the supreme control in his own hands; enjoined absolute tolerance
in religious matters; abolished oppressive taxes, and reorganized
and improved the system of land revenue introduced by Shere Shah. A
minute account of Akbar's reign, of his policy, habits, and character,
is given in the "Akbar-nama," the history written by his devoted
friend and Prime Minister, Abul Fazl. No detail of state affairs
was too small for Akbar's personal attention. Ability and integrity
were the only passports to his favour, while bigotry and injustice
were anathemas to him. Like Babar, he was fond of horticulture, and
imported many kinds of fruit trees and flowers into India. Though
he could neither read nor write, he had a great library of Hindi,
Persian, Arabic, Greek, and other books, and Abul Fazl relates that
every book was read through to him from beginning to end.

The most remarkable of all this remarkable man's intellectual
activities were his attempts to bring about a reconciliation of all
the discordant religious elements of his empire. Badâyuni, one of
his contemporary historians, but, unlike him, a bigoted Musalman,
comments thus on Akbar's religious views: "From his earliest childhood
to his manhood, and from his manhood to old age, his Majesty has passed
through the most various phases, and through all sorts of religious
practices and sectarian beliefs, and has collected everything which
people can find in books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him
and a spirit of inquiry opposed to every (Islamite) principle. Thus a
faith based on some elementary principles traced itself on the mirror
of his heart, and, as the result of all the influences which were
brought to bear on his Majesty, there grew gradually, as the outline
on a stone, the conviction on his heart that there were sensible
men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers and men endowed with
miraculous powers among all nations. If some true knowledge were thus