t his reign desired the
furtherance of his subjects' and not of his own interest, who while
increasing the privileges of the Mohammedans, not only also declared
equality of rights for the Hindus but even actualized that equality,
who in every conceivable way sought to conciliate his subjects so
widely at variance with each other in race, customs, and religion, and
who finally when the narrow dogmas of his religion no longer satisfied
him, attained to a purified faith in God, which was independent of all
formulated religions.

A closer observation, however, shows that the contrast is not quite so
harsh between what according to our hypotheses Akbar should have been
as a result of the forces which build up man, and what he actually
became. His predilection for science and art Akbar had inherited from
his grandfather Baber and his father Humayun. His youth, which was
passed among dangers and privations, in flight and in prison, was
certainly not without a beneficial influence upon Akbar's development
into a man of unusual power and energy. And of significance for his
spiritual development was the circumstance that after his accession to
the throne his guardian put him in the charge of a most excellent
tutor, the enlightened and liberal minded Persian Mir Abdullatif, who
laid the foundation for Akbar's later religious and ethical views.
Still, however high we may value the influence of this teacher, the
main point lay in Akbar's own endowments, his susceptibility for such
teaching as never before had struck root with any Mohammedan prince.
Akbar had not his equal in the history of Islam. "He is the only
prince grown up in the Mohammedan creed whose endeavor it was to
ennoble the limitation of this most separatistic of all religions into
a true religion of humanity."[4]

[Footnote 4: A. Mueller, II, 416.]

Even the external appearance of Akbar appeals to us sympathetically.
We sometimes find reproduced a miniature from Delhi which pictures
Akbar as seated; in this the characteristic features of the Mongolian
race appear softened and refined to a remarkable degree.[B] The shape
of the head is rather round, the outlines are softened, the black
eyes large, thoughtful, almost dreamy, and only very slightly
slanting, the brows full and bushy, the lips somewhat prominent and
the nose a tiny bit hooked. The face is beardless except for the
rather thin closely cut moustache which falls down over the curve of
the month in soft