The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Akbar the Great (1542–1605)

The third and arguably the greatest king of the Mughal Empire, Akbar is responsible for consolidating Mughal power in India. At his accession in 1556, the young king faced threats from supporters of Afghan leader Islam Shah Suri. One of Islam Shah’s generals, Samrat Hem Chandra (popularly known as Hemu), challenged Akbar for control of North India, but his forces were defeated by Akbar at Panipat. Within the next five years, Akbar successfully wrested control of India away from the remaining Sur princes.

Akbar’s next challenge came from his regent Bairam Khan, whose family had traveled to India from Central Asia with Akbar’s grandfather, Zahiruddin Babur. (Babur conquered India in 1526 to establish the Mughal Empire.) Akbar dismissed Bairam Khan from office, sent him on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and replaced him with his own foster brother, Adham Khan. Adham Khan displeased Akbar when he kept all the spoils of a campaign he led into Malwa, and Khan further angered Akbar when he assassinated Akbar’s chief minister. Akbar reportedly struck Adham Khan and threw him off a balcony to ensure his death. This event—illustrated in Abu al-Fadl’s Akbarnama (The book of Akbar), a lavish chronicle commissioned by Akbar—came to be one of the many stories associated with the charisma and power of Akbar.

To secure his power, Akbar marginalized the Uzbek elite at court by cultivating a Persian elite and by forming new alliances with the landed Indian aristocracy. The Uzbek nobles at court had supported the claims of Akbar’s half brother, Mirza Hakim, to the throne of Delhi, and Akbar wished to counter their power by forming local alliances. Akbar’s campaigns into Rajasthan, his marriage to a Rajput woman, and his appointment of Rajput chiefs to high posts in the government paved the way for a new administrative order. Akbar also constructed four impressive fortresses in the cities of Agra, Lahore, Allahabad, and Ajmer and commissioned the building of a new city, Fatehpur Sikri, which he would use as his capital. In Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar built a tomb for Salim Chishti (d. 1572), the mystic to whose prayers Akbar credited the birth of his son and successor, Prince Salim. Akbar actively recruited the family of Salim Chishti into Mughal service and, by doing so, gained for himself another valuable source of local authority. To challenge the power held by the ‘ulama’, Akbar seized religious land grants they had gained under Sur rulers and distributed these land grants to learned men of all religious communities. Akbar also abolished the poll tax (jizya) and gave himself religious authority over the body of ‘ulama’ and over all figures who held spiritual legitimacy.

The arrival of the second Islamic millennium in 1592 formed the backdrop for Akbar’s personal theology. In Abu al-Fadl’s Akbarnama, Akbar is portrayed as the embodiment of the divine and as a messianic figure whose coming was foretold by seers and astrologers. As Akbar’s historian, Abu al-Fadl created for the king a genealogy beginning with Adam, continuing through the line of Abrahamic prophets, and finally arriving at the immaculate conception that began the line of Akbar’s ancestor Timur Gurgan (the legendary Central Asian conqueror known as Tamerlane). A close-knit circle of noblemen at Akbar’s court was bound to him by ties of discipleship, similar to the ties between the heads of Sufi orders and their followers. Akbar’s religious claims were pluralistic in nature; the emperor embodied the divine at the heart of all religions, and his military prowess, combined with his administrative skills, added to his mystique. When Akbar died in 1605, he left behind a legacy of successful military campaigns, a full treasury, and a centralized, efficient state.

See also messianism; Mughals (1526–1857)