Research Paper On Akbar

Akbar: The Greatest Mughal Ruler? The focus of this book was to tell as complete a story as possible about the Mughal ruler Jalal ad-Din Akbar. It makes use of a variety of sources ranging from the writings of the Venetian physician Niccolao Manucci (1639-1717) to firsthand accounts from Jesuit missionaries and other advisors of his, like Abu-l-Fazl. While Akbar’s reign is fairly well documented, there is not much is known about his early years. What we do know is, Akbar was born on October 11 1542 in Umarkot. At the age of one, Akbar was separated from his parents for a couple of years and placed under the care and tutelage of his uncle Askari. While these appeared to be unhappy years for him, he was soon reunited with his parents when his father reclaimed Kabul in 1545. Akbar had only one half-brother to contend with. This …show more content…
As he got older he began to distance himself from the strict Muslim beliefs and started seeing value in other religions. As expected, this caused some outrage among his Muslim followers and allies, as it was seen as heresy. He had created a forum for the scholars of all religions to come and debate the merits of their faith. He founded the Religion of God or “Divine Faith” which took aspects of a number of religions and merged them together. This new religion didn’t survive much past Akbar’s death and slowly faded during the rule of his successors. A new Islamic revival, which took place during their rule, likely hastened the abandonment of this new religion.
I think this book tried to give a fairly objective view on the life of Akbar. Where it was possible, the opposing views from multiple sources were provided to present the various viewpoints. While we did learn about Akbar in our textbooks, I think it was great to get a more detailed account of not only his military campaigns, but also insights into his beliefs and how he ruled his