must come to feel that he cannot bestow individuality upon his work, and is thus forced to think of God, the giver of life, and will thus increase in knowledge.
Page 430 - More than a hundred painters have become famous masters of the art, while the number of those who approach perfection, or of those who are middling, is very large. This is especially true of the Hindus; their pictures surpass our conception of things. Few indeed in the whole world are found equal to them."11 The emperor greatly valued painting.
Page 407 - In Bijapur I had found some tobacco. Never having seen the like in India, I brought some with me, and prepared a handsome pipe of jewel work. The stem, the finest to be procured at Achin, was three cubits in length, beautifully dried and coloured, both ends being adorned with jewels and enamel. I happened to come across a very handsome mouthpiece of Yeman cornelian, oval shaped which I set to the stem ; the whole was very handsome.
Page 222 - The whole scheme was the outcome of ridiculous vanity, a monstrous growth of unrestrained autocracy.
Page 212 - We ought, therefore, to bring the.m all into one, but in such fashion that they should be both ' one * and ' all ' ; with the great advantage of not losing what is good in any one 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.
Page 83 - But these are deeds which should not pass away, And names that must not wither, though the earth . Forgets her empires with a just decay, The enslavers and the enslaved, their death and birth...
Page 44 - As I was fully assured of your honesty and fidelity, I left all important affairs of State in your charge, and thought only of my own pleasures. I have now determined to take the reins of government into my own hands, and it is desirable that you should now make the pilgrimage to Mecca, upon which you have been so long intent.
Page 417 - Persian historians. Yet that Hindu was the greatest man of his age in India — greater even than Akbar himself, inasmuch as the conquest of the hearts and minds of millions of men and women affected by the poet was an achievement infinitely more lasting and important than any or all the victories gained in war by the monarch Tulasidasa was the name of the Hindu for whom, such pre-eminence is claimed.
Page 88 - Putta of Kailwa. He was only sixteen : his father had fallen in the last shock, and his mother had survived but to rear this the sole heir of their house. Like the Spartan mother of old, she commanded him to put on the